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Two Asbury transplants are looking to promote the downtown with a new marketing plan called APVibe.

Morgan Sackman [pictured above, from left] and Rose Crean, who work for Sackman Enterprises, started APVibe as a side project, but it’s lately been their main focus.

Sackman and Crean realize small business owners often don’t have time for large-scale marketing campaigns in addition to running their shops, restaurants or bars. So through APVibe, they’re setting out to handle that aspect of business-ownership for Asbury’s downtown.

APVibe is intended to establish an identity for the downtown so that small businesses can help each other out and thrive, Crean and Sackman said. While the Chamber of Commerce performs that service for the entire town, Crean and Sackman are focusing on just the central business district — the downtown area set off by Lake Avenue, Emory Street, Main Street and Grand Avenue.

Relative newcomers to Asbury Park, Crean and Sackman grew up together as next-door neighbors in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. Sackman’s father, Carter Sackman, is a downtown redeveloper who owns properties like the Steinbach Building and 550 Cookman. Crean and Sackman moved to Asbury Park about a year ago to start work for Sackman Enterprises, which has offices in both New York City and Asbury Park.

“We feel like there are so many great businesses and so much talent here,” Sackman said. “We’re just here to do the footwork.”

Both were initially attracted to Asbury Park because of its arts, music and nightlife.

“Asbury Park is already on a come-up,” Crean said. “All of Monmouth County knows Asbury’s being built up and is this new, young place to be. So what we’re trying to do is expedite what’s already happening.”

Businesses affiliated with APVibe will be “coordinating events together, mass marketing together, and making this more of a place to be rather than going to specific, individual businesses,” Crean said.

The name APVibe came from Crean and Sackman’s work with a Holmdel marketing firm.

“They guided us in the direction of creating some identity,” Crean said. “We worked with them in creating the name. A perfect way to explain Asbury Park is that the vibe is so different from everywhere else.”

Now, they’ve decided to keep things local by working with M Studio, the marketing and branding firm on Bangs Avenue. M Studio is building a website for APVibe where they’ll create a map of the downtown businesses along with event listings and promotions.

Crean and Sackman held a meeting at Baca with some business owners and gotten started with reaching out to all of the businesses in the downtown. They got a great response from the people at the meeting, they said, and they also keep in touch with business owners through email.

In the future, Crean and Sackman hope to organize festivals and events through APVibe. They’ll try to devise ways to bring customers into the shops, restaurants and bars through these events by using the downtown as a venue, they said.

They’ve looked to similar organizations in Red Bank, Princeton and Stamford, Conn., for inspiration, but they’re adamant about maintaining Asbury Park’s identity.

“We want Asbury to stay unique and stay different and stay true to what it is right now,” Crean said.

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