LAKEPORT >> “We’re working to make sure Lake County is relevant again as a vacation destination,” Lake County Senior Administrative Analyst Jill Ruzicka told the Board of Supervisors this week. “We’re also working really hard to change the tone of the conversation about Lake County, particularly in the face of some of the negative press that we get.”
Her comments came during a progress report on the Lake County Destination Marketing Plan. Over the past 18 months, multiple initiatives have been launched by the county in aid of tourism and economic development.
The ultimate goal of the program is to increase the number of visitors who then spend outside money locally.
Ruzicka and Lake County Administrative Officer Matt Perry have worked with the Tourism Advisory Board, as well as industry partners including tribes, both cities, casinos and tourism businesses.
“We have come up with our strategies with quite a lot of input,” Ruzicka said.
Initiatives include a bold online presence for the county, providing leadership and nurturing partnerships with tourism businesses, providing hospitality training, as well as research and gathering statistics. It is hoped the data will lead to better planning.
“We’re living is a world of big data now, and we can find out a lot of information from our online users,” Ruzicka said. “Instead of relying on anecdotal stories, we are actually starting to look at what the statistics are.”
The county’s marketing budget totals approximately $404,000. However, when compared to other counties Ruzicka said “it is obvious why we can’t do some of the marketing initiatives that they do.”
Mendocino County has a marketing budget of $1 million, while Humbolt has $1.5 million allocated for marketing. Napa and Sonoma greatly exceed the others, with marketing budgets totaling $5.2 and $5.8 million, respectively.
“We are just smarter and more clever with our money,” Ruzicka asserted.
A majority of the marketing budget is allocated to advertising and promotions, totaling $210,000. Visitor information services provided by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce accounts for $50,000 of the budget, while $42,000 is dedicated to information services provided by the Lake County Library.
A website redesign, as well as visitor information kiosks, account of $25,000 each. The remaining $50,000 of the marketing budget is allocated to a Certified Tourism Ambassador program, which includes licenses and start up costs.
Two agreements regarding the marketing program were also discussed by the board. The first regarded content marketing services provided by San Francisco-based Pulsepoint, Inc.
“Content marketing is about delivering the content your audience is seeking in all the places they are searching for it,” Ruzicka explained.
The marketing program entered a four-month trial period with the company. During that time, Pulsepoint researched and wrote four blog-length articles each month about the county. The marketing department provided direction for the articles, which were then distributed through social media.
“Traffic to the visitor website increased by 109 percent in January 2015 after the launch of the campaign compared to January 2014,” Ruzicka said.
Total traffic for January was approximately 25,000 visits, which is almost as much as the website’s all-time high of 28,868 in July 2012.
“January is typically our slowest month with an average of less than 10,000 hits to the website per month,” Ruzicka continued.
Additionally, the articles were seen a little less than 31.5 million times during that the initial seven-week period, as well as nearly 39,000 engagements.
Engagement in social media “is defined as an article being shared, liked or commented on, not just read,” Ruzicka explained.
The contract, which totals $22,500, will last for nine months.
The second agreement regarded project management and consulting services for the marketing program, which would be provided by Steve Denero
“Due to the low staffing levels in the administrative office and marketing program, staff has been looking for alternate solutions to implement the destination marketing strategic plan,” Ruzicka said.
If approved, Denero, who was the marketing director for Twin Pines Casino and Hotel for nearly three years, would manage the visitor website redesign, the implementation of the electronic visitor information kiosks, as well as plan and execute marketing campaigns. The contract would last for five months, ending in August, and would total $25,000.
No action was taken by the board as the presentation was for informational purposes, while additional language was requested to be included in both agreements.
The contracts will be discussed again at the board’s April 7 meeting.
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
