HomeMy WebLinkAbout4.1 Discover Cottage Grove Visitor Guide
TO: Board of Directors, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau
FROM: Matt Wolf, Assistant to the City Administrator
DATE: January 21, 2021
RE: Discover Cottage Grove Visitor Guide – Layout Review
Background
On October 29, 2020 the Bureau submitted a request for $15,000 for assistance through the
Washington County Limited Convention and Visitors Bureau Assistance Program. On Tuesday,
November 10th the grant request was accepted. Based on the details of the agreement we had
until November 20th to submit expenses that occurred between March 1, 2020 and Nov ember
19, 2020. The expenditures can only cover marketing or remarketing expenses per the
program.
With those limitations the grant was spent on the following:
1. $1,362.50 – That’s My Idea Marketing Brand Development & Marketing (5/27/2020)
2. $4,615.99 – Website Development and Maintenance Costs (11/09/2020)
3. $2,000.00 – Backer Board Advertisement of the Visitor Bureau at the Ice Arena
(11/13/2020)
4. $2,000.00 – Snowmobile Trail Map Development for Recreational Advertising of Cottage
Grove Area (11/13/2020)
5. $5,000.00 – Development of Visitor Guide for Cottage Grove Tourism and Visitors
(11/13/2020)
The revenue from the grant was applied to the 4th quarter of the Visitor’s Bureau 2020 budget.
Currently these expenditures, because of the loss of revenue were spread out over 2020 and
2021.
Discussion
Sievers Creative (Sievers) developed the Discover Cottage Grove website.
Due to the grants quick timeframe for submitting expenses and the Board
of Directors approval of the website of project, Sievers was chosen as the
company to design the Bureau’s Visitor’s Guide. In working with Sievers to
create a guide, the recommended a scaled down version of the Fargo-
Moorhead guide. A link to the guide was sent to the Board of Directors on
Wednesday, November 25 asking for comments or feedback on th e
design.
Work on the Cottage Grove Visitor’s Guide started in late December of
2020, and Sievers Creative will be submitting a rough layout for review and
Figure 1 Cover of
Fargo-Moorhead
Visitor Guide
Board of Directors, Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau
January 22, 2020
Page 2 of 2
comment late on Friday, January 22 which will be shared with the Board of Directors at the
meeting.
Current timeframe for the completion of the Visitor’s Guide is as follows:
1. January 26, 2021 – Board of Directors Reviews Rough Layout of Visitor’s Guide
2. February 2021 – Sievers Creative adds Content to Visitor’s Guide
3. February 23, 2021 – Board of Directors makes final revisions and changes to Visitor’s
Guide
4. March 2021 – Sievers Creative makes final edits, uploads digital Visitor’s Guide to the
discovercottagegrove.com webpage, and sends final Visitor Guide to print
Recommendation
As part of the Board of Directors meeting, we are asking the Directors to review the rough layout
of the Visitor’s Guide and make any suggestions for changes or revisions.