TV Ad Campaign Touts Oxnard’s Winter Delights

Oxnard doesn’t shut down during the winter months.

That is not news to local residents, but it might come as a surprise to potential out-of-town guests.

That’s why officials of the Greater Oxnard & Harbors Tourism Bureau and several Oxnard hotels have formed a cooperative to promote the year-round sites and sounds of their city through television commercials airing from mid-November to mid-December.

“We want to let people know we are alive and well in Oxnard,” said Carol Lavender, executive director of the tourism bureau. “When you’re not as busy, that’s when you need to put out more marketing and advertising.”

The series of 30-second tourism ads, produced by Travel Related Marketing of Los Angeles, will be shown 600 times on a half-dozen cable networks, including CNN/Headline News, A&E;, the Discovery Channel and ESPN. The ads will appear in the traveler-rich regions of Bakersfield, Palmdale, Lancaster and the San Fernando Valley. Cost of the ads is $24,000.

In addition to the coastline, outlet shopping and other highly visible public attractions, the commercials will promote the accommodations at the Residence Inn, Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort, Casa Sirena Hotel & Marina and the Oxnard Hilton.

Viewers interested in visiting Oxnard will be instructed to call the bureau for a destination guide. If the ads drum up significant interest, Lavender said, they may be rebroadcast in January and February.

“We will use excerpts from the video that we did a year ago, and [Travel Related Marketing] has been doing a few shoots on activities we thought were necessary to promote--more of the harbor, the hotels, whale watching and a trip out to the islands.”

While the tourism bureau’s intent is to bring visitors to the area in general, the goal of the hotels is to attract overnight guests.

“We really are trying to push the holiday travelers,” said Susan Koehler, director of sales and marketing for Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Resort. “We’re hoping to capture a market that wants to get away for the holidays, let us do the cleanup and the cooking, while they can lounge and do their leisure.”

Koehler said television is a new advertising medium for her hotel, and she is hoping to reach a market not served by the hotel’s print advertising campaign. And Oxnard needs the benefits of presenting a video picture of its charms, Koehler said.

“We’re competing with Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, etc.,” she said. “People come out here and they can’t believe it. This is a chance for us to capture their attention for what it is we have to offer here.”

The regional director of Channel Islands Properties, which operates Casa Sirena and the Oxnard Hilton, said the television ads should enhance Oxnard’s image among travelers who have already developed a fondness for the city.

“We know the San Fernando Valley is such a major feeder market,” said Lana Baker-White, who also serves as vice president of the Oxnard tourism board. “In my print media, I focus a great part of my budget on the Greater Los Angeles area. We felt this is just another opportunity.”

In addition to the hoped-for increase in winter room nights and the resulting rise in transient occupancy taxes generated for the city, the television commercials should help increase sales for local businesses, Baker-White said.

“This is an opportunity for the business community to benefit from [visitor] expenditures to the city,” she said.

“It’s obviously better for us if people would come up here and use our outlet malls, rather than going to Palm Springs. We feel if somebody even comes up for a day trip and sees what is here, chances are they will come up again.”