No exceptions?
Hot August Night … in the Village. Mammoth Rocks got half what it hoped for in advertising reimbursements from the Mono Tourism Commission. Co-organizer Mark Deeds said, however, he and cohorts Matthew Lehman and Betsy Smith were grateful for any amount of support for the fledgeling festival. (Artwork courtesy Mammoth Rocks)
Mono Tourism tightens funding request policy … after backing Mammoth Rocks!
In this age of budget tightening, “you want to say yes to everybody,” pointed out Mono County Tourism Commissioner Sandy Forstenzer.
And sometimes, that means making a few exceptions.
During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Tourism commission granted two exceptions, but cautioned future applicants that it will be sticking to policy going forward … at least until you give them a good enough reason to make another exception.
Better late than never?
Mammoth Rocks festival organizer Mark Deeds made his plea, on behalf of the Mammoth Chamber of Commerce, for sponsorship, acknowledging the tardiness of his request. Commission Chair Jimmy Little said the commission ideally should have heard the request a month earlier. Deeds explained that the festival’s initial preparations were started on April 22, and that only recently did fellow organizers Matthew Lehman and Betsy Smith determine it could actually be produced. The festival is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 22.
Deeds outlined that much progress has been made in a short period of time. Headliner Super Diamond, which he said should draw a large following of out-of-towners to augment a hefty local turnout, was booked for one-third of their regular rate. Music will be a big draw, but Deeds said an even bigger component is a revival of “Taste of the Sierra,” a celebration of local food that has been absent from the local scene of late. Booth spaces, 14 in all, are expected to sell out, and other sponsors are providing either financial or in-kind backing.
Of the $29,000 budget, Deeds said $24,000 is accounted for, and asked for $5,000 to fill in the rest of the project’s $8,500 marketing/advertising line item. The commission was supportive of the festival, but hesitated to go all the way, voting 3-1 to authorize $2,500 to go towards advertising.
The commission also took up a second tardy application, this one from the Northern Mono Chamber of Commerce, voting 3-1 to spend $1,000 to advertise the Chamber’s 2nd Annual Wine & Art In The Eastern Sierra on Sept. 19 in Walker.
Little said he was behind the two events’ plans to target out of area markets to promote increased visitation, but voted against each one, citing late application dates in both cases.
Brand, advertising studies
Carl Ribaudo from Strategic Marketing Group outlined a plan for a proposed brand analysis that would assess consumer perception of Mono County as a destination and brand, and the value of its “Wild By Nature” tagline.
An additional advertising conversion research component would yield new data as to the effectiveness of Mono County advertising and whether prospective visitors who respond to it are staying. If so, how much money are they spending, and (more interestingly) if they’re not visting, why aren’t they?
Mono Economic Development Manager Sarah McCahill said she’d like to explore keyword effectiveness. “People [searching online] have been looking for us, but not finding us,” she said. McCahill added that recent keyword buys have helped connect “Yosemite” and “lodging” to Mono County, and boosted the Tourism site’s hits from 3,000 to 18,000 per month.
In addition, Forstenzer said she’d like to compare Mono County’s perception as a vacation destination against bigger counties, such as Tahoe and Big Sur.
Little said he’d like to contrast the perception of our destination between prospective visitors from northern and southern California geographic regions, if the commission opts to go ahead with the study.
That go ahead is dependent to some extent on (what else?) funding. Little advised the commission that, while things are to the point where the results of the studies will have a big impact on the commission’s future decisions, the idea is to see if the Mono Board of Supervisors will fund either or both of the studies outside the commission’s budget. The price tag for both pieces: roughly $20,000.
State park closures
Also discussed at the meeting: the state parks drama, which has lately taken on the dynamics of a roller coaster. On Tuesday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced vetoes to parts of the state’s budget, meaning that cuts to California’s state parks now total almost $14 million, about $6 million higher than expected.
That increase, which the governor said is one of several needed to offset legislative backtracking on other budget items, will likely force the closure of as many as 100 of the state’s 279 parks, beaches and attractions. Yet to be determined, however, are which ones, and it’s too soon to tell whether Bodie and Mono Lake would be on the closure list.
