Do we have a marketing/awareness issue with events in the area? (Johnson City: best city)

[Serious Conversation]

I've been a mostly lifelong resident of the local area. We're not a big area. Until the last six months or so, I've always been Kingsport centric.

I now live in Johnson City. Black Stone Cherry is coming to Capone's at the end of the month. They're an internationally known band from Kentucky. There is no publicity on it other than on Capone's Facebook page. The downtown JC page hasn't picked it up to my knowledge. No other ads I can find.

A WWE event is coming to Freedom Hall next Saturday or thereabouts. Zero advertisement. I'd have never known if the WWE didn't have a sponsored ad in my Facebook feed.

Jamie Dove's River Creek Farm has had some formal, expensive farm-to-table dinners. No advertisement outside of pages he owns/business pages, or those sharing that content.

Bristol has a brewery called Elderbrew off the main drag I had never heard of until Erich, the owner of Studio Brew, told me about it. I'm pretty plugged into the craft beer scene and never heard a word.

Do we have a problem in "getting the word out" here?

[AppalachianAngler]

Yes, I would agree there is a problem getting the word out. My guess is it is still just a relatively small population area as you pointed out in your second sentence.

[Rangerred]

I guess you could say there's a problem but I'm not sure what the solution would be. I'm pretty plugged into goings-on of the region and am very active on social media so nothing really gets past me. However, I know people that never know about events in the Tri-Cities or don't know about a new restaurant or store until its been open for six months. Nowadays, social media is the most reliable way to get the word out but there is still a sector of the population that either does not use social media or is not super active. This might be even more true in the Tri-Cities due to our older population.

The Loafer is a free weekly publication covering events throughout the region. I've never understood the often-heard complaint of there not being anything to do in the Tri-Cities. There are many weekends where there are more events happening than I have time to attend.

[jchometeam]

There is plenty to do in the Tri Cities. However, there is not anything of quality to do in the Tri Cities for a large segment of the population. For example, Freedom Hall sits mostly empty and the JC mayor has recently said that he thinks it will be a quality facility for the next 40 years. That simply is incorrect, and Freedom Hall's location and size holds Johnson City back. Same with the Performing Arts Center, which even with the city's contribution is going to be smaller than the Niswonger Center in Greeneville. That is leaving Johnson City, by far the best city in the area, without a path forward for the best quality entertainment that is available in other cities.

With all due respect, Black Stone Cherry? Anyone who has ever heard of this band would know that they are coming to JC. Outside of that small crowd, any additional marketing would likely be a waste of money. I would imagine that well over 90% of the city's population has never heard of this band and wouldn't pay attention to an advertisement promoting the band. Same for WWE. There are a few die-hard fans who watch their programs. Those fans already know that they are coming.

We have billboards in this area, we have major newspapers with decent readership, as well as throw-away type smaller newspapers that are available in most decent-sized cities, we have television ads available on the local news channels, etc. In short, we have all of the avenues for getting the word out that any other city would have. It is up the the promoter to spend money wisely and in the way that they feel would best reach their audience.

[Serious Conversation]

I never said BSC were Elton John, but you'd think 101.5 or something would promote it. I listen to 101.5 fairly regularly and never heard anything. No flyers even downtown last night. Yes, it's on the band's/Capone's Facebook feed, but I "like" dozens, if not hundreds, of pages. Unless I go to their/venue page, it would be easy for it to fall through the cracks.

The WWE event showed up as "sponsored" in my Facebook feed. I don't regularly check what's going on at Freedom Hall itself. If I hadn't seen that sponsored feed, I'd have never known. I think that would deserve a billboard being at Freedom Hall.

I agree there is not enough quality things to do for a large segment of the population. Freedom Hall can be a mess to get in and out of. When we do get something interesting, it seems like it's almost impossible to find anything out about it unless you are already "in the know." In other places I've lived, there were at least Loafer type publications, more aggressive marketing from venues, etc., to promote ongoing events.

[rccrain]

I could make this a long post but I think it can be summarized thusly...

Businesses are only going to spend marketing money if they expect to put money in the bank net of the marketing cost. Simply put, your restaurants and entertainment have decided that it would not be a net benefit to them to pay for radio or billboard advertisements. Social media marketing is incredibly cheap and effective.

If you want to see the overwhelming list of what's going on, check here https://www.townplanner.com/johnson-city/tn/events/

[jchometeam]

Social media is attractive for so many different reasons. It is not just the cost, but also the data that you get from the cost. For example, if a realtor wants to advertise an open house on Sunday, they could pay a couple hundred dollars for a nice ad in the Sunday paper, or they could spend $20 on a sponsored Facebook ad that is marketed toward a particular zip code and you can then see how many views it has, how many times it was shared, etc. None of that is available through traditional print advertising.

[rccrain]

I definitely agree with that. I can sponsor an ad that is targeted to the exact 5,000 Facebook accounts that are likely to be interested in my services and are located nearby. I also try to spend so that I'm at capacity. If I go over my capacity, then I'm wasting marketing $ plus I'm turning away customers which is not the reputation I'm trying to build. To relate that to this thread, if BSC is going to sell out, why would they spend a dime marketing? This kind of goes back to the "quality" you were referring to. If there were three bands of national reputation appearing on the same weekend, then they would probably need to advertise more.