The El Dorado Advertising and Promotion Commission recently approved a total of $93,000 in funding requests that will support a popular holiday activity, local restaurants and downtown beautification.
On July 7, commissioners heard funding requests of $85,000 for the return of the MAD (Murphy Arts District) on Ice skating rink and $5,000 for the El Dorado Food Festival.
An additional $3,000 was granted to help Main Street El Dorado purchase new banners for the city’s Central Business District.
MAD on Ice
The third annual MAD on Ice will be held from November until January in the MAD Amphitheater.
Pamela Griffin, president and chief executive officer of El Dorado Festivals and Events, Inc./MAD, told A&P commissioners that activities are ramping up due to the easing of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions and that trend includes the demand for portable ice-skating rinks.
Griffin said MAD’s ice-skating rink vendor offered a $15,000 discount in 2020 because events and activities around the region had been canceled or postponed due to COVID-19.
“The actual cost of the ice rink itself has gone up this year so that’s what’s driving a lot of this,” Commissioner Don Miller noted.
Griffin said the vendor recently reached out to MAD about renting a rink for the holiday season.
“They cut us a deal last year because they had a lot of cancellations and they needed places to put ice rinks,” Griffin said. “They came back to me (this year) and said, ‘Hey, ice-rink rentals are going gangbusters. If you want one … we need to know soon.’”
She said price negotiations began and after the two groups settled on a quote, the vendor set a deadline of July 1 for MAD to confirm the rental.
However, Griffin said she explained that the A&P’s next meeting was scheduled for July 7 and she would have an answer for the vendor following the meeting.
Commissioner Dianne Hammond asked if MAD had received any other sponsorships from local businesses to assist with MAD on Ice.
Griffin said some local businesses have offered sponsorships since the event launched in 2019 but MAD has not yet reached out to those businesses this year, adding that sponsorships make up $32,000 of the total budget of $203,400 for Mad on Ice 2021.
The A&P has also supported the event for the past two years, approving funding requests of $15,000 in 2019 and $100,000 in 2020.
Griffin explained that MAD learned through trial and error the most cost-efficient way to operate the rink after sustaining a net loss of nearly $75,000 from a $215,000 budget in 2019.
MAD on Ice proved to be a popular event in its first year, with nearly 9,000 visitors signing liability waivers.
Griffin said MAD brought the rink back in 2020 to offer a “fun activity during COVID.” Health and safety measures were enforced and operations, including labor and hours, were modified.
According to MAD reports, non-skaters have made up 45% of total visitors to the skating rink for the past two years and the total number of attendees for 2021 has been projected at 7,540, which includes 5,200 skaters.
Visitors represented 24 states in 2020, per ticket data that was compiled by MAD.
Funding for the rink comes from requests for proposals that are presented to and approved by the A&P commission at the beginning of each year from local groups, including MAD, who seek assistance to promote events they have planned throughout the year.
In January, MAD was awarded $88,500 to help promote 2021 events.
To support MAD on Ice in 2020, the A&P commission reallocated a $100,000 balance that remained from an initial allotment of $158,500 that had been committed to MAD at the beginning of the year.
“Anecdotally, in reading the last several reports from the MAD on Ice, I would characterize it as the best new event we’ve brought to El Dorado over the last three or four years,” Miller said July 7.
“And it goes to enhance the overall downtown environment for the holidays,” he continued. “It really gives you an opportunity to have something more to do than just stay and shop. You actually have an attraction that you can build on.”
Miller also said he has heard feedback from local residents and visitors who said that MAD on Ice has offered many children the opportunity to go ice skating for the first time.
Griffin said local sponsors have purchased group packages for organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado and Hope Landing.
Commissioner Paul Choate pointed out that MAD on Ice is a six-week event, saying, “I like the fact that you just don’t get one shot and you’re done. I mean, it goes on for a while.”
Griffin said the 2021 quote for the rink includes a period of eight weeks, explaining that an eight-week rental was cheaper than six weeks “because they’re so slammed this year.”
