Sentell: There are 44. Raycom reaches half of the television audience in the South and 13 percent of all of the American television audience. Raycom is very aggressive about owning the No. 1 station in the market. MBJ: And years ago downtown and the riverfront were empty. Sentell: Eight years ago, there was no place for people to congregate. MBJ: What is the size staff you have? Sentell: We have 65 people. MBJ: What is the agency’s annual operating budget? Sentell: Our budget is approximately $13 million. MBJ: How much does the state receive from lodging taxes that help fund the tourism agency? Sentell: There is a 4 percent state lodging tax and we get one-quarter of that. The other 75 percent goes to state’s General Fund that funds things like Medicaid, prisons and state troopers. MBJ: How much does the agency spend on promoting tourism? Sentell: That’s a good question. There is not a real simple answer. The state retirement system (Retirement Systems of Alabama) is the major investor in Raycom Media television company. Raycom gives anywhere between $10 million and $11 million worth of free television ads.
MBJ: How much is your marketing budget? Sentell: Our marketing budget is between $3 million and $4 million a year and that would include magazine ads, posters, the production of TV commercials, brochure printing and the like. MBJ: On the agency’s website, there are two brochures for 2010: “The Great Alabama Homecoming for Small Towns and Downtowns” and “100 Dishes to Eat Before You Die.” What are the goals of each of the campaigns? Sentell: When we do campaigns, we are speaking to people in Alabama as well as out of state. I think we’ve been successful in making Alabamians feel proud about their state. When we did the campaign on the Year of Alabama Food – frankly that was initially about Birmingham because Birmingham doesn’t have a state capital, a rocket, a battleship or a beach, but it was known for fine dining. We very quickly broadened the topic to include meat-and-three, cafes in small towns, barbecue, and seafood because virtually every town had one or more places that would fit in one of those four categories. MBJ: How successful was that campaign? Sentell: The 100 dishes brochure is the most popular brochure in our agency’s 60-year history.
MBJ: Is that to promote the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail?
MBJ: How many brochures have been picked up?
Sentell: No. Raycom gives (RSA) $30 million of air time a year. Twenty million dollars go to promote the golf trail. The additional $10 million to $11 million helps promote the rest of Alabama’s tourism assets. That is a relationship that is unique in American tourism marketing. When a new tourism director in another southern state comes in and finds out about Alabama’s support from its state pension fund, they are floored.
Sentell: We go through 200,000 copies of that brochure a year because when you travel, you generally know where you are going to stay. The first question is always, “Where are we going to eat?” By putting a list of recommended places to eat that includes more than 90 towns, in effect the State of Alabama is certifying that this town has places worthy of being recommended. When the State of Alabama says, “You need to pay attention to this restaurant” – it makes people in that town very proud.
MBJ: How many different TV stations does Raycom own?
amazing. When I put them on the 100 dishes brochure… the next time I had lunch there, the owner came out of the kitchen and said her business had tripled. I said, ‘How can you tell?’ She said by the numbers of pans of cornbread they serve a day. MBJ: You’re saying the campaigns can have a dramatic impact. Sentell: I was thrilled to hear that because that’s exactly what we wanted to accomplish – is to make people in those small towns aware that they have something special. MBJ: Are you planning to launch any other brochures this year to complement a new campaign? Sentell: We are already working on next year’s campaign. MBJ: What are those plans? Sentell: It’s the Year of Alabama Music. MBJ: How do you promote that? Sentell: We are going to be promoting destinations like museums that are open every day. We are going to be promoting festivals that include music and we will be celebrating personalities that people may not know that have an Alabama connection. MBJ: What does a typical campaign cost? Sentell: The Year of Small Towns and Downtowns is unique. When the governor appointed me to this job, he asked me to do campaigns that small towns could do that would not cost them a lot of money. We started doing Saturday walking tours in June. We have about 30 towns that do those Saturday tours. When we came up with the Year of Small Towns and Downtowns, we said we would donate a $2,500 historic marker to each town that had a homecoming event. I thought we would have about the same 30 towns. We have 215 towns participating. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
MBJ: Is there any way to track the results of those campaigns – any hard numbers? Sentell: I’ll give you an example. My favorite restaurant in Alabama is G’s Country Kitchen in Huntsville. Their fried corn is
June 2010 Montgomery Business Journal
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