A potential $2.3 million budget for 2023, and how much of that should be devoted to an out-of-state marketing and advertising agency, was the main topic at a Dec. 14 workshop held by the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission.

New commissioner Chris Clifton voiced most of the concern at the workshop, which lasted more than two hours, over the amount of money being spent with the St. Petersburg, Fla.- based Paradise agency.

“We’ve got the budget coming up and [Paradise] is our biggest budget item,” Clifton said to start his comments about the agency. “I wanted to get my arms around and understand what all they do. … I look at it as ‘what’s the business sense here? What’s the return on investment?’ ” Later, Clifton specifically said he felt the Paradise budget should be trimmed considerably.

“Newcomer, outside view, I really question why we’re spending that much,” he said. “I understand past reasonings. … I think there are things, there are a lot of things we can do and need to do in town. And I think there’s some big common- ground things that might actually make people happy, which would be awesome and drive tourism, which is our goal.

“So, me personally, I would be interested in seeing [the Paradise] budget cut pretty strong and having plans for things that the staff can fill the void, or we’ve got items that make sense from a tourism point of view that are more critical, that can prove some value.

“That’s my two cents.”

‘CONCERNING TO ME’

The CAPC, which was scheduled to hold a regular meeting on Dec. 28, will approve its 2023 budget in January.

Clifton referred to his past experience working with the advertising and promotion commission in Bentonville in comparing various parts of the budget for Paradise, including website and social media visits.

“Do you think the amount of visitors to the website is appropriate for how much we’re spending for these campaigns,” Clifton told commissioners he recently asked Paradise representatives. “And I didn’t get an answer on that.

“Our website hovers between 35,000 to 50,000 visitors a month. I’m probably going to make you sick, but … Bentonville does about five to six times the amount of visitors to their website and their budget is smaller than ours.

“They’re not apples to apples, different markets, I get it, but that’s concerning to me.”

Clifton said Paradise did explain the current redevelopment of the website should help the traffic.

“But let’s take that off the table because that’s not what we’re talking about,” Clifton said. “We’re talking about getting people to it, not getting them to stay. That’s something that really concerned me. We’ve got a $1 million budget and I think we’re going to be asked to spend another little over a million so those business cases, a lot of it is comparing to industry averages.

“OK, that’s great, but it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Clifton said he spent time sifting through reports regarding campaigns Paradise has executed for Eureka Springs but didn’t really find what he was looking for.

“When I’m looking through these monthly reports, you don’t see much of what campaigns they’re are doing and when. There’s really like maybe one or two examples and I’ve seen other A&P’s reports that they get from companies, and it’s very detailed. So that’s just more food for thought.”

Couples and families, including individuals aged 25 to 54 and household incomes of at least $75,000 have seemed to be the recent focus of campaigns, Clifton said.

“And so, my question was, well, what’s the breakdown?” he said. “How are you marketing that? And I did not get an answer for that either. To me, that’s pretty important, because what I see … I come into town to study the crowds because I’m trying to do my own marketing and I see couples everywhere in the summer. I see some families on weekends, a little bit of families, but like couples everywhere. So, to me, it’s like really focusing on that and a lot of that energy on couples.”

MCCLUNG’S TAKE

Commissioner Terry McClung said he wasn’t opposed to spending the money necessary for Paradise to accomplish its goals, but acknowledged that perhaps how the money is spent can be examined further.

“Maybe it’s not in the right direction,” McClung said regarding how the money is being spent.

The Paradise plan for 2023 won’t be presented to the CAPC until possibly February, Clifton said.

“I asked when we will see a 2023 plan and they said after the budget is approved, probably February,” he said. “It seems to me it would be a good idea, whoever we work with in the future … we would like [them] to start developing a proposal in the fall.”

“That’s what it used to be,” McClung responded.

“We’re basically giving them a blank check,” Clifton said.

Commissioner Autumn Slane agreed. “How are we advertising, even for Valentine’s Day?” she asked.

“We should already be,” McClung said. “We should know what’s going on for that. The budget, in the past, and I’m talking several years prior, we always had it knocked out in September. You can’t approve it until January, but you can see what your projections are, and you can get the budget put together.

“If you don’t plan ahead like that, you’re shooting yourself in the head, not the foot. The marketing should be at least three months out. It should be laid out now for Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s Day.”

Commission chair Jeff Carter asked, if the decision is made to cut the Paradise funding, how would that money be reallocated in the 2023 budget.

“Are we OK with a $2.3 million budget?” he said. “Are we wanting to reduce what we’re doing with Paradise? Let’s say we reduce that, and we want to be as aggressive as we can, so let’s say we’re keeping the 2.3 and cut our Paradise spending down, our agency spending down.”

Clifton responded: “I propose we come to a percentage that makes sense and then … we would need to have another workshop to discuss, work through, how to strategically plan out that amount of money before it’s approved for the next budget.”

McClung said he feels as if 50 percent of the CAPC’s budget should be devoted the advertising and marketing plan with Paradise.

“That’s where we’re at right now,” Carter said.

“And that’s probably where it needs to be,” McClung responded. “I wouldn’t want to see … that’s the purpose of this, to advertise, and the bulk of the money needs to go in that direction.”

Clifton responded: “Sure, but it doesn’t have to go to Paradise specifically.”

McClung said he understood, but felt it was too late in the process to be making drastic changes.

“We’re awfully late in the year to be trying to do something different,” Mc-Clung said. “We may have to go with this and evolve into something else next year. I understand what you’re saying but we may be trying to jump on it too damn late.”

“It’s a lot of money,” Clifton responded.