Shorter ads will target city’s unique flair in ’19

The city’s 2019 advertising program will revolve around shorter, more targeted commercials that stress the unique nature of Hot Springs and its diverse offerings.

The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission approved the $2 million 2019 advertising program at its monthly meeting on Monday after reviewing the 2019 creative campaign, which includes television, digital, print and outdoor media.

“We just wanted to be fresh and represent our destination,” Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said prior to the presentation.

“We’re not your regular destination. There’s a lot of different things to see and do in Hot Springs,” he said.

“If you look at the ads, it accents that on one side of the street is a national park” while downtown Hot Springs is on the other side, he said. “Just the uniqueness of Hot Springs. I think they captured that,” Arrison said, referring to CJRW, the Little Rock firm that handles Hot Springs’ advertising program under a contract with the ad commission.

Perhaps the biggest change next year, according to Arrison, is shortening the city’s commercials to 15 seconds. Visit Hot Springs on Monday released videos of nine of the spots, which range in topics from mountain bikes to Al Capone.

“We’ve gone with 15-second ads, which we can combine to make 30-second ads, which gives us a lot more flexibility, plus, we can use them in our social media, as well,” Arrison said.

By flexibility, Arrison said the city could put the 15-second ads on either end of a promotion for Oaklawn or Magic Springs, for example. “It just gives us a lot more flexibility,” he said.

“I think they’re more attention-grabbing — the music, the voice, the way it’s presented — will capture a viewer who’s watching TV,” Arrison said.

For example, one of the

15-second spots is focused solely on leisure fishing. “We can do more of that since the ads are 15 seconds,” Arrison said. “If you think about it, in a 30-second

ad, you have to fill it, and you feature a lot of different things, because 30 seconds is a long time.

“But when you get to a 15-second ad, you don’t have much time, so that’s why there are so many of the spots, and we can rotate them around for various different things.”

It is the first update to the creative campaign in two years, which Arrison said is by design. “Every two years we change the creative, so we finished two years with the old creative. We’ll tweak it for ‘20, but for ‘19 it’s all new,” he said.

One of the spots released Monday by Visit Hot Springs focuses on mountain biking in the new Northwoods Trails system. Phase One opened in November. Mountain biking is also featured in another of the spots.

“That’s our newest product, so I think that’s sort of a normal thing. That’s the first time we’ve ever had that product here. So, I think that’s featured in two of the spots,” he said.

“I think it’s a new product, and we’re trying to get the word out that we do have it,” Arrison said.

In addition to the commercials shown to the commission on Monday, Arrison said there are two 15-second spots still in production, one featuring Magic Springs and another featuring thermal water and bathing.

Arrison said one of the commercials, which focuses on the Bob and Sunny Evans Tree House at Garvan Woodland Gardens, “is incredible.” The commercial starts with a close up of two children standing at a railing, then pulls back to reveal the full height of the four-story structure, which opened in July. Arrison said a drone was used to capture the dramatic video.

“I couldn’t be more impressed with the creative this year,” Arrison said.