The Covington City Commission will consider approving a contract of up to $122,700 with local video production company, Spotted Yeti Media, to produce marketing videos aimed at attracting both new city employees and new businesses to the city.
The commission heard the proposal at their caucus meeting Tuesday night, and while at least one city commissioner, Tim Acri, and city staff members were in favor of the proposal, other commissioners were skeptical. The proposal was placed on the regular agenda for the legislative meeting next week, meaning the commission will engage in more discussion on the matter before casting a final vote.
Specifically, the proposal calls for the production of nine video assets each for the city’s economic development department and human resources department. Costs would be split between the two departments and spread out between fiscal years 2025 and 2026.
Proposal documents put the cost of video production at $96,100, with the rest going towards hiring actors and extras for the videos, although those latter costs could be defrayed if the city recruited extras from existing staff members.
Commissioner Shannon Smith asked Economic Development Director Tom West and Human Resources Director Cindy Lewis, both of whom presented the proposal, to explain what they hoped to accomplish with the videos. Lewis touted the proposal as a means of reaching markets the city had been unable to reach in the past.
“Individuals are using social media more than they ever have: Instagram, Facebook,” Lewis said. “I’m actually aging out of that group, as my daughter, a 15-year-old, attests to often. So, we want to make sure that we are utilizing our recruiting efforts to the fullest to get the top talent that we can get here at the city.”
Some of the commissioners were not immediately convinced of the plan’s worthiness, however.
“Is there any data out there that shows that this is a good investment, as far as the return on investment from this pays off in the long run?” Commissioner James Toebbe said, “Because – looking at this as a taxpayer of the city – I would have concerns.”
West did not have any data on the product’s potential return on investment handy at the meeting, but he said he would speak with Spotted Yeti to furnish some numbers.
Later, West reiterated the sentiment Lewis had expressed but as it related to attracting businesses.
“Several of the companies that we’ve attracted to Covington – and I’ll throw DBL Law out there – their decision to move to Covington was really driven by employees’ desire to be in an environment like this,” West said, “and if we can promote our quality of place and give someone a feel in 30 seconds of what Covington is like, we have captured their attention.”
Commissioner Tim Downing wondered if the number of videos was excessive. Had they considered producing fewer videos to control costs?
“The big costs are in the production of the entire thing,” West said. Once the production was complete, videos could be edited and repurposed for different platforms and formats, West continued. The proposal did not include any paid advertising the city might employ. Instead, the videos would be placed on platforms where it didn’t cost anything to post them (i.e. social media).
A slew of resignation requests from workers throughout the city preceded the proposal presentation. The commission will vote to approve them next week. West and Lewis pointed out that the resignations freed up some money, but Toebbe wondered if it would be better to redirect the funds to keep the workers the city already had.
“How could this money be better used to keep the talent that we have?” Toebbe asked. “Because that seems to be what’s happening. There’s a lot of resignations in here, and I think my opinion is that money can be served better to keep the ones we have.”
“I think the solution to it is both/and,” Lewis said. “So, not only are we going to recruit, but it’s also taking a look at the climate that we have currently within our employee population.”
Smith was complimentary of Spotted Yeti and its work but did not explicitly support the proposal. She said she’d be curious to see how the work might be deployed. Acri was the only commissioner who unambiguously thought it was a good idea.
“I am 100% in favor of this,” Acri said. “I’ve been doing brownfield development my whole life. And videos and something that you can email to a mass group of developers stands out quickly and allows them to see what we have to offer.”
Mayor Ron Washington agreed with Smith that seeing a concept or some of Spotted Yeti’s earlier work might help inform the commission’s decision.
“I don’t want to spoil it all,” West said before laughing and adding that it was “cool stuff.”
Washington laughed in kind but said, “This is trust, but verify. So, we need to verify.”
You can read Spotted Yeti’s full proposal below.