City Council to Consider New Tourism Contract

The City Council is poised to award a contract to Wolf Communications of Santa Rosa for tourism and marketing services.  The value of the contract is not to exceed $50,000 and includes $13,000 for development and purchase of radio and print ads. 

Wolf Communications recently completed a 20 month $280,000 effort to implement a strategic tourism marketing plan developed in 2008 by the Placemaking Group.

Wolf Communications has updated Benicia's tourism website and manages the Facebook page as well.  The firm has also designed and implemented both free media and paid advertising campaigns.

The paid advertising campaign included print, internet and radio advertising and totalled $86,259, approximately 31 percent of the total contract. 

A proposal submitted by Wolf Communications for the upcoming contract called for a $12,000 ad buy but the Economic Development Board asked that it be increased to $13,000 or 26 percent of the contract.  The firm also included $2,100 for production of the ads and negotiations on ad placement.

Because the contract is limited to $50,000 the extra money for the ad buys will need to be offset.  Mario Giuliani, acting Economic Development Director says city staff will take a greater role in maintaining the tourism Facebook page to make up for the extra money being spent on advertising.