The City Advertising and Promotion Commission is considering hiring a professional marketing firm to manage the primary marketing for Eureka Springs. On March 27 commissioners and a variety of local stakeholders met at the Crescent Hotel Conservatory for a presentation from Miles Partnership, a Florida-based marketing firm exclusively focused on travel and tourism, that works with the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Branson, Mo., the CVB of Memphis, Tenn., Visit Dallas, and Hilton.
Among the stakeholders present were Jack Moyer of the Crescent and Basin Park Hotels, Damon Henke of the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce, Janell Robertson of Carroll County Community Foundation, and Randy Wolfinbarger of Inn of the Ozarks. CAPC commissioners James DeVito and Greg Moon were absent, but CAPC staff were there.
CAPC Chair Carol Wright spoke regarding a vision of change going forward to bring more visitors to Eureka Springs, “Right now we’re spending in the area of $750,000 on advertising from a $1.5 million budget. We are going to have to figure out how to get more money to do more advertising.”
Wright introduced Miles Partnership Senior Vice President Ryan Thompson, who provided about two hours of information mixed with questions and answers specific to Eureka Springs. Thompson discussed the prospect of growing Eureka tourism using a variety of tools such as consulting, strategic marketing, cognitive segmentation, and research. Cognitive segmentation, for the purpose of tourism marketing, uses a visitor’s reactions to a local event or location from what they post online.
So, say the visitor attended Diversity Weekend and posted pictures and comments, the cognitive segmentation process would utilize those comments in real time marketing to boost numbers of visitors.
Thompson, who is a national speaker on marketing and digital innovation, said that Americans are looking for more travel opportunities and exploring beyond common vacation destinations to find new places to visit.
He said Miles Partnership would collaborate with Eureka Springs on determining who the visitors to town are, as well as who those visitors will be in the future. Based on that determination, Miles could create a strategy unique to Eureka which could partner with organizations such as Google and CJRW, that advertises for Arkansas.com.
In addition to knowing one’s customer, Thompson also said that Miles would help with promotion of a brand such as Eureka Springs – the Extraordinary Escape. He shared Miles’ history of creating the brand and concept of the “Margarita Mile” in Dallas. Utilizing user-generated content, the promotion is driven by online interaction of visitors enjoying and discussing the event.
Advice from Thompson to the CAPC was, “Embrace the changing environment.” He said what we think of as the typical American family is not what we see today, nor will it be in the future. Thompson encouraged commissioners to consider all ethnicities, ages, and unique family structures that may match the description of a Eureka visitor.
In closing Thompson played an advertisement used by Airbnb which shows a gay man looking for a positive travel experience and not finding it by staying in a regular motel, but by staying in an Airbnb home that welcomes him in as family.
The next regularly scheduled meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 10 at the Aud. The next CAPC workshop is at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 24.