The City Advertising and Promotion Commission reviewed a revised 2023 budget, as well as a budget for Paradise Marketing, provided by Tourism Director Madison Dawson at the Jan. 11 workshop prior to a special meeting.
Director of Communications, Lynn Berry, spoke on Branson’s marketing for 2023, explaining how Branson includes business owners in decisions on how to market the destination, including committees that work to build consensus among community members. She said those committee members help inform the public on what the A&P is doing and invited commissioners to visit one of their meetings on the third Thursday of each month.
Commissioners questioned the general processes of the A&P, including how much it spends with advertising agencies. Berry explained that Branson has a $12,000,000 budget and works with eight agencies for marketing, graphic design support, PR, and websites. Of that budget around $2-3 million is spent on a marketing agency. Commissioner Chris Clifton noted that that was around 20 percent of their budget. That number became a sticking point in referencing other A&Ps across the state.
Berry told commissioners that a marketing agency of record is a good thing for Eureka Springs.
Looking at the CAPC, nearly half of its $2,300,000 budget is dedicated to marketing Eureka Springs. Commissioner Autumn Slane said she wanted to dedicate around $230,000 to the Parks Department, saying it was important to set aside money for repairs at Basin Park since it is expected that Parks will request assistance from the CAPC.
Clifton and Chair Jeff Carter voiced dissent to that. Both took issue with not having specific plans on what repairs were needed at Basin Park, specifically the bandshell. When questioned on where funds would come from, Slane suggested reserves. Carter said that would increase the budget, and continued to hesitate setting money aside. Slane said that if the money wasn’t set aside in the budgeting process, “it won’t happen.”
Clifton said he would fight “tooth and nail” for any tourism infrastructure needs but did not support earmarking money without a specific plan.
In discussing the Paradise marketing budget, Dawson explained that she amended the proposed budget to better fit the wish of commissioners. Of the requested $1.05 million from Paradise, Dawson had brought that figure down to $568,000. Dawson said she had axed items that she felt her own staff could perform, once they’re in place, including social media retainer services and vendor purchases directly from the CAPC rather than using Paradise as the middleman.
Dawson said $465,000 was originally dedicated for media advertisement and would go to Paradise. She said that she had moved $355,500 to the CAPC budget. Paradise can still request funds from that amount but inclusion of the money in the CAPC gives the commission more oversight and Dawson more control of what the money is spent on.
Dawson said she could have the in-house work made by the third quarter.
With Rudy Webb on a Zoom call representing Paradise, commissioners discussed the redone budget. Dawson explained that the movement of paid media funds which was the largest shift of funds from Paradise, would give more transparency to media purchases. Dawson also said that it gives the CAPC the option to use Paradise to facilitate those media purchases, or another agency.
Clifton said that spending 50 percent of the CAPC budget on media marketing felt like too much, saying that Branson seems to use around 25 percent, and Fayetteville uses 35 percent of its budget. He said that he’d rather see moving many more services inhouse. Dawson said that the proposed budget was a compromise saying she felt it could be done by the end of 2023.
Slane said that the budget was simply rearranging money until the commission was happy, and the total cost for marketing would still be $1.05 million. She also said that she had not received proof of where marketing had been placed. In response, Webb said that Clifton had brought a ream of paper to the previous meeting that contained invoices provided by Paradise and those invoices contained details on where and how marketing money was used.
When asked if that was the case Clifton said, “It’s a lot of invoices.”
Webb replied, “That is a requirement for us to work with the CAPC as a government entity and to provide that proof of performance.” He said that it’s almost impossible to show ads live and that Paradise uses a third-party program to verify how long advertisements are served.
Dawson also clarified that the intention was not to save money but to give more control to the CAPC on how money is spent.
In the special meeting, both the Paradise Marketing budget and CAPC budget passed 4-1 with Slane voting no and Carter needed for the deciding vote.