Nassau targets holiday events pitches at Suffolk
Nassau’s radio ads and handbills targeting western Suffolk residents tout holiday attractions such as the poinsettia and cyclamen display at Planting Fields Aboretum in Oyster Bay. Credit: Planting Fields Arboretum
Take the kids to a holiday event in Nassau County instead of Suffolk -- and please buy something while you're at it.
That's the message Nassau officials are sending to western Suffolk residents in a tourism pitch that involves handbills and radio spots.
Later this week Nassau's Industrial Development Agency plans to begin airing 60-second radio commercials touting holiday festivities, nature walks and activities for children during the winter. The radio spots supplement a two-page calendar that the IDA has distributed through some weekly newspapers across the county border.
The marketing push comes at a critical time for both counties. Each is heavily dependent on sales tax collections, which are highest in December, according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance.
Still, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, when asked about Nassau's wooing of residents of Huntington, Babylon and Islip towns, didn't express concern. And Suffolk IDA officials said they saw no need for a similar effort.
"Suffolk's attractions are far more well-known than Nassau's," said Jim Morgo, IDA chairman, referring to East End wineries and the Tanger factory outlets in Deer Park and Riverhead.
Morgo continued, "I certainly understand them taking this kind of extraordinary measure, because Nassau is in far worse financial shape than Suffolk." Nassau's finances are under the supervision of a state control board, the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority.
Mary Dolan Grippo, marketing director at the Nassau IDA, said it has been distributing an events calendar twice a year for several years. The holiday/winter flier reached about 16,500 households in Suffolk for less than $1,000.
The radio spots, which will cost a total of $7,500, are new, she said. They will reach an estimated 500,000 listeners of four FM stations owned by JVC Broadcasting: Classic Rock 103.9, Party 105.3, My Country 96.1 and La Fiesta, 98.5.
"With kids off from school, we hope parents will take them to some of our events," Grippo said Monday. "If people spend money in the county or even stay one night in one of the hotels, it helps with sales tax and the hotel-motel tax."
The calendar touts ice skating at Cantiague, Christopher Morley and Grant parks, the holiday decorations at the Planting Fields Arboretum and nature walks in the Muttontown Preserve.
Nassau Executive Edward Mangano "is always looking to support events that generate sales tax revenue to help hold the line on property taxes," said a spokesman. Mangano will speak briefly in the radio spots.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
