In a very brief workshop for the City Advertising and Promotion Commission on Nov. 28, Chair Susan Harman, recently elected to city council, told commissioners she wanted to set goals for Executive Director Mike Maloney regarding marketing strategy, but also wanted to re-evaluate the best use of resources relative to the Auditorium.
Harman said it would be useful for commissioners to have a schedule of events during the upcoming year with 90-day, 60-day, etc., timelines identified by which Maloney and staff would be promoting them. Her idea was to ensure the marketing was in place with sufficient lead-time to maximize potential for success, and having such a calendar would make it easier for commissioners to evaluate staff performance.
She mentioned Maloney and publicist Gina Rambo have been working with the website administrator on the capability to make seasonal changes to the website to keep it up-to-date and thereby improve marketability.
Harman also questioned whether the commission and the city were using their resources for maintaining the Auditorium in the most efficient way. Maloney and Events Coordinator Andy Green had requested using up to $100,000 of CAPC reserves to hire someone to provide guidance for setting up a long-range plan for maintaining the Auditorium, but Harman wondered if it were actually up to the CAPC to make that investment since the city owns the building.
She suggested staff develop a spreadsheet with a five-year breakdown of CAPC expenses versus income generated by the Auditorium so commissioners could evaluate whether those expenses would be better used for promotion and marketing. In addition, Harman said a thorough list of pros and cons on the subject would be useful for discussion.
She pointed out the CAPC budget for the Auditorium includes funds for the technical director, part of the finance director’s salary, licensing and other miscellaneous expenses. She asked if using that expense for marketing the town would be a better use of tax revenue. In addition, she was curious whether a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the Auditorium, as had been suggested, would benefit the town.
Next regular meeting will be Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 6 p.m.
I’ll say this… The Aud events have suffered from the failure to market the events early enough. This could be due to not booking events far enough in advance. Since moving to Eureka, I mostly hear about events after the fact.