Advertising commission talks website, strategies

Discover Bella Vista, the stillfresh advertising and promotion commission, discussed its in-progress website and some advertising strategies during its January meeting Thursday.

One good use of funds, communications manager Cassi Lapp said, was joining the Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association.

As a member of the association board, Lapp said she gets input on and the ability to submit photos and copy for the Northwest Arkansas Visitors Guide, which features a full page on Bella Vista and mentions the city throughout the book. There will also be an ad for the city, she said.

A half-page ad, she said, could run roughly $1,400.

This is a wide-reaching booklet, she explained, because it goes to any establishment that distributes information — including visitors’ centers, city halls, POA offices and others — allowing it to reach a wide array of people. Last year, she said, 50,000 of these were printed.

“It’s not a bust to pay that money,” Lapp said. “You’re not getting nothing out of it.”

Another useful strategy, Lapp said, is the use of influencers — bloggers and other social media personalities who more often than not already have an audience. They can be brought in, she said, with the commission paying for their lodging and food, and the content they produce serves as advertising for Bella Vista — often with a far higher reach than conventional advertising could produce with similar funding.

Commissioner and city council member Doug Fowler said this could be a good avenue for the commission to attract more people to the area, particularly those with niche interests.

People are often brought to Bella Vista by their varied interests, he said, and the city has a wide array of potential attractions.

“You hardly hear the same story twice,” Fowler said.

The commission has a placeholder website up and running to primarily serve as an example of what the website could look like at www.discoverbellavistaar.gov.

The final site, economic development manager Travis Stephens said, should be up and running in time for the commission’s March meeting.

Currently, he said, the overall structure is in place, though there is very little actual content. Despite no existing links, he said, there has been some traffic already, most likely from people who stumbled across the site via search engines.

“There’s nothing that’s pointing at it at this point,” Stephens said.

Stephens said he expects enough of the website to be finished for feedback in roughly four weeks.

The commission’s chair, Paula Sanders, said the logo is not currently on the temporary site and will be rolled out with the website’s permanent incarnation.

“I think we’re off to a good start,” she said. “It’s really easy to navigate.”