Dewey Beach marketing committee reports 268 'Walk of Fame' bricks sold, launches targeted summer push

The Dewey Beach Marketing Committee heard an update that 268 Walk of Fame bricks have been sold to date and moved to expand targeted outreach for the summer season.

The committee’s presiding speaker reviewed promotional placements already in place: a Walk of Fame rack card, an Instagram and Facebook ad that went live the previous day, inclusion in renter packets for July and August, a promotional slide during Monday-night movies on the beach, and a listing in the town welcome guide. Committee members said those placements have helped awareness and credited on-site tabling at events for driving additional interest.

Committee members described on-site sales and staffing experiences. Volunteers reported selling bricks at opening weekend and other local events but emphasized that many encounters were informational rather than immediate purchases. Members agreed to staff upcoming events including the Doodles (dog event), the Golden Jubilee (May 8–9) and Artfest (May 9), and to divide multi-hour shifts so volunteers are not exhausted.

The group discussed several practical fixes aimed at shortening the purchase path: editing the current QR flow so the code links directly to the Walk of Fame order page rather than first landing on the town hall site, and updating web copy to avoid confusing deadlines. Printed rack cards and some realtor/incoming-visitor materials already include a deadline; the committee decided not to reprint those immediately but to change the website and the large display board QR code where feasible.

Marketing tactics the committee debated included a mix of targeted paid social advertising and opportunistic local TV/community programming. Paul, who manages several local social channels, recommended running a series of distinct, rotating social ads (rather than a single repetitive ad) and tagging partner pages to expand reach; he suggested testing creative variants weekly and measuring views and engagement rather than relying on anecdotal attribution. The committee discussed doing a TV segment or community-program interview as a near‑deadline push (late June to early July) if broadcast time can be scheduled.

Several members pressed for targeted audiences: homeowners who own property in Dewey, HOA groups, and renters who receive welcome packets in July–August. The committee noted that the town’s beach-tax mailer will include rack cards to all homeowners, which they viewed as a high‑reach channel. Members also discussed direct outreach to HOA management companies and drafting a newsletter item asking HOAs to register with the town and consider group brick purchases.

To make tabling more effective, members proposed adding a sample brick for display, creating stand-up table flyers with the QR shortcut, staging photo opportunities (for example, pet owners and their dogs posing with a brick and holding signs such as “I bought a brick”), and asking the brick vendor for a free sample to bring to events. Kate volunteered to contact the brick supplier about a sample and to pre-schedule social posts; Paul offered to prepare a set of rotating ad creatives.

The committee emphasized that the current order form is a vendor template; changing it to collect referral-source data (how a buyer learned about the fundraiser) would require vendor support. Members agreed to continue the paid ad campaign through Labor Day as planned, but to refresh creative periodically and to track engagement metrics to assess effectiveness.

Next steps: the committee will pursue the sample brick, finalize ad creatives and a posting schedule, coordinate volunteer staffing for the agreed events, and update the website/QR flows where possible. The meeting also recorded routine procedural approvals (adoption of the agenda and approval of minutes) and set the next meeting date in early May.