The Kimball Art Center has a new sponsor for the 2006 Park City Kimball Arts Festival, and that company is working to take the event to new heights.
This year, for the first time, online travel agency Travelocity is a sponsor of the festival, contributing thousands of dollars in advertisements to the festival.
The Kimball hopes it can translate those dollars into new visitors. While the Arts Festival has long drawn tens of thousands of visitors from around the Wasatch Front, this year, the event is aiming for a bigger crowd. While some familiar names, like the Ken Garff Automotive Group, remain sponsors of the festival, there are also more nationally known names, like Travelocity, that are part of the Arts Festival’s quest for greater exposure.
Susan Thomas, public relations director at the Kimball, was planning the Arts Festival’s advertising campaign when she came across Travelocity. Trying to find where she should place ads, she called the company after talking to a number of local and regional organizations, including the Park City Chamber/Bureau and Ski Utah.
“I kind of just took everybody’s ad plans and figured out where the best place is to spend the money,” Thomas said.
One of the organizations she talked to was the Salt Lake City Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has a partnership with Travelocity. When Thomas called Travelocity, the company offered her a partnership.
In return for a sponsorship, Travelocity agreed to give the Kimball $28,000 worth of advertising on the company’s Web site. The Arts Festival’s presence on Travelocity will include online ads, flight and hotel packages, and a special Arts Festival site.
“I would like to think it’s going to bring more people from out of state here,” Thomas said.
In addition to the Travelocity package, Thomas said the organization has also obtained $45,000 for advertising from the Utah Tourism Board, the Park City Chamber/Bureau and the Summit County Restaurant Tax.
With that money and with the Travelocity campaign, the Kimball is targeting several areas, including San Diego, Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and Jackson, Wyo. According to Thomas, another big-name sponsor of the Arts Festival, Tesoro, is including Arts Festival advertisements in the company’s radio campaign in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.
The organizers want to make the Arts Festival a premier national event, drawing bigger crowds and a more diverse collection of artists to Park City.
“I’m so looking forward to seeing the benefits these tourism marketing dollars will bring,” Thomas said.
The Park City Kimball Arts Festival will run Aug. 5-6, 2006 on Main Street in Park City.