Evocities regional living campaign to discuss future as Wagga puts hold on funds

In April, Wagga councillors voted to put their participation in the 'Evocities' campaign on hold for the next financial year while the $80,000 cost was reviewed.

"We are questioning whether the results are attracting people to rural and regional areas in a way that is value for money," Wagga mayor Greg Conkey said at the time.

Armidale has also left Evocities, which was originally