Yellowstone owners to mount promo campaign
By Cole Boehler
New Yellowstone County Tavern Association (YCTA) President John Blair said he didn't think he was seeing as many methamphetamine abusers around Billings these days as in years past.
Blair said when he inquired about this observation with a police officer friend, the officer confirmed that meth "tweakers" numbers have declined, but that illegal pharmaceuticals have become the junky's new drug of choice.
In the previous three years, the YCTA had donated $15,000 each year to the local methamphetamine task force, viewing it as a good social investment, Blair told the Montana Tavern Times Feb. 11.
But with meth abuse numbers apparently down and the business operating environment for taverns and casinos increasingly challenging, Blair said he thought the $15,000 could be redirected to boost the sagging business without hurting the local meth effort.
Indeed, Billings has seen gaming revenues decline 23.66 percent in the Oct. 1-Dec. 31, 2009 quarter just ended compared to the same quarter one year ago, and Yellowstone County as a whole is down 17.92 percent. This means Billings licensees have seen a $4.35 million decline in gaming revenues alone over a 90-day period, or almost $50,000 a day.
Blair agrees it would have been appropriate for the anti-tobacco forces to spend some of their millions touting the state's newly smoke-free venues. After all, they spent millions disparaging places that allowed smoking and discouraging patronage of them. Now that all are smoke-free, why not help them recover some of the lost business?, Blair said he wondered.
So he suggested YCTA review its local charitable contributions with an eye toward investing some of it instead in business advertising, then accepted the chairmanship of the YCTA's Public Relations Committee to personally coordinate that effort.
Blair emphasized the $15,000 represents just a portion of the group's community betterment funds and said he thought the association would do its best to continue funding other causes that have benefited from YCTA donations in the past.
The PR Committee met at Blair's Reno Club in Billings and began mapping out a strategy which calls for soliciting support from related businesses and groups to combine with YCTA's $15,000 to launch a $25,000 cable TV ad campaign. Hans Abbey of Bresnan Cable was on hand as were YCTA PR Committee members Doug Jensen, Reny Roma, Don Pendergrass and Scotty Welter.
They were told Bresnan could offer a non-profit rate (YCTA is a non-profit corporation) that would allow the company to use their lowest rate while matching purchased ad spots with free ones, bringing the price down to $3.50 to $4 a spot.
Commercial production costs would be in addition and the committee evidently wants several different commercials to run in a rotation that could cover six months. Plenty of details will be hammered out and presented to the next YCTA meeting March 9, Blair told the committee. He said he thought prototype commercials could be shown then as well. In fact, he said, he would push to have some commercials ready for the Montana Tavern Association board meeting March 2.
As an aside, Blair noted the last meeting of the YCTA "drew the biggest attendance – over 50 members – in more than 11 years," an indicator of how much concern there is amongst licensed business owners. He said he expects continued high levels of involvement until the industry sees an emerging and solid turnaround.
Blair said one idea he had was creating a 60-second spot that developed a timeline beginning in 1948 when the YCTA was first formed, leading to the current smoke-free status. Old-time pictures could illustrate earlier times with a voice-over describing the important and positive role of the tavern throughout Billings' development, culminating in recognition of the modern, smoke-free entertainment, beverage and food venues they are now.
Those spots would mention some of the highlights of the YCTA's community betterment programs and sponsorships such as raising the funds for the Billings fireworks shows, or for the thermal imagers purchased for the fire department, helmets for firefighters, Legion Baseball and much more.
"We should emphasize that we are part of the community, one of the foundations," Blair said. He suggested that different owners actually appear in different spots and could be seen inviting the public into the Billings establishments with the offer of a free drink "if you say you saw this ad on TV."
The campaign should have a running theme, Blair suggested. One idea of his was, "Smoke free; it's a nice place to be." Welter suggested, "Clean air; clean start." Still another suggestion was themed, "Grateful to be part of our community," and could feature groups that have received charitable benefits from YCTA, such as scholarship recipients, food bank operators and the like, which could be shown saying, "Thanks YCTA!"
But another committee member cautioned against seeming to endorse the notion of banning smoking since some customers were lost as a result and since some remaining were still sore about it and blaming taverns.
It was suggested the positive economic impact story should be told; that roughly calculated, Yellowstone County's approximately 130 licensed businesses probably spend around $75 million locally on goods and services, employ 1,900 people, many of them part-time, have a $19 million payroll and pay nearly $6 million in taxes in addition to nearly $12 million in direct gaming revenue taxes.
Another suggestion was to emphasize in commercials the responsible serving practices and initiatives undertaken by, and incorporated into, licensed businesses' operating policies. Still another said the county's universal compliance with the smoke free law should be highlighted.
Blair said, "It's time we quit focusing on all our troubles – we know what they are – and start focusing on changing it."
The group pledged to meet one week later to decide on commercial themes, budgets and run schedules.