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Visit Brainard director previews rebrand, 2026 budget and a $25,000 visitor‑data proposal
Summary
Visit Brainard executive director Mary Deian Johnson told the Baxter City Council she plans to rebrand the destination organization as "Visit Brainer Baxter" in January 2026, previewed a preliminary 2026 budget and described a $25,000‑a‑year proposal from Zartico for municipal‑level visitor economic data.
Mary Deian Johnson, executive director of Visit Brainard, told the Baxter City Council that the destination marketing organization will rebrand as "Visit Brainer Baxter" in January 2026 and presented a preliminary 2026 budget and strategic plan.
Johnson said Visit Brainard operates with a small staff (about 2.5 full‑time equivalent employees) and that most of its spending goes to programming, marketing and advertising. She outlined a simplified 2026 budget that estimates about $485,000 in lodging tax revenue from Baxter and roughly $20,000 from Brainer, with operations and advertising forming the largest expense buckets.
The organization proposes a gradual brand update rather than an expensive full‑scale rebrand, retaining the legacy website for SEO while launching visitbrainerbaxter.com. Johnson also described a phased rollout of digital kiosks for visitor information (three initial locations this year, two hotels and the Visit Brainard gift store, with a goal of 10–13 kiosk locations by 2027) and said Visit Brainard will emphasize video and streaming content under a "short drive for tall tales" theme.
On data and measurement, Johnson described vendor options for municipal‑level economic‑impact analysis and said Visit Brainard has a proposal from Zartico at about $25,000 per year to analyze spend and geolocation data specific to Baxter. She said Zartico’s methodology can filter out non‑visitor spend (for example, certain e‑commerce purchases) to give a clearer picture of visitor economic impact; an optional website‑attribution add‑on was described as roughly $14,000 more. "It's fascinating, slightly terrifying, but fascinating information and data," Johnson said of the detailed visitor analytics the tool would provide.
Council members asked about the cost and the intended use of the data; Johnson said the analysis would supply municipal‑level baseline and trend data to help the city and Visit Brainard measure lodging and sales tax impact and to refine advertising audiences. Johnson said Visit Brainard will continue to use Google Analytics and other metrics while testing vendor data products and will provide the council with formal proposals and additional detail by email.
The presentation closed with no formal appropriation vote; Johnson requested guidance on whether to proceed with contracts and the council expressed general support for staff to move forward with vendor conversations and to keep the council informed by email.
What’s next: Visit Brainard will share vendor proposals and budget details with the city; the first scheduled municipal economic‑impact analysis under the organization's agreement is planned for 2026.
