Community Corner

Boardwalk Lights Initiative Continues City's Promotional Campaign

People flock to the Long Beach boardwalk and beach to soak up the summer sun, and an initiative is afoot to have many of them return even though they’ve packed their shorts and sunscreen away for winter.

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The City of Long Beach has teamed up with a marketing agency and several sponsors to produce “Boardwalk Lights,” a seasonal and nautical lights display along the new boardwalk. The six-week-long initiative is part of the city’s continuing campaign to attract visitors to the beach town after Hurricane Sandy crippled it more than a year ago.

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“We created this event with the city to bring people into the city of Long Beach during the holiday season,” Wendy Parr, owner of Creative Advertising Concepts, the agency spearheading the initiative, told Patch.

Parr described Boardwalk Lights as a free holiday-and-nautical-theme lights display that will span from Magnolia and Long Beach boulevards along the city’s new Brazilian hardwood boardwalk, which was rebuilt after the former structure sustained heavy damages during Sandy. The initiative kicks off Dec. 2 and will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. every evening through mid-January.

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“We’ll also have holiday caroling and we’ll have Santa visit on the weekends at the Allegria Hotel,” said Parr, who also created a promotional logo just for the event.

The Allegria has joined Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Bridal Reflections, Capital One Bank, Citibank, Gino’s of Long Beach, National Grid, Pam Air and Planet Payment and South Nassau Communities Hospital in sponsoring the initiative.  

“Boardwalk Lights promises to be a great family event to showcase the city and support our merchants who are just getting back on their feet,” City Council President Scott Mandel said in a statement about the initiative, which aims to drum up business for local shops and restaurants. 

Parr believes Boardwalk Lights has helped to inspire other residents throughout the city to start or continue their own neighborhood initiatives.

“Now all of a sudden you have other areas of the city that want to be participating,” Parr said. “So, the West End is doing something, and I spoke to some people from the Canals civic association and they are going to try to do something on the east side. It’s just an example of how people are rallying to either get involved or they just want to see their city get bigger and stronger and better.” 

After the city sustained $200 million in damages due to Sandy, the city launched an advertisement campaign to attract visitors to the storm-damaged beach town that kicked off in earnest in June and included a new website as well as television, radio, print and billboard ads, including commercials featuring hometown celebrity Billy Crystal.

 


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