Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Guest Blog from Malcom Johnson


One point about Second Saturday is that the art destinations have doubled (and are still growing), but the number of visitors has not. The next big need is to have more marketing/promotion for ALL of those art locations.  
    I give the Tourist /Convention Bureaus mostly high marks, but now they need to start concentrating on promoting specific areas,such as the thirty-plus blocks of Central Ave. that have all of these art spots and a dedicated trolley system to move people from one area to another. Since the Bureaus are spending bed tax money, they usually produce diffused, generic advertising rather than pinpointing specific areas that can even benefit business's that are out of the immediate advertising area.  Why can't tourist ads be put in 'Art News', 'American Artist', etc. This is directly reaching out to an art audience that would love to come to St. Petersburg, once they knew how much is here (most cities would kill to have an Arts District that is 30-plus blocks long.
    Another idea is to use off-season condo rentals (approximately May through September to attract art fans who would want to actually live in St. Petersburg for several months to see art places, or to even have months long arts classes designed for them. Marketing/Promotion is now becoming the name of the game. 
 
--- Malcom Johnson
 
(A special note of thanks to Malcom --- Luis) 

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