Can state assistance prove to be a JEM?Tourism program grants fund spending out of the state, but the return can prove greater than the investmentEditorial by Sean FitzgeraldAs a history buff with a growing fondness for the life and ideology of President Abraham Lincoln, I was delighted to see the Oshkosh Public Museum received an almost $28,000 Joint Effort Marketing grant from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism to help promote its upcoming summer exhibition, The President and the Tsar, which highlights the unique relationship between Lincoln and Russian Tsar Alexander II. JEM grants, as they’re known in shorthand, have proven a real value for local venues like Oshkosh’s public museum and its Paine Art Center, which received a $58,500 grant this past fall to fund the marketing of its Nutcracker in the Castle event, currently running well into January. The JEM grant will enable the museum to promote The President and the Tsar in several national magazines, as well as outside of the Fox Valley. Museum Director Brad Larson said the exhibit will also be advertised in southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and northeastern Iowa media markets, as was described in the JEM application museum officials completed to get the grant. It may sound like a lot of taxpayer money to spend outside of the state – it certainly did to me at first – and would reasonably at least provide a return of gate receipts from visitors attending the exhibit from outside the area, plus the amount spent at local shops, restaurants and hotels. Larson expects large audiences, and also expects audiences to travel great distances to see this exhibit, based in part that The President and the Tsar will only appear at five other locations around the country. Larson has history on his side to help support his prognostications. Based on the museum’s numbers from its 2006 Titanic exhibit, which attracted nearly 100,000 visitors and generated millions of dollars in local tourism spending, there’s reason to believe The President and the Tsar could bring in just as many visitors. And Titanic was turned down in its JEM grant request, meaning all of its promotional spending came directly from the museum and its supporters. So will this JEM grant help generate at least $28,000 back to the Oshkosh area in museum exhibit-related tourism spending? There is a strict requirement in the application asking fund requestors to provide a specified marketing plan and rationale for their promotions, said Sarah Klavas, the director of communications and marketing services for the state Department of Tourism. Klavas said after the completion of an event or program that’s the recipient of a JEM grant, the organization is required to provide the state with detailed measurements to gauge the return on investment of the grant. Tangible metrics such as number of visitors attending a gated event, local hotel rooms occupied or visitor spending help the department assess the impact of the promotional marketing paid for with the JEM grant. And because JEM grants are reimbursable, meaning they’re not actually paid to the recipient until after this final accountability phase has been completed, the award truly is based upon performance and not just upon overly hopeful speculation. The change might appear purely semantic right now, but it was done in response to the growing regional audience B2B has gained in our nearly six years of publishing. While not having a direct association with The New North organization for which many of our readers have become familiar, it was our intent for this name change to assist with the branding effort for the region, further reinforcing in each monthly issue the shared economic interests among our readers. And we did transition to this new name with the benediction of The New North administration and its board of directors. We look forward to your thoughts on our name and logo change, and welcome any email and telephone feedback you might offer. |