Sedona City Council on Oct. 14 approved Amendment No. 4 to the city’s professional services agreement with DVA (Dave Vengely & Associates) for marketing services, increasing fiscal year 2026 funding by up to $558,720 and raising the contract’s total not-to-exceed amount to $1,565,720.

The amendment funds two primary campaigns (winter and a summer follow-up) and the city’s ongoing sustainability messaging. Andrew Grossman, Sedona’s tourism manager, presented results from the summer campaign and the rationale for an expanded winter buy. Grossman reported attribution metrics and estimated economic impact: based on the campaign’s attribution modeling, “for every dollar spent on the campaign, the Sedona economy saw $12 in return,” and the city’s sales and bed tax receipts tied to the campaign were estimated at about $123,000.

DVA’s digital director, Christian Folk, reviewed campaign performance and advised the council to invest more in connected-TV (CTV) advertising and attribution-based web ads after strong creative performance. Council discussed technical limits to attribution (data privacy and device-tracking loss) and whether alternative vendors should be considered if tracking weakens further.

Councilors debated a staff request to grant the city manager authority to add up to $150,000 to the contract in narrowly defined emergency circumstances (so staff could move quickly to add campaign funds when recent economic indicators signaled urgent need). After extended discussion about transparency, triggers, and public notice, council did not adopt a standing procurement authority for the city manager that would allow open-ended additions without returning to council. Several members asked staff to return with a clear set of objective “trigger” metrics (occupancy declines, anonymized business survey results, vehicle-count signals, or near-real-time lodging data) that could inform a limited, pre-authorized spending authority in the future.

Public comment included a mix of perspectives: David Key (Sedona Chamber of Commerce) and Bob Pifke (Tourism Advisory Board) supported the increased investment and testing higher-income audience targeting; Tim Perry urged the council not to use public funds for destination promotion.

The council approved the DVA amendment by a 5-0 vote. Staff will proceed with the winter campaign allocations and report back on attribution metrics and any further contract adjustments.