Prior to their meeting on Oct. 25, the City Advertising and Promotion Commission had three media marketing companies, Paradise Marketing, Madden Media, and Revel Media, give presentations on why they should be the CAPC’s next marketing company of record.
Each company was given 45 minutes to present, with a short period for questions after each.
Paradise Marketing went first, focusing on the work they had completed for Eureka Springs since 2019, including the tagline “Curious, Indeed,” various national ad campaigns, and the CAPC’s new website. Paradise cited their efforts as correlating with the increase of tax collections and said they intended to continue “refining” target audiences and leverage their relationships with major tourism publications to continue getting Eureka Springs press at a low rate.
Madden Media presented next, taking time to mention that they had several employees living near Eureka Springs. The company used success in the town of Port, Arkansas, as their proof of concept for working with the city. The company said they have their own analytics software to track user data rather than relying on other third-party programs and showed how they honed in on where visitors come from and ways Port could better target their audience.
Revel Media, while admitting they are not traditionally a tourism destination marketer, used work from Springfield, Mo., as their proof of concept. Revel stressed that the work done with Springfield had been under extreme time constraints due to the money coming from a state grant, and showed the company’s ability to quickly pivot when needed and to follow strict production guidelines. They showed several minute videos produced for the city that included clips they said are still used by Springfield in its marketing.
All three companies are full-service marketing agencies, all three have experience in marketing tourism destinations, with Paradise and Madden focused on that market, and Revel focusing on corporate marketing. Pricing was not discussed during the presentations.
Commissioners will choose the firm at the Nov. 1 meeting.