The Hope Tourism Commission held their monthly meeting via zoom on Tuesday to discuss ad campaigns for the City.

Lauren Euseppi, representing the marketing company that works with Arkansas Tourism, accompanied by Brook Baits, joined the meeting to speak on marketing. The City of Hope is currently represented in the Arkansas Travel Guide, Arkansas Motorcycling Guide, and Arkansas Water and Woods. Euseppi presented the 2021 publications and digital marketing ideas, saying she is sure these will boost Hope’s reputation, and get people curious about Hope, Arkansas. The Arkansas Travel Guide, found in welcome centers, is Arkansas Tourism’s primary distributed work. Of the 400,000 copies that are printed, 150,000 of these are mailed to Arkansas Tourism’s key demographics and the online readership for this publication is 13,000.

Arkansas Tourism currently prints 125,000 of The Arkansas Motorcycling Guide. This presents the Southwest trail, which goes directly through Hope and features Bill Clinton’s childhood home. Online readership for this publication is over 3,000.

Arkansas Water and Woods’ distribution is 100,000. It is currently going to be rebranded into the Arkansas Adventure Guide. It focuses on outdoor recreation, fishing, camping, RVing, and hiking. This publication has an online readership of 300,000. The 2021 Adventure guide will also feature Clinton’s childhood home, the train depot, and a section that suggests travelling back in time to Old Washington. It then goes on to a featured section labeled as, “Hungry yet?” This takes you to William’s Tavern Restaurant for a unique experience of eating in a restored 1832 tavern. The last section suggests taking a trip to the diamond mine.

Euseppi suggested that the city keep the full page that they are currently enrolled in. She also suggested that the city increase their ad in the Motorcycle Guide from a half page to a full page. This size will still show the route, but will make room for pictures in the ad. The third page in this publication features the James Black School. All three of the ads were partnered with Arkansas Great Southwest last year, where they paid half, Hope AP paying the other half.

For Arkansas Adventure Guide, Euseppi recommended that the board upgrade to a full page that shows lodging photos to show off several properties that tourists can stay in.

The board approved Eussepi’s suggestions. Because this was purchased last year through Arkansas Great Southwest, the city is entitled to a fifty percent reduced rate. Keeping the full page in the Arkansas Travel Guide, upgrading to a full page in the Arkansas Motorcycling Guide, and taking a full page in the Arkansas Adventure Guide, it will cost $5,932 going through Arkansas Great Southwest. Without that discount, the full rate would have cost $11,865. Digital marketing takes a slightly different approach. The banner advertising is based on an impression basis, meaning potential viewers.

Here is a summary of the current costs approved by board members:
$2,995 - A full page in the Arkansas Travel Guide
$1,262 - A full page in the Arkansas Motorcycling Guide
$1,675 - A full page in the Arkansas Adventure Guide
$1,250 - Digital marketing, a total of 250,000 impressions
Totaling out to be $7,182.50, with a savings of $9682.50
Last year, the total costs were $8.890 for less coverage.

Representatives of Arkansas Great Southwest were present at this meeting as well. Great Southwest produces a different brochure every 3 to 5 years, and prints around 50,000 of them. They cover a 7 county area, and they help those counties advertise, just on a smaller scale. Robin Rogers with Four States Living Magazine is in charge of putting together this brochure.

Rogers discussed details of the upcoming brochure, including the upgrade to a full scaled magazine size. It will have 36 pages of colorful and glossy texts. She stated that in the past, it was only half of this size. In the last meeting, Arkansas Great Southwest had suggested an 8 page advertisement, only one of which would feature Hope on a full scale. The offered price was $16,000. Tonight, Rogers cut that cost down to $6,000, half of what she will offer other organizations for this space. The advertisement will include information pertaining to Historic Washington State Park, how to spend a day in Hope, The Jonquil Festival, The Klipsch Museum, The Clinton BirthPlace, The Watermelon Festival, Downtown Hope, and places to go, see, and eat. "All tourism starts in Hope" is the main focus of the advertisement, according to Rogers.  She also made a proposal for the city to upgrade to a 16-page total for an additional $2500. If approved, an additional 4,000 publications will be included just for Hope's local businesses. The publications will be distributed to tourism centers, including to hotels. Rogers has committed to have a layout submitted before the next meeting, and said she will design and submit the proposal herself. The ad proposal was approved,, and the ad will be published in January 2021.