Hilton Head Chamber spent $100K on an app for tourists. Was it a deal or a dud?
Hilton Head Island’s “digital welcome center” doesn’t exactly have a line out the door.
In the five years since the Hilton Head Island - Bluffton Chamber of Commerce introduced a phone application designed to reach visitors on Hilton Head Island from all around the world, the app has been downloaded about 25,000 times.
The chamber received $100,000 from the Town of Hilton Head Island to come up with the app in 2014. Island Compass cost $81,000 to develop, and the chamber used the remaining $19,000 to market the app, according to town finance documents.
At the time, the $100,000 expenditure was controversial. Town Council member Marc Grant said he thought the funds could be better used to support local groups. Local app developers said they could create an app for much less money than was being paid to Canadian company VERB Interactive. Others wondered why the town was giving the chamber tax dollars in addition to what the organization gets automatically from accommodations tax funds.
Chamber spokesperson Charlie Clark told the Island Packet in 2014 that the app would “turn your mobile phone into a virtual tour guide. ... It will tell (visitors) what’s happening in a one-stop shop.”
The idea behind the Island Compass: As tourists make their way around Hilton Head, the app helps them make dinner reservations, find nearby bike rental spots and check the tides, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet.
But the app does not currently connect to any online dinner reservation sites, give tide information, offer access to traffic cameras or parking assistance — real logistical challenges tourists face when they visit.
Instead, the compass app offers curated itineraries that include trips to specific restaurants or the beach, information for chamber events and a feature that lets users save their favorite places on the island.
Ariana Pernice, a vice president of the chamber, said Monday that the app should be considered in conjunction with the chamber’s website. She called the first five years of the app a success.
“We’re constantly looking at this platform as a complement to the website ... to serve the visitors while they’re in-market,” she said.
Pernice said that tide information is available on the chamber website, and the app connects users to the phone number and website for restaurants and hotels — which can be used to book reservations.
Rick Sandquist, the manager of Hilton Head Bicycle Co., said he hasn’t seen an influx of referrals coming from the app.
His business is the first one listed on the chamber’s app for bike rentals. He said he gets more direct traffic from sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor — where people can leave reviews and photos of his services.
Pernice said all businesses on the island can be listed on the app, regardless of whether they are chamber members or advertise with the chamber.
‘Great’ or ‘worthless?’
The app, available on the App Store and Google Play, has 27 total reviews between the two app platforms. It’s free, and the average rating is 4 stars out of 5.
“A great app for anyone living or touristing in Hilton Head! It gives you the option to create an itinerary and explore the many restaurants, shopping opportunities, and adventures around the island,” one App Store reviewer wrote in 2015.
“Being a first time visitor, I was relying on this app to give me some guidance to find open places to see the ocean. What it mostly got me was driving into gated and guarded communities,” another wrote in 2015. “For me, this app was pretty worthless.”
Jeff Urell, who owns AEI Marketing based in Bluffton, told The Island Packet in 2014 that the app would better serve the community if it were developed by a company in the Lowcountry.
“We support the chamber; we love what they do, and they are really good at it,” he said. “But to some extent, they do capture parts of the market that would be opportunities for us.”
Reached Friday, Urell said the app’s downloads aren’t staggering.
Twenty-five thousand “strikes me as a bit low, considering the [2.7 million] ... tourists who visit the island each year,” he said. “And the millions that they put into marketing the island.”
One of the biggest challenges — and expenses — of a successful app isn’t just creating it, Urell said. It’s in the marketing.
“Once you’ve actually launched an app, that’s when your work begins. You have to start marketing it and getting people to use it,” he said. “If they’re looking at $80,000 to create it, it’s going to be ... $800,000 to market it.”
Beyond the $20,000 in the town’s initial allocation to the chamber, it has not received additional funding for marketing, according to town finance documents.
“We have maintained the app since its inception at no additional cost,” chamber spokesperson Clark said in an email.
Of the $100,000 of tax dollars allocated for the app, the chamber sent $80,500 to VERB. Also included in app development was an $83 charge for two Android phones for staff to test the app and $403 for office and shipping supplies, according to invoices submitted to the town.
The chamber uses VERB Interactive for several other digital marketing needs, according to its budget and marketing plan. VERB has also developed apps for the Sea Pines Resort.
This story was originally published August 5, 2019 at 3:40 PM.
