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Town Of Century Tables Action On $20,000 Website, Marketing Plan
October 7, 2015
The Town of Century has tabled action on a $20,000 website and marketing plan to clarify funding sources and any need to bid the contract.
Century’s current website was developed by an area marketing firm in 2012 for $5,950, part of a $11,450 package that also included a five year comprehensive marketing strategy.
In 2013, the town was awarded a $25,000 technical assistance grant from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to develop an economic development strategic plan. After hearing proposals from four contenders, the town contracted with the Haas Center (the research and consulting arm of the University of West Florida) to develop the plan at no cost to the town.
The Haas Center’s detailed plan and recommendations included a new website for the town, with suggestions from the Haas Center in late 2014 that the website be created by a volunteer or perhaps UWF marketing interns.
Monday night, Dr. Felicia Morgan from the UWF Marketing Department and Johnathan “Jet” Tisdale of the Pace company White Paper Marketing presented a marketing plan with a one year contract at $1,650 per month cost for a website, an email subscription drive, website and a database management and other marketing resources. Any additional costs, such as advertising purchases, would add to the bottom line.
After questions arose about whether the cost would be the sole responsibility of the town, or if any grants or other funding sources existed, the council tabled any action on accepting the proposal. A question was also raised if the the town should accept bids on the marketing plan.
The council plans to readdress the marking plan costs at their next regular meeting on October 19.
Pictured top: Dr. Felicia Morgan from the UWF Marketing Department and Johnathan “Jet” Tisdale of the Pace company White Paper Marketing address the Century Town Council. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
14 Responses to “Town Of Century Tables Action On $20,000 Website, Marketing Plan”
$1650 a month!?! Man, someone is really trying to get a nice living outta this one! Century is part of Escambia County, right? If you want to do biz they already have websites for that, right? So, what is this new site gonna be for?
All this money being spent on this could go towards something more worthwhile, like infrastructure maintenance, more educational materials for the schools, that swimming pool that would be better than a concrete patch with water coming up out of it, pay raises for deserving city or town employees (not desk pilots, real hands on laborers), radar guns, dope dogs, etc.
Haas Center (part of UWF) recommends that a website be created by a volunteer or perhaps UWF marketing interns.
Then………………….
Monday night, Dr. Felicia Morgan from the UWF Marketing Department and Johnathan “Jet” Tisdale of the Pace company White Paper Marketing present a marketing plan.
The above article sounds like some sort of orchestrated collusion going on between the UWF Marketing Department (public educational institution) and White Paper Marketing Company (private).
I grew up with JET, and you won’t find someone who will do the job any better. He’s a long time resident and son of Escambia County. Now I completely understand Century resident’s concerns, it is a lot of money. But are the residents of Century really serious about breaking the cycle of poverty that has been so pervasive for so long? If so, understand, it takes money to make money. This could be a good investment for the town. But like anything in life, no risk…no reward.
“Devils Advocate”
Agreeing with much of what you said. Century needs a secure website that can be used to pay your municipal bills.
Our little town is just too small and too much of a monthly check recipient type of a community that it is almost impossible for a new business of any size to find enough people that are interested in working. (Man is that’s a run on sentence) When I (an old retired person) hear of a possible new employer coming near by and mention to some of the potential type employee that they should go and put in an application, the first response I get is “will this mess up with my monthly check”. Sorry just saying.
Seemingly all our little town can attract are Crooks, or companies like “Starter” that are Hop Scotching around looking for Tax breaks and then move on or maybe they became dishearten with our workforce and decided to move on to larger areas. Except for Alger Sullivan way back in the 40’s, 50’s and early 60’s is the last large stable employer Century has known. Other than that Century has more or less been a bedroom community and what sincere working citizens we have commuted to surrounding areas.
I do not mind being just a bedroom community as much of my working career was outside of Century. I know that the town fathers would like to see Century grow but growing often times brings on more problems. Until our abled bodied young people decide that they want to join the work force, Century just does not have a chance to attract jobs other than the dollar sore or other people service jobs inside our town.
Be mindful Century and do not fall for every High Flying, Sharp tonged salesman that comes along that want to sale you a satchel full of goods. We have some smart councilmen, so check them out.
Just Saying
Scrap the website, not needed, put the money towards the swimming pool.
Why would Century, the poorest town of its size in Florida, spend $20,000 on a website? Why not just mail $20 to each one of the 1,000 residents and stimulate the economy?
There are UWF and PSC interns that could build a web site. Doesn’t one of the high schools have a web design/marketing academy?
What are the credentials of the person making the proposal? I found what appears to be a website for his business, but the site does not work properly and does not list any work experience?
Why wasn’t a $20,000 contract bid? Yes, it’s professional services and you are not obligated to take the lowest bidder….but why not doe like the city of Pensacola and put out a request for proposals? That seems like the proper thing to do. Maybe this guy is the best with the best price. But why not find out what else is available?
Why must Century make everything look so crooked?
“available workforce” that’s a good one. What return has Century gotten from the 15K + that was spent on the current website? What new businesses have opened since that time, and remain open today? A business owner only has to drive through Century to make up their mind.
A good website takes a lot of time to build. That’s because you have to plan how many sections, how many pages, and then build them all (taking photos, resizing them, writing the copy). Even if you are using a template, it still takes time. You have to pay someplace to host the website and handle the traffic/data use.
Why does Century need one, beyond paying your bills?
When I visit a place on vacation, I look up online to see what’s in the area. If I do a search for “Pensacola” or “Escambia,” a Century website that’s built and written well will come up to show me what events are going on. Does Century have any attractions (museum, boat rentals)?
If I’m a business owner looking for a place to set up shop (such as the old mill site), I want information about the community and the available workforce. A lot of businesses also look for “quality of life” — from doctor’s offices to what there is to do (see above).
I had the opportunity to be involved in selecting a company to build a website for a non-profit. The best group was not the most expensive (around $15,000, and this was more than five years ago), but they demonstrated the process and thought that goes into making a good, easy to navigate, easy to use website with lots of information. We went with a much cheaper option, and the resulting website was cumbersome, hard to update (on the admin side), and hard to navigate (user side).
You get what you pay for, and for a community that wants to grow out of poverty, it would be a good investment.
So exactly when does that 2012 contract run out?
Some time in 2017.
Is this plan above going to overlap and replace what has already been paid for?
20k for a website? Rip-off alert!!!! I could probably do one for 5k at the most.
That’s just what Century needs, a new website, that’ll bring in the businesses. Riddle me this, will they use actual photos of the town to show it off to potential investors? Or stock photos for normal searches for the town to read up on it? Doesn’t the county or state already offer web space?
Does the town of Century pay for anything with its own money? Without grants would the town make any improvements?
Sounds like another 20 grand down the well. I’d have to ask; what did you get for the last 20 grand? I’d also ask why Dr. Morgan can’t use the vast resources of UWF to help poor little Century put up a web page instead of helping White Paper sell them one?
The only thing century should use a website for is looking up and paying your city bill and taxes. If its going to be just a bunch of fluff for folks to look at it certainly isnt worth $20,000.00