Visit South Padre Island reports year-over-year marketing gains and unveils new "The Island" campaign; interim director begins organizational review

Visit South Padre Island staff and the agency Greenhouse told the board on Oct. 1 that the destination's April–September marketing program delivered 51 million impressions and about 1.3 million clicks, with partner channels and programmatic buys translating into attributed room nights and bookings.

The board heard a creative presentation and a 30-second television spot from Greenhouse that launched Oct. 1 under the tagline “the island.” Greenhouse creative director Chris Brown said the initial creative set includes TV, print, out-of-home, campus placements, QR-enabled print ads and a library of horizontal and vertical video and still photography to support spring-break, family and meetings audiences. “For the budget we had five days of shooting, two full crews, horizontal and vertical video, plus a full library of still photography,” Brown said.

Why it matters: the marketing presentation linked program performance to economic metrics the board uses to evaluate marketing spend. Casey, the program presenter, reported that Expedia, TripAdvisor and Sojourn partnerships returned attributed room nights and bookings; the board heard specific attribution samples for September, as well as overall site-traffic gains compared with the prior summer.

Key metrics and media performance

- April–September program (reported): 51,000,000 impressions; about 1,300,000 clicks; roughly 1.5 million site sessions. - September program (isolated comparison to FY24 Zimmerman program): ~6,200,000 impressions, ~184,000 clicks, ~186,000 sessions and ~138,000 users reported for this year’s mix of audio, video, social and programmatic buys; last year’s Zimmerman-driven September had under 1,000,000 impressions and roughly 157,000 sessions reported. - Partner attribution: Greenhouse highlighted 6,300 OTA-attributed room nights from Expedia/TripAdvisor/Sojourn partnerships across the season; Expedia reported $1.7 million in bookings (28:1 ROI reported by the vendor) and Sojourn showed 3,400 travelers and 800 room nights from its channel. For a $23,000 spend sample cited for one reporting window, Casey reported a $12 return on ad spend and an attributed $64 cost per room night for the sample set. - Social: the team reported strong efficiency on paid social (about $10,000 spend cited for a unit that delivered 2.2 million impressions and nearly 150,000 clicks for the period highlighted). - Website: Mauricio Cervantes, website and data specialist, reported a year-over-year 11% increase in overall site traffic and a 10% increase in new users compared with the prior year; top pages were the home page and the destination webcams, with paid social, Google organic and paid Google among top traffic sources.

Agency creative and placements

Greenhouse premiered a 30-second TV spot that frames South Padre Island as “the island” and showed multiple digital and out-of-home creative units aimed at spring-break, family and meetings audiences. Rob Petrie of Greenhouse described the shoot logistics and said the team captured 15 island locations over five days and cast a mix of families and young adults to support diverse creative edits. The creative set includes Spanish-language edits, vertical video, campus-focused out-of-home placements, QR-enabled print ads and social-story creative targeted at college spring-break planners and “winter Texans.”

Site, SEO and editorial outreach

Staff reported continuing PR coverage and third-party editorial placements, including paid and earned placements mentioned by the PR team; April Rometo, director of communications, and the PR agency flagged a set of placements and a Conde Nast readers’ choice ranking that elevated SPI among U.S. islands. Denise Villalobos, social media specialist, showed top-performing posts and said some Instagram posts now trigger automated direct-message links to relevant web pages (for example, a coffee-related automation tied to National Coffee Day). Cindy Trevino, director of marketing, reported new text subscribers and a database of newsletter signups used for spring-break outreach; she said the team collected about 900 leads at a UT Austin activation.

Organizational note

Brett Awning, introduced as interim director for Visit South Padre Island, said he will conduct a multi-week organizational review to assess processes, staffing and opportunities for operational and marketing efficiencies. “The goal is to leave you all better than I found it when I got here,” Awning said.

What the board asked for

Board members pressed staff on attribution limits — for example, that Expedia/OTAs report samples of bookings tied to impressions but do not represent total market bookings — and asked staff to request year-over-year benchmarking data from vendors. Commissioners also asked staff to coordinate creative and event photography so event-produced assets can feed future marketing campaigns and to continue pushing social and PR programs that drive off-season visitation.

Ending

Staff said they will issue a fuller fiscal-year-26 performance wrap report at a later meeting and to provide additional vendor comparisons (including an Expedia competitive market report) requested by board members. Greenhouse and VSPI staff offered to share the creative asset deck with board members who asked for access.