The Kitsap Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau recently unveiled its upcoming Fall marketing campaign. It’s basically a re-hash of the Spring campaign that aired three different 60-second spots a total of 297 times on three Seattle AM talk radio stations — KIRO, KNWX, KOMO and on oldies station KBSG-FM.

The new campaign will reportedly utilize two of those 60-second spots which were produced by the Seattle firm of David Turrill Creative, using Seattle writer William Gohde and voice-over actor John Gilbert. A new spot will also be produced, and all will add a 30-second “tag” advertisement for a local VCB member. Plans call for the spots to run for two to three weeks in either October or early November.

VCB executive director Grant Griffin was quoted as saying he had been out talking to local businesses but no new ads will be written until sponsors step forward.

The decision to award the original $41,000 campaign to Turrill and not allow local firms to bid on any part of it ignited a firestorm around Griffin and the VCB which is still smoldering. The Turrill firm was hired to do the work without local media professionals even being considered. Defending that choice, Griffin said there wasn’t anyone here he believed “qualified” to do the work. After being criticized for the Seattle selection, he said the VCB would compile a list of qualified professionals for any future work.

In response to that, the Business Journal published a Media Qualification Form in the issue that carried the story on the Spring campaign as well as on its Web site. The form gave local media professionals an opportunity to outline their qualifications and to submit them directly to the VCB with copies automatically sent to the Business Journal. There were over 30 responses.

Whether or not local media pros will be denied the opportunity to try to participate in the new campaign is unclear. In the Sept. 3 issue of The Sun, Griffin stated the VCB remains committed to Turrill. “It’d be stupid to switch horses in mid-stream,” were his words.

In that same story, he also said that the VCB signed a contract with Turrill that covers its 2000 marketing campaign and wouldn’t break that contract to hire another agency before this year’s campaign ended. However, when the original campaign was unveiled in the Spring, he was specifically asked by the Business Journal if there were any ongoing obligations to the Turrill firm, and he denied there were. Turrill has also been rumored to be a personal friend of Griffin’s.

However, Griffin responded to an e-mail sent by the Business Journal asking about whether or not local people will be allowed to bid on the project (See accompanying article). His response was somewhat cryptic. “We will be requesting a proposal to do the media planning, scheduling and buying in the very near future. As of this date we have not contacted any of our referenced companies.”

He added, “We are presently talking to several co-op sources, but have not made any restrictions on creative other than approval of final copy and format. We will make all resources available to our partners and it will be their decision as to what and who they chose to work with.”

The Hotel/Motel Tax, which is the VCB’s primary funding source, is paid by local people as well as tourists who patronize establishments subject to it. According to county commissioner Chris Endresen, the VCB receives $70,000 from the first two percent of the Hotel/Motel Tax. The second two percent of the tax is split between the VCB and the Admiral Theater, amounting to an additional $35,000. According to Mayor Lynn Horton, it also receives another $25,000 from the City of Bremerton. It also gets undetermined amounts from the other cities in the county.

Endresen said that the second two percent will only run through 2001. After that, the county be will be looking at other agencies who are also eligible. She added that in light of the VCB’s actions in these situations, she would support tying the Hotel/Motel Tax funding of the VCB to giving local business the opportunity to bid on its work. She also said she would check with the prosecutor’s office to see if in fact it was legal to do so.

Horton said she would be willing to ask her city council to explore the possibility of tying its VCB funding to a policy of in-county spending as well, and referred the question to councilman Conrad Esser, who is chair of the advisory committee that determines the amount of funding the VCB receives from the city.

Griffin has tried to put a positive spin on the controversial Spring radio campaign as a justification for not allowing local firms to bid on the work, pointing to increased Web and phone traffic from the previous year. He can’t however, cite any solid numbers to prove that increased traffic actually resulted in increased business for any VCB members.

Judith Rammel, president of Gold Medal Marketing, a local public relations and promotional firm, was skeptical of Griffin’s attempt to spin the issue in his favor. “I think it was interesting to note that Grant acknowledged that they had no way to measure the results in dollars. Increased web site traffic is terrific, but I’ve always believed that you must have a plan in place to track results, even on a trickle down basis that may occur long after the fact.”

A question has also been raised by some VCB members as to how the organization handles and distributes referrals of the inquiries it receives. At least one hotel manager and two B&B owners strongly believe that favoritism is being shown to certain establishments.

Griffin’s response was simply, “ Please elaborate on this, as we can not respond to our members if we aren’t clear on what you mean by distribution of referrals when the campaign did not solicit referrals.”

Griffin’s only responses to the Business Journal’s questions on either the campaign or the charges of favoritism have been via e-mail, as quoted above. He did however compliment the Business Journal, saying, “The VCB is in support of creating jobs locally and we salute the Business Journal’s resolve to that issue.”.