Town council approves $1,000 digital marketing push for festival

The town council voted to proceed with a $1,000 digital marketing campaign aimed at increasing attendance for the upcoming town festival.

Jonathan Rogers, a representative of WWKI, presented three campaign tiers for attendees, vendors and sponsors and recommended a 60-day run of the attendees package. Rogers described the package as including display advertising across devices, $500 of Facebook spend and digital out‑of‑home placements; he said the vendor’s “best” tier would deliver roughly 25,000 ad impressions over 60 days and a set of device-level delivery reports.

Council members asked how the vendor identifies and targets audiences. Rogers said the vendor uses third‑party data and cookies to map devices in a geographic radius and returns campaign delivery reports; he also said the vendor can provide address-level matches for devices reached. Council members expressed privacy concerns about that level of granularity and asked staff to review reporting details with the vendor.

A council member moved and seconded the proposal to purchase the attendees package at the $1,000 ‘‘best’’ level; the motion passed on a voice vote. The council directed staff to work with WWKI on creative and to receive campaign reporting.

The meeting record does not show a roll call tally or named mover/second for the motion in the transcript; the approval was recorded by voice vote.

Next steps: staff will confirm start timing (Rogers recommended starting roughly 60 days before the festival) and will ask the vendor to provide clarified reporting and privacy safeguards before execution.