Hot Springs chamber plans for promotion

HOT SPRINGS – The first Chamber of Commerce meeting of the year took place Thursday afternoon at the Symes Hotel. The items on the agenda were the success of the Christmas season and the current budget, but the focus of the meeting was the prospect of advertising with Anderson Radio Broadcasting.

Missoula native Advertising/Marketing Consultant Steven Pickel stopped by to pitch his plan to the chamber.

“I have lived all around the world and got a few ideas. When I came back I wanted to share those ideas with the surrounding local areas to help out the businesses,” he said.

Pickel said he has a passion for networking and helping small towns thrive. Hot Springs is the next project and he had several ideas in mind.

“I would like to help out Hot Springs because it is such a unique community. You have very special water here so I thought to promote this community as a healthy, relaxation, rejuvenation kind of place,” he said. “This is a spa town and a lifestyle.”

Pickel harped on the fact that Hot Springs has much to offer, especially this time of the year.

“It is soaking season. People are looking to de-stress and soak their troubles away,” he said. “This is the time of year for resolutions so it is a good time to introduce this idea of spas and that atmosphere.”

Pickel believes this manner of marketing for Hot Springs will benefit everyone.

“I think you will see a new branding of Hot Springs. There are a lot of things you can do in this unique community…I think this is a gem,” Pickel said.

The plan is to promote Hot Springs via collective advertisements on Anderson Radio. A special weekend giveaway featuring donated prizes might also be in the works. The idea is to drive people to the local businesses by creating excitement.

According to Pickel, a similar plan was executed in Polson with very successful results.

“Two years ago at Christmas time they figured there was about $100,000 of business done in downtown Polson,” he said. “Last year with the promotion that encouraged keeping money local, Polson earned $400,000.”

The $300,000 financial increase within a year meant a lot to downtown Polson.

According to Pickel, the cost to advertise is very reasonable.

“It would be $90 for 39 ads so when you break it down you are looking at three dollars an ad,” he said. “In Kalispell or Missoula you are looking at $50 an ad.”

Exact dollar amounts aside, the publicity alone should provide more bang for the buck.

“You are not going to get that kind of coverage any place else,” Pickel said. “Word of mouth is very effective…but we are the biggest mouth around. So we can get the word out to all kinds of people.”

Chamber of Commerce President Leslee Smith was keen to pursue the new town promotional plan.

“We really want to encourage people to spend money in town rather than elsewhere,” she said.

The majority of the chamber members present at the meeting seemed to agree as well, but all required time to come to an agreement on the details.

“We will reconvene and call people to get them to sign up. We will have to call 15 plus businesses to find out if they are interested,” Smith said.

The chamber agreed they want to move forward with the promotion plan. The details of exactly how much and what sort of advertising will be done is yet to be decided.