Mike Belcher This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Bakercityherald.com

   www.bakercityherald.com/news/s - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/3/2002   Last Visited: 8/12/2003

   Lots of them - about 100 in all, says Mike Belcher of Larry Harvey and Associates, the firm hired to help market the county's attractions - all for what is a bargain rate in the world of television advertising, $25,000.
   
   The TV spots, still in production, will begin running April 22 in nearby markets with large populations - Portland, Boise and the Tri-Cities.
   
   A top producer at KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland, is still working on the 30-second spot, Belcher said. With 600,000 television sets in the Portland area alone, the ad is expected to make nearly 3 million "impressions" in the Rose City market, Belcher said - all of which represent potential Baker County tourists.
   
   Ads on Boise and Tri-Cities NBC television outlets will be held back until about two weeks before the Interpretive Center celebration begins in late May, Belcher said.
   
   The ad was inexpensive to produce because most of it existed already in footage shot for the "Baker County Comeback" video made for last year's "Finding Baker County's True North" forum.
   
   The new ad, Belcher said, will open with a bucolic scene of the Oregon Trail with an off-camera voice imploring people to "follow the Trail to adventure," then dissolve to something less sedentary - whitewater rafting in Hells Canyon.
   ...
   "One thing we're trying to do with the ads is change the misperceptions people have about the county," Belcher said.
   ...
   Jim and Svetlana Oard of Baton Rouge, La., were there with Jim's brother, Mike, and Lene Andersen, both of Seattle, because of all the stories told to them about how the center came to be.
   ...
   Mike especially has been a real ambassador for Baker County."
   
   NHOTIC's share of the ad campaign, she said, was funded by Trail Tenders and through admission fees.
   
   In all, she said, the center plans to spend $125,000 in marketing to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Some of that money - along with about $20,000 in additional funds provided by BCU - will be spent on print ads, which are scheduled for publication in the coming month in such magazines as Sunset, Alaska and Horizon airlines' in-flight magazines, and two magazines published by the American Automobile Association.
   
   Those ads, Belcher said, will be targeted at smaller audiences.
   ...
   "The (NHOTIC) anniversary is the event that spearheaded this campaign, but BCU has really gotten behind this," Belcher said.