Commission to focus marketing 'on one brand'

A central theme of Thursday’s Tucumcari City Commission meeting was marketing.

The commission decided to solicit bids from firms that could put together a comprehensive marketing and branding strategy for attracting tourists into the city, but commissioners also saw presentations from a musician and comedian who also produces promotional events and materials, and a video producer who has done promotional programs for the city.

Before the commission approved putting out a request for proposals for a marketing plan, City Manager Jared Langenegger said the plan’s goal would be to assure that all city promotions—whether through print and broadcast media or on internet social media—would center “on one brand.”

The single brand, he said, would reinforce Tucumcari’s selling points to people who are considering visiting, living or starting businesses in Tucumcari.

The entertainer was Carlos Medina, who has performed in Tucumcari’s New Mexico Music Showcase. He appeared with business partner Joe Dean.

The pair presented a campaign idea centered on the slogan “Tucumcari all day long” to complement “Tucumcari tonight,” a long-time Tucumcari tagline.

The centerpiece of Medina and Dean’s presentation was a major event built around La Dia de los Muertos,” the Hispanic “Day of the Dead,” which corresponds with All Saints Day and Halloween but focuses on celebrating the lives of those who have died.

The pair also mentioned another all-year program but would not divulge details about it.

Medina said he would also lend his name to posts about Tucumcari and said his postings attract tens of thousands of views and “likes” on Facebook and YouTube, two popular social media sites.

Following Medina and Dean’s presentation, Langenegger offered them the opportunity to submit a proposal to be considered for the marketing contract.

Video producer K.C. Keefer of Denver projected on a screen his current short videos promoting Tucumcari, produced with Lodger’s Tax funds.

The videos are posted on YouTube and on other video sites.

Keefer also presented an analysis of the response the videos have received, both as stand-alone entries and as “in-stream” files included on other websites.

Out of nearly more than 684,000 times the videos have started on screens, he said,

Nearly 148,000 had watched them all the way through.

That’s about one-in-five viewers who watched the entire videos, he said, adding that most promoters consider a 4-percent response good, so a 20-percent rate of complete viewing is remarkable.

About $10,000 in Lodger’s Tax money has been spent on the web-hosting site that tracks the video viewership and bills based on that viewership, he said, producing an average of 7 cents per complete view.

“You can’t buy a third of a (postage) stamp for even 17 cents,” he said.