Nicky Boyette – Mike Maloney, executive director of the City Advertising and Promotion Commission, used the May 25 workshop to acquaint commissioners with what CAPC staff are doing to market Eureka Springs weddings. He had recently presented the same information to representatives of the local wedding industry at a meeting convened by the Chamber of Commerce where it was announced there will soon be a new Wedding Guide and a website called eureka-springs-weddings.com with a plethora of local information. There will be a link to this site on the eurekasprings.org site.
Commissioner Ken Ketelsen said many locals had said the CAPC does not push weddings, and suggested sending all of them an email clearly showing what CAPC does.
Maloney said ten percent of their marketing budget goes specifically to weddings in Eureka Springs, and he has considered increasing that. He said 25,000 online impressions are distributed each month in nearby states that direct a viewer to a 15-second video about local wedding opportunities. A click-through takes the viewer to more material or to the Chamber of Commerce wedding site. This means 300,000 impressions per year reverberate through the Internet to viewers interested in weddings.
Also, twice a year, CAPC can deliver a “major events” delivery of 200,000 impressions in a month. In May, the focus was the May Festival of the Arts, but the blast could be to a list of folks looking for wedding information. Maloney said CAPC gets a “big list” of specific and current information through Arkansas Bride magazine, and this information can be shared with the Chamber of commerce for their outreach as well.
Geo-fencing
Maloney commented geofencing provides an opportunity to connect with smart phone and iPad devices in very specific areas and deliver short messages on any topic, such as the local wedding opportunities, with a clickthrough to the wedding section of the eurekasprings.org site.
Areas he typically targets are the five-mile radius around the University of Arkansas during home football games, around the Promenade in Rogers, around Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, around the entire city of Branson and around the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. Maloney plans to try selected zip codes near Oklahoma City, and commissioners suggested he target areas near Kansas City.
Maloney said he typically puts out 5000 impressions each month, and geofencing is usually considered a success if there are one to two percent clickthroughs to a specific landing page. Statistics show he has been averaging four to six percent. Maloney said Eureka Springs has so many niches to market – weddings, cycling, restaurants, autumn colors – that the versatility of geofencing works well for Eureka Springs. For instance, he can geofence Fayetteville for one day to promote a specific events such as the Cate Brothers in Basin Park.
All the others
- CAPC also delivers an online newsletter each quarter, and there are no restrictions on how long it might be. It will be delivered to 50,000 selected persons, and at least once a year it will feature local weddings. The recipients can be selected by geography or demography.
- Partnering with the Arkansas Education Television Network, the CAPC rotates different messages, including a 15-second wedding spot, on televisions in every county in the state. The spots air on “Antique Roadshow,” “Saturday Mystery” and “Austin City Limits.”
- Five times weekly, the CAPC underwrites news on KUAF 91.3 FM in Fayetteville with a wedding ad.
- The CAPC places two full-page ads in Arkansas Bride in the spring/summer issue and the fall/winter issue. Maloney said leads of people interested in wedding information are generated, and those interested in these leads should call him at the CAPC office.
- The CAPC has ads on electronic billboards along I-49 in Rogers, on Walton Boulevard in Bentonville and along the Broken Arrow Expressway in Tulsa. The content rotates, and examples can be viewed by going to capc.biz. He said the billboards deliver 1580 messages per day, and one out of every three is a wedding ad.
Comments about spending on weddings
Maloney told commissioners there is $60,000 in the budget for specifically advertising weddings in Eureka Springs. Commissioner Damon Henke pointed out that amount seems disproportionate considering the collections generated by the local wedding industry. Maloney responded the State of Arkansas overall does not rank weddings as a high priority in its marketing scheme. He added that the CAPC footed the bill for the Chamber wedding committee to attend wedding trade shows until last year. The previous year, the CAPC budgeted $8000 for the shows and he was not “particularly excited” about picking up the tab again, although he expected the commission would be asked.
Commissioner James DeVito noted the trend in the country is people getting married later in life, and wondered if they were not throwing money at a diminishing market.
Commissioner Terry McClung suggested the committee that wants funding for trade shows needs to make a presentation to the commission. Henke also mentioned that success of the investment would depend on who goes to the show and does the promoting. He stated the decision for the location for a wedding usually has already been made before attending a trade show.
Maloney posited the commission could decide if it wants to spend its money promoting Eureka Springs as the wedding capital or the honeymoon capital. He said there is a balance to be struck between investment versus return. McClung insisted the wedding committee needed to attend a workshop “to help us decide.”
Something else altogether – bicycles
Maloney announced the International Mountain Biking summit will occur in Bentonville in November, and 500 people are expected to attend. “We want to have a presence at the summit,” Maloney stated.
He said BIKE Magazine brought a team to Lake Leatherwood City Park last month, and they referred to the trail there as “the Beast.” They told Maloney LLCP “has everything a hard-core biker wants to have.”
Maloney also mentioned Mayor Butch Berry is preparing to send letters to 40 bicycle manufacturers asking them to consider locating an assembly facility in the area. “The testing ground is right down the street,” Maloney commented.
In addition, BIKE Magazine will be back at LLCP in October preparing for an article for their January issue. “And others are reaching out to us,” Maloney said. “It’s really ramping up.”
Next regular meeting will be Wednesday, June 8, at 6 p.m. Next workshop will be Wednesday, June 22, at 4 p.m., at the CAPC office.