From billboards to interstate highway signs, Connecticut has been touting its tasty pizza in an effort to boost tourism.
The pizza campaign took another step this week as the state is spending $9,000 to rent a tour bus for two days to ferry reporters and others to nine stops on the “Connecticut pizza trail.”
Reporters, influencers, and the state’s top marketing official boarded the bus in New Haven after a news conference outside Modern Apizza – one of the iconic and best-known pizza haunts in the Elm City. Overall, New Haven has 11 spots in the top 100 pizzerias on the pizza trail – a point of pride mentioned by New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker.
Connecticut is seeking national attention for its pizza, and the bus invitees included representatives from national publications with a reach far beyond the state’s borders. Those included national outlets like Travel and Leisure magazine, Reader’s Digest, Parade magazine, and ESPN, along with local and national “influencers” who have a large following online. State officials are also hoping to that articles will be published in Forbes and AFAR travel magazine that covers food, drink, and exotic travel destinations.
Anthony Anthony, the state’s chief marketing office, said the $9,000 for the bus was “absolutely” a good investment that is “worth every penny” as the state has been generating increased tourism from its pizza advertising campaign.
“It’s all part of our marketing dollars,” Anthony said in an interview. “This is the culmination of the end of a year-long campaign focusing on pizza. … I have no problem saying not only do I believe it’s valuable, but showing the numbers to prove it’s valuable.”
As part of the broader campaign, Connecticut spent more than $220,000 in a campaign with 11 billboards that were purposely placed near some of the top pizza outlets in Little Italy and Greenwich Village in Manhattan, along with the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. New Yorkers dismissed the idea as preposterous when they saw billboards with all capital letters that said: “The Nation’s Best Pizza: Not You, New York.”
In return, Connecticut officials estimate they have received more than $30 million in advertising value after articles in The New York Times and The Boston Globe, as well as being mentioned by numerous New York City television stations and comedian Stephen Colbert on CBS on late-night national television.
They also calculated that day trips to New Haven have increased by 22%, including a 12% increase in overnight trips by New Yorkers to Connecticut. In addition, pizza-related searches on the state’s tourism website, known as CTVisit.com, were up more than 50% compared to the previous year.
Back in New Haven, the bus tour included an invite to a food influencer and internet personality named Trigg Ferrano, who is a chef with more than 1 million followers in the food world.
While the bus tour hit multiple spots that included famed Wooster Street in New Haven, Thursday’s tour will go to Old Saybrook Pizza Palace, Coastline Brewing in Westbrook, Grand Apizza in Clinton, and Bishop’s Orchard in Guilford.
State Rep. Tammy Nuccio, who closely scrutinizes state spending as the ranking House Republican on the budget-writing appropriations committee, said the state needs to spend its money more wisely in order to improve Connecticut’s economy.
“One of my problems is $9,000 seems like a trivial amount of money to people under the Gold Dome,” Nuccio told The Courant in an interview. “But it’s all these small nicks and cuts that bleed you dry. … Do we think people are going to move to the state of Connecticut because we have good pizza?”
When she attended an outdoor concert recently in the borough of Queens in New York City, Nuccio looked up and saw a billboard about Connecticut’s pizza. Her close friend from Nashville was visiting up north, and they attended the concert together with their daughters.
“My friend from Nashville said, ‘Why are you advertising for pizza in New York?’ ” Nuccio recalled.
She added, “Their pizza in Nashville is horrible. She loves our pizza. … I would say we have the best pizza – hands down – that I’ve ever had in the country.”
The focus, Nuccio said, should be switched to recruiting highly skilled, high-wage workers so that they can live and work in Connecticut.
“Bring jobs to the state that are not low-wage jobs. Let’s advertise for that,” Nuccio said. “Let’s advertise how we’re going to make it so much more effective and affordable to do business in Connecticut than it is to do it in New York, Massachusetts or Rhode Island.”
Gov. Ned Lamont, who attended graduate school at Yale, was originally scheduled to attend the pizza event. But he remained at the state Capitol in Hartford, briefing reporters on the impact of the shutdown of the federal government.
Overall, Connecticut has more than 1,300 pizza restaurants that generate annual sales of an estimated $600 million, collect $45 million in state sales tax revenues, and generate overall economic activity of more than $3.5 billion, based on statistics from the state comptroller.
Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com