City Advertising Planning Commission plans early for 2007

By Shannon Brooks
Patriots’ Herald Writer

EUREKA SPRINGS — The City Advertising and Planning Commission will save at least $30,000 on their advertising next year, according to CAPC Executive Director Lynn Berry, who asked the commission to approve media buys for 2007 at the recent regular meeting in order to get lower prices by purchasing early and for the entire year.
“The premise is, if we don’t sign now, we’re going to get less advertising for our money,” Chairman Bryan Sumpter said of the purchase plans.
Another benefit noted, was to plan out the spending for the year and stick to that course instead of making changes and decisions along the way, a method which is anticipated to save money and be more effective.
Berry told the commission she currently has $54,000 worth of print ads lined out for the upcoming year, including various national and regional travel magazines, as well as newspapers.
Eureka Springs will also be featured in spring and summer newspaper inserts placed in more than 30 newspapers and reaching more than 12 million households. Other publications include Arkansas Bride and the 2008 Branson Visitor. Television ads will be purchased later as well, the commission was told.
The commission has arranged for a number of generic ads through April in hopes drawing potential visitors to the website where the festivals are to be highly publicized.
Visits to that website were significantly up in 2006, according to the year end web traffic report, which shows more than 45,000 hits at www.eurekasprings.org.
The commission voted in favor of authorizing the advertising buys now, with only Kathy Harrison not in favor, reasoning that others might be on the commission soon.
“I want it to be their decision,” she said.

Festivals

The 2006 festival value report shows festivals in the negative. A direct expense/revenue comparison comes out with $157,275 more spent than made in profits.
Sumpter said, however, that the festivals are actually being very profitable after other economic benefits are factored in, such as publicity gained for the city.
According to the report, the festivals generated $275,000 worth of newsprint, radio and television publicity. Sumpter added that because of the type of publicity (weighed more valuable than advertising publicity within the industry) the total is even higher, with an industry value of $1,220,000.
“For those who don’t think the festivals are worth the expense, I ask can they come up with a way to spend this amount and get over $1 million in return,” Sumpter commented.
The commission also speculated on how much extra tax revenue was created during festival weekends, with festivals director Sally Thackery adding that there needed to be a way to keep track of that.
“Separating the festival weekends out on the taxes, we would know exactly the returns on the festivals,” she suggested.
Festival advertising for 2007 will include print, commercial radio, NPR, and festival specific (Blues Revue, Bluegrass Music Profiles, etc.).

Festivalization

One of the new objectives in the coming year for the commission is to concentrate on the downtown “atmosphere”.
A total of $50,000 of the 2007 budget was set aside for this project, and committees and workshops recently have been working on ideas for creating a more festive, active environment there.
The commission went over the resulting plan: $3,500 for winter movies shown at the Auditorium; $5,000 for Big Time Festival; $5,000 for the ‘Eureka Divas’ performance; $5,000 for Art in Park (which will be a regular Saturday event); $7,500 for May Apple Records artist showcase; and $20,000 for various entertainers (estimated at five people a day for 20 weeks).
Commissioner K.J. Zumwalt noted that the entertainers will be hired from local talent.

Sponsorships

A total of $38,000 was set aside for seed money in 2007, with a large portion of that going to regular events such as the July 4th celebrations.
The commission was told $18,000 remains to be allotted to individuals and groups with other events. Berry reported to the commission that even more applications have come in. The commission will have to decide which events to award the seed money to, as applications far exceed funding.
“One thing we might think about it is, those events making a profit now, maybe not funding them and put that towards events that need it,” Commissioner Richard Grinnell said. “It’s supposed to be for helping people get going.”
Sumpter added that “it’s not to do with whether we feel an event is of value. It has to do with spending the money where it can best serve the tourism.”
The commission decided to hold off on the decision until a workshop could be held, prior to the next regular meeting.
That workshop was planned for January 10, after the new city council meets and has a chance to appoint the new commissioners.