The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I’m actually quite concerned…”
With revenue projections flat, the Gunnison Crested Butte Tourism Association (TA) isn’t changing much in next year’s budget. But the Board of County Commissioners is asking for more detail about the fate of $990,000 being set aside for the valley’s marketing arm in next year’s county budget.
At a work session Tuesday, November 22, county finance director Linda Nienheuser told the commissioners, “We’re projecting $969,000 in revenues for 2011 and we’re expecting flat revenues for 2012 … And we do have sufficient dollars to increase the agreement with the TA, if you choose to do that.”
The commissioners didn’t question the amount of money going to the TA or volunteer to send additional funds their way, but with almost a million dollars being budgeted for next year, the commissioners were seeking a more specific look at the marketing plan the TA is implementing on the Internet, print media and radio.
“I’m actually quite concerned we’re not getting an actual marketing plan for the upcoming year. We have a work plan. But it’s been a couple years since we had a good solid plan and in the last few years it seems like [the plan] has gotten less and less,” said Commissioner Paula Swenson.
Swenson said she wanted to know where the money is going to be spent, the target audience the message is aimed at, or if the audience has been receptive of the message that is already in front of them.
Tourism Association director Jane Chaney, attending the meeting via phone from the East Coast, told the commissioners that when she returns to the Gunnison Valley she would be available to sit down with the commissioners to discuss the “media plan,” which shows where the marketing money is being spent.
“When we started presenting our work plans way back in 2004, we were asked to provide a work plan, which we have done similarly every year if you go back at all the documents,” Chaney said, responding to Swenson’s concerns. “The detail for the marketing plan was the detail of where we were spending the money among the mediums and the buyer.”
Chaney said the Internet vendors provide reports related to the traffic their ads are generating, across 50 or 60 web pages, which allows the TA to manipulate its ad placement for the best return on investment.
She also said the TA would begin working with a company called Honeycomb Marketing Technologies by the end of the year that will manage the TA’s Internet ad campaign, collect the information that can be gleaned from algorithms and source codes and provide anyone with another report that translates the data into usable information about who is clicking on what ad.
Swenson wasn’t appeased in hearing the information existed, or that it was even being expanded, and said, “Those are the kinds of things I want to see in a marketing plan.” And while Chaney pointed out the value of the marketing plan in putting the word out there about the Gunnison Valley in an organized way, Swenson said the rubber doesn’t hit the road until visitors come to spend the night.
After meeting with members of the Gunnison Chamber of Commerce Tuesday morning, Swenson said she heard from business owners who were frustrated by the paltry return on their investment in the TA’s website, where they had a hard time finding local business information listed.
“It was reported that the marketing partners [with the TA] had gone from 60 to 48 to now 39. The concern on the chamber’s side is that we’re having a hard time getting our chamber members to participate in this marketing partnership and one of the concerns is the website and chamber members’ inability to be found on the website and their lack of return for their investment in the marketing plan,” Swenson said, asking how Chaney would stop the attrition.
Again Chaney offered to visit with the chamber members and go through the website so concerns could be heard first-hand and said she’d like to be privy to the conversations related to tourism that are taking place in the community.
“The first thing we need to do is examine the root of the issue,” Chaney said, adding that she’d never been present during related discussions between the chamber and its members. “But one of the problems we need to solve is communication. To learn after people are dissatisfied, to learn after people quit their chamber memberships that there’s a problem with the TA website, to me, is not acceptable. Our goal is to represent these businesses to potential visitors.”
Chaney explained the TA is outside the loop of information because they’re not a membership organization and gets information directly from the chambers. “I’d love for the chambers to take the lead in setting up a meeting with the partners.”
Swenson responded that she would like to see an “actual communications plan that is organized and put into place soon.” After hearing Chaney’s defense of the stalled communication and placing the onus on the chamber, Swenson added, “I believe it’s a two-way street on this communications piece and there’s a lot of work that has to happen.”
“I totally agree,” Chaney replied. “But if somebody joins the chamber it’s hard for us to know about it.”
Swenson’s line of questions shifted to cover an 18 percent salary increase for the online marketing coordinator’s position, which had recently turned over. Chaney explained to be a raise to make up for seven previous years without one. But that didn’t work for Swenson, who pointed out that county employees saw two years without a cost of living increase followed by a 2 percent raise.
All the questions about how money was being spent at the TA led the commissioners to put rather loose strings on the $990,000 going into next year’s county budget.
After Chaney returns from vacation, she and other members of the TA’s leadership will be scheduled to meet with the commissioners to discuss the media plan in greater detail, the communications plan and the effectiveness of the TA’s marketing of local businesses. And the issue of what the TA would do if the commissioners sent more money their way, as well as the salary questions, will also be discussed at contract negotiations between the county and TA, which will be scheduled before the end of the year.
