Former Wildwood Resident Promotes Island’s Allure

WILDWOOD – Have you visited the Wildwoods lately?
If the answer is no, it is Susan Adelizzi-Schmidt’s job to reintroduce the Wildwoods as the premier family destination at the Jersey Shore.
Adelizzi-Schmidt is president of Suasion Communications Group, a marketing firm located in Egg Harbor Township. Suasion was hired by the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority (GWTIDA). The firm was hired in March 2008 with a one year contract and in January 2009 a three year $80,000 commitment was inked.
Adelizzi-Schmidt acquired the agency in 2007, after working there as a senior account executive for three years. Suasion beat out a number of marketing companies competing for the GWTIDA account, but in the end the authority went with the firm headed by a woman with local roots.
“Who better to understand what we need than a hometown girl?” said GWTIDA Chairperson Arlieen Franco at a Nov. 19 meeting. “Her passion is unbelievable.”
Adelizzi-Schmidt said that her history in the Wildwoods began with her grandmother, Barbara Adelizzi, whose family built the Capri Court on Andrews Avenue in 1955.
Her parents, Richard and Diane, met and fell in love in Wildwood at the Sundeck as teenagers. Later in life, they owned and operated a rooming house, then bought the Capri Motel on Burk Avenue.
“So my old neighborhood is right by the convention center,” Adelizzi-Schmidt said fondly. “I used to play all the time at Fox Park and all my friends’ parents ran local businesses.”
Adelizzi-Schmidt said her family used to make frequent trips from Pennsylvania to the Wildwoods to keep tabs on the business at the Markay Motel. She said they finally decided to move to the area permanently when they bought the Olympic Beach Resort.
“That was a bit of a learning curve,” Adelizzi-Schmidt said of living and working at the motel all year.
But by the time she was a teenager, Adelizzi-Schmidt had a knack for tourism and was helping her parents manage the property.
After completing her education at Wildwood High School, she earned her MBA degree at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and holds a dual BA degree in Communications and English from Arcadia University.
Whether it’s Adelizzi-Schmidt’s enthusiasm for her old stomping grounds that is catching or the marketing campaign is working its magic, Suasion is garnering results.
The firm has helped pitch 600 significant stories to media in outer markets in 2009, with an ad value of over $5 million. Last year that number was 300 stories, with an advertising value of $1.3 million.
The firm has worked to include the Wildwoods among the “best beaches” in local and national contests.
The firm has also nominated the 2009 Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority’s public relations campaign promoting the theme, “Are You Free This Summer? The Wildwoods Are!” and earned a Bronze Adrian Award in the Consumer Marketing Public Relations category. And the Wildwoods’ 2008 public relations campaign received the 2009 New Jersey Governor’s Award for Tourism Excellence from the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism.
“We’re very pleased with the results,” John Siciliano, executive director of GWTIDA said. “We have a very small budget compared to other tourism locations that surround us and we have to work to get the most bang for our buck.”
Siciliano estimated Ocean City, Md. has a $5-million tourism budget compared to GWTIDA’s $800,000.
“The value for using Susaion in 2009 was a phenomenal return,” he said.