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Kilgore tourism marketing reaches millions | News

Kilgore tourism marketing reaches millions | News

City of Kilgore Tourism Manager Megan Payne has been hard at work this year spreading the word about the sights and attractions here in the City of Stars.

Payne delivered a report at a recent council meeting on the tourism department’s use of Hotel Occupancy Tax funds so far this year. HOT funds involve a 7% tax placed on local hotel room rentals and the revenue generated from this tax is earmarked for the tourism department to create advertisements aimed at drawing more visitors to Kilgore. Specifically, the East Texas Oil Museum, Rangerette Showcase & Museum and the Texas Broadcast Museum each received a $10,000 marketing budget for 2024, funded by HOT. The goal is to attract more visitors who will rent local hotel rooms and shop locally, stimulating Kilgore’s economy.

East Texas Oil Museum

East Texas Oil Museum opened in 1980 and draws about 14,000 visitors annually, Payne said.

For their 2024 marketing efforts, ETOM and the city worked together to create a print ad in the Texas Shakespeare Festival’s playbill, to place an ad in the Northeast Texas Map and Travel guide which is available at the Texas State Fair and throughout northeast Texas and to place an ad in the Texas Highways magazine 50th anniversary small town edition. The budget allotment also covered ads for ETOM on the city-owned billboard on Interstate 20.

On the digital marketing side, ETOM was promoted online with the help of Town Square Media in Texarkana, as well as with two commercials aired on KTRB out of Lufkin and also with radio commercials on KYKS in Lufkin and KKYR in Texarkana.

New brochures were printed for the museum, which were included at the Smithsonian Institution’s “Museums on Main Street” traveling exhibit, which runs in San Augustine through Oct. 6.

Kilgore College Rangerette Showcase & Museum

The KC Rangerette Showcase and Museum, which opened in 1979, attracts about 8,000 annual visitors. Payne said the 2024 marketing strategy for this museum used the same print marketing avenues as the ETOM: an ad in the TSF playbill, an ad in Texas Highways and a spot on the I-20 billboard.

HOT funds for the Rangerette Showcase also funded a digital marketing campaign through KLTV in the form of two digital video spots placed on YouTube.

Payne added the Showcase is being advertised on brochures at entry points around the Lone Star State in the Visitor’s Centers maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, which is distributing the brochures.

Texas Broadcast Museum

The Texas Broadcast Museum, located at 416 E. Main St., first opened its doors in 2016 and draws about 2,000 annual visitors.

“They have been seen steady growth each year so we expect to see that number keep growing,” Payne said of the attendance figures.

TBM used the same print marketing strategies as the other two museums but also created a digital marketing campaign with Austin-based Waterloo Marketing. Those spots were featured on radio and TV stations in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Back in August, the Texas Association of Broadcasters held their annual convention in Austin and Kilgore teamed up with station KLBJ for a radio advertisement campaign targeting all the visitors in town for the convention.

The Broadcast Museum also got new brochures and a spot on the I-20 billboard.

According to Payne, stats regarding the billboard’s advertising reach add up to a whopping figure.

“They get around 41,000 daily drivers and the ads have been up since July, so we estimate that adds up to about 2.5 million views through the end of August,” she said, noting an old advertiser’s adage that it takes 7 views of an ad before the viewer is compelled to take action or make a decision on the subject being advertised.

As for the total impact of all three museum’s campaigns combined, Payne said the print advertisements were estimated to have been viewed more than 5 million times. The digital ads were viewed approximately 253,000 times and the media spots racked up 767,000 views.

“All of (the view statistics) were from before TxDOT did the brochure placement at the visitor’s centers, so those numbers will grow,” Payne said.

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