Woodbury Looks to Professionalize Marketing Efforts

Woodbury is considering hiring a public-relations firm to help the city create a “more cohesive branding plan.”

That’s according to Jason Egerstrom, communications coordinator, who briefed the Woodbury City Council on the plans during Wednesday’s workshop.

While many entities within the city—Central Park, Eagle Valley Golf Course, etc.—do well to market themselves, “none of it is really pulled together,” said Clint Gridley, city administrator.

As the 10th largest city in the state, Woodbury is looking to position itself as a regional attraction, and hopes to have a marketing plan and possibly a convention and visitors bureau in place by the time the Bielenberg Sports Center reopens following a major expansion project.

Woodbury envisions the sports center as a place to hold larger events and expos.

The city wants to create a standardized feel for marketing materials—fonts, colors, taglines and messaging.

Gridley compared the existing efforts to a quilt—each piece is fine on its own but it’s more hodgepodge as a whole.

Said Egerstrom: “It’s not cohesive. It’s not integrated.”

Council members had some reservations about possibly entering into a $63,000 contract with PadillaCRT to implement a marketing plan.

Councilman Paul Rebholz questioned how the city would measure the return on its investment.

Mayor Mary Giuliani Stephens said it’s important to be able to gauge the success of such a program.

“We have to look at what we are trying to accomplish by doing this,” she said.

Councilwoman Amy Scoggins, meanwhile, said some of the add-on options in the PadillaCRT proposal, namely messaging, should be part of the base package.

Gridley said he would take the council feedback and approach company officials about possible revisions.

CVB

While it would be a separate action item if it eventually makes it before the council for a regular meeting, city officials Wednesday also discussed a potential convention and visitors bureau.

It would be funded through a lodging tax, and the council is considering spending $16,000 for feasibility study on its potential viability.

Scoggins said she has a negative view of CVBs in general. And Councilman Christopher Burns, who was absent, said he’s against a lodging tax, Gridley reported.

Rebholz said he has concerns about the long-term sustainability of such an organization, and wondered whether the company that would conduct the study, ZeitGeist Consulting, ever comes back to cities and says a CVB doesn’t make sense.

The council opted to bring the CVB discussion back for a future workshop.

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