“The labor for them to come pick it up — they needed us to kick it out two weeks so that it would work for their scheduling,” she explained. “So, we can go as far into January as Jan. 17 with it but just because we have it on site, doesn’t mean we have to operate it.”
Griffin said MAD has to conduct a cost-benefit analysis in order to operate the facility for an additional two weeks and consider such factors as labor, utilities and how local children returning to school after Christmas break will affect attendance.
She also agreed to look into cost comparisons for renting versus purchasing.
Earlier in the meeting, Griffin told A&P commissioners that some implements can be purchased, adding that MAD hopes to continue MAD on Ice for years to come.
“I think that would be smart on our part,” Hammond said.
Miller also said that following MAD on Ice 2021, MAD and the A&P commission can conduct a three-year review.
A&P chairman Barbie Luther called for a motion to vote on the $85,000 funding request, saying, “It’s truly a family event and not a lot of things we do at MAD are family events so I think it’s wonderful.”
El Dorado Food Fest
For the second consecutive year, the A&P commission agreed to support the El Dorado Food Festival.
The festival was launched last year to help drive business to local eateries who, like many other businesses, experienced hardships in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sponsored by the A&P commission, in a partnership with the El Dorado Insider quarterly magazine, the nine-week promotion also served as a showcase for the variety of restaurants and food options that are available in the city.
Nearly two dozen of the more than 75 eateries in the area participated in the non-traditional festival, which was held last September and October and was coordinated with a series of activities, including the dedication of the fall 2020 issue of the Insider; coupon booklets that offered $380,000 worth of discounts from local restaurants; radio and digital billboard advertising; a $500 grand prize to a diner (Larry Andrews who registered at Main Street Pizza) who used at least one coupon, completed the entry form on the back of the coupon and left it inside collection boxes that were set up at participating restaurants; and Murphy USA gas cards, valued at $50, were given away each week to a winner who dined at a local restaurant and posted to Instagram and Facebook a photo of the food and/or themselves and identified the restaurant where they dined in or purchased takeout meals.
On July 7, Don Hale, president and founder of the Diamond Agency — the A&P commission’s ad agency of record and publisher of the Insider — reported that 3,300 contest entries were counted and validated for EFF 2020.
He previously reported that several restaurants said they experienced an increase in customer traffic and had asked that the festival continue in 2021.
“The restaurants that participated, even those that didn’t have a special offer, had good returns on their coupons so we were delighted,” Hale told commissioners.
“I think, also, in a city that touts itself as a destination, we always have to be mindful of what we’re doing to promote different venues that bring guests and our food service is probably one that we should always be looking at how we help them do better by bringing in new customers,” he continued.
Hale said this year’s food festival is set for October and participating eateries are discussing possibly hosting a kick-off event.
He requested $5,000 from the A&P commission to help promote the EFF, down from $5,987 the group committed last year.
“You will be supplementing the billboards, the coupons, the registration boxes, the radio promotion and the social media posts,” Hale explained.
Banners
Beth Brumley, executive director of Main Street El Dorado, presented a funding request for $3,000 to help purchase new banners to hang from downtown street-light poles.
She said the funds would match $3,000 that MSE has already raised to replace the banners that refer to “downtown” and “the square.”
Brumley said that former Mayor Frank Hash spearheaded efforts to replace the city’s banners each year and the city has not done so within the past couple of years.
Instead of replacing banners last year, MSE added new banners and light poles near new businesses, including The Haywood El Dorado hotel, that opened in downtown El Dorado.
“So, we didn’t even replace any of ours, per se, last year so all of my budget is going to replace ours because they all look bad. But the city’s … the $3,000 I’m asking for would literally replace all the ones that say ‘El Dorado’ and have the ‘It’s Showtime!' little logo theme on it,” Brumley explained.
After some discussion, Brumley agreed to a request by Hammond to look into a new design “to perk up” the banners and the commission approved the funding request.