End of Taste

Marketing agency promoted the County around the world

Taste the County was born out of a frustration that neither council nor other business associations understood the needs and significance of the wave of entrepreneurs that were coming and investing their money into the County. In its heyday, Taste perfected the art of marketing a destination through earned media. Travel writers and bloggers flocked to the County and told our story in the pages of the New York Times, Globe and Mail, the Wall Street Journal and hundreds of other publications. On a tiny budget, Taste earned millions of dollars of awareness and publicity. Along the way, the marketing agency won awards and praise from across North America for innovation, creativity and savvy.

Now that it is set to die, many business owners and residents are feeling bewildered and dismayed. Some have already begun to mourn the loss of an important voice that once proclaimed loudly to the world—that Prince Edward County was where they needed to be.

In a statement issued to members late last week, CEO Lynn Sullivan said Taste the County would wind up by the end of this year.

“Our role at Taste the County, as the Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), will be returned to the city to administer,” wrote Sullivan. “By working with the municipality, we can ensure that the County message is heard loud and clear, while individual stakeholders can direct their own marketing budgets accordingly.”

She added, in an interview with the Times,that it is the County’s Community Development department’s intention to bring destination marketing in-house.

“Therefore it makes Taste the County no longer necessary,” says Sullivan.

Yet Sullivan acknowledges that other factors contributed to the demise of Taste the County.

FUNDING DRIES UP
Throughout much of Taste’s existence, County council provided a yearly grant to the agency as well as a similar grant to the Prince Edward Chamber of Tourism and Commerce (PECTACC). Taste promoted the County to the world (marketing, advertising, events) —the Chamber looked after them when they arrived (tourist information, kiosks and such). Each agency submitted a list of services it provided to support its funding.

But this year—with its fledgling Community Development department ready to take flight—council put much tighter restrictions on this funding. Rather than a lump sum—each agency would have to apply to the Community Development Commission on a project or task basis.

Taste’s financial footings had already been compromised in 2009 when the province altered the way it funded tourism in Ontario. With the creation of regional tourism organizations— the County is encapsulated in the Great Waterway region—suddenly provincial funding sources were diverted to this new organization— and away from agencies such as Taste.

It was left with just its membership funds.

“We are a teeny tiny place in terms of resources,” explained Sullivan. “If you look at the size of our resources—we are a small town by comparison to other tourism areas. We are not a Niagara on the Lake nor a Muskokas—we don’t have the tax base and resources to execute big marketing schemes. Yes, we have an amazing product—but it is hard to get our hands on dollars.”

Therefore the decision to pack it in.

WHERE IT BELONGS?
Sullivan, a principal in Rosehall Run Winery in Hillier, says destination marketing rightly belongs with the municipality.

“Come to beautiful Prince Edward County.’ To me, that belongs in the municipality’s portfolio. Then it’s up to individual organizations and businesses to promote their message and feed off the County’s larger message.”

But can the municipality do destination marketing? Does it have the skill set? More importantly, will it make the investment needed to market the place effectively and rebuild the County’s attractiveness beyond its shorelines?

Neil Carbone says it will. Carbone heads the County Community Development department.

“There is a commitment to ensure that destination marketing remains an important part of our County attraction strategy,” Carbone told the Times. “We are very much behind it. It is in our strategic plan. It’s approved. We are committed to it.”

He notes, too, that Taste has had difficulty working on a “shoestring budget”. He says a membership-funded model was never ideal, and that a destination marketing funding model—in which the municipality siphons a portion off sales to fund marketing of the region—never appealed to the mainly small businesses in the County.

That leaves only the municipality.

“We want it properly funded,” said Carbone. “We are moving to better coordination and more effective use of funds—these things are being done so that we can be better at it—not so that we can stop doing it all together.”

Yet there will be some who will see the death of Taste the County as the latest act by council to mute the County’s appeal to high-yield visitors and tourism in general.

“I hear folks complain about people coming from the GTA to build wineries,” said Sullivan. “Why more hotel rooms? Why more tourists? They ruin the County, I can’t get to the grocery store; it is too crowded.”

She points to her hometown of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia.

“That town is bankrupt,” said Sullivan. “They don’t have a grocery store. They don’t have a problem with overcrowding— Main Street has shut down.”

As towns across Canada and North America struggle with job creation and depopulation, Sullivan says it would be reckless for the County to choke off funding needed to attract greater number of visitors.

“The purpose of destination marketing isn’t to get people to come to the beach and leave. The purpose is to get them here—realize what special place this is and encourage them to start a business here, start a new life here, bring their family here. That is the purpose.”

Carbone says he is committed to continuing the work begun by Taste the County.

“We will be telling the Prince Edward County story to the world. It will be as good or better.”