So about $3.8 million is planned to be spent on the new online ad strategy for PEI Tourism. Let's see where the money will go and then look at a PEI alternative.
My bet is that the agency will chew up most of the $3.8 million in "Creative" and in Placement. My bet is that at least 90% of the money will leave PEI. Next year we would start all over again.
Also remember that ads compared to real stories and engagement and participation have very little impact.
So what it we did it on PEI and followed the new rules as I laid out in the prior post. Who would do the work?
- The Robertson Library is uniquely equipped to be a major player. They can in effect be the new media school and resource for anyone who wants to learn more and do more on line. They have the best digitization gear in Canada and they have made it all accessible to the public.
- Over time, by using this project and the library we could have thousands of young Islanders at the top end of the skills required for doing well in the digital age. The project feeds our young!
- The Robertson Library is also home to Islandora, arguably the best back end for a site that will involve in the end a huge data base of pictures, videos, stories, maps etc. By taking this route we build our capacity
- There is some of the best design and technical talent in the world here on PEI - silverorange and Reinvented come to mind. Peter at Reinvented put PEI on the map back in the 1.0 day. PEI had then the best site of its kind in the world. We could do this again and keep all the work here
If we went down this route - we would be building permanent capacity that would get better each successive year. Story builds on story - community grows like a garden - so then do the connections and the attachment.
As importantly - all the money we spend stays at home:
- We train thousands of young Islanders in to skills that will be essential - the new literacy
- We build technical capacity on PEI
- We succeed in our ulterior aim of getting more people to come here
- We improve the quality of our offering - for this approach seeks the truth - the better places will do better and the less good will have to improve or die - as it should be
So it's not too late to do the right and the best thing........
