The July 10 City Advertising and Promotion meeting was not devoid of drama as commissioner James DeVito, Interim-director Rick Bright, and Chamber of Commerce interim director Damon Henke verbally sparred regarding the sharing of the CAPC controlled online advertising space at eurekasprings.org. Henke approached the commission with the request for approval of the Chamber to purchase advertising space on the CAPC website.
Henke said the Chamber would like to purchase a banner on the top of the lodging page for a lodging directory. Currently this directory service is offered on eurekaspringschamber.com and Henke requested to broaden the availability by purchasing space on eurekasprings.org.
He said this would provide enrichment to the site giving online visitors the site’s only live lodging availabilities and the opportunity to book a room at the touch of a button. This directory is powered by JackRabbit, which was purchased by the Chamber and participating local lodging owners.
“It’s the number one function that guests need to make sure that they are not making forty-five phone calls to figure out whether something is available or not,” Henke said.
Henke was met with clear opposition from both DeVito and Bright, who also owns local lodging. Bright did not want an online banner to be made available to the Chamber for the said directory, saying he believed the rotating advertising space on the lodging page should be all that was offered to the Chamber.
Bright said as a lodging owner he is not going to pay to participate in the JackRabbit directory and, “If that is a banner ad up there, and they jump off to the Chamber site, [then] nobody sees my site… I wouldn’t want them up there as a banner ad.”
Henke replied that Bright has a conflict of interest, saying, “You are looking at it as a person who has a business. You really need to be looking at it from a visitor’s point of view as a service.”
Bright said that in his opinion the quantity of lodging participants on JackRabbit is inadequate to be of service to the guests saying, “With the few properties on JackRabbit it is really not a service.”
Henke advocated cooperation and inclusion, but was met with contention. Bright said the CAPC does not sell banners on the website, only listings for the lodgers, “We [CAPC] spend $750,000 a year to send people to our site, we don’t want them to jump off to somebody else’s.”
“I think treating them [the Chamber] just like another advertiser is a fair way to go,” commissioner Terry McClung said.
Commissioner Debbie Reay said she wanted more explanation on why a directory banner would not be allowed on the website, “I would rather think more from the visitor perspective because the owners, they have the opportunity to opt in, so it’s not like we are excluding people, they are choosing not to pay.”
DeVito arrived late in the conversation but demonstrated his opinion against the Chamber using ad space saying, “I feel that any groups should not be allowed – it should just be individual properties. I would question whether you [the Chamber] should be in the advertising business because that is the CAPC’s role.”
DeVito went so far as to say maybe he should show up at a Chamber meeting to discuss how Henke runs the Chamber business.
Finally, commissioner Bobbie Foster asked for Bright to procure legal advice before the CAPC makes any decisions about selling online advertising space to anyone other than lodging entities. “I would rather be safe than sorry,” she said. The item was tabled for further consideration to policy and/or legal obligations.
Big change and no change
Commissioner Greg Moon’s term expired June 30, 2019 and commissioners voted to accept his application to serve another term. James DeVito announced that he intends to step down from the commission as of Dec. 31, due to the scheduled closing of his restaurant.
The next regular meeting is Wednesday, August 14 at 6 p.m. in the Auditorium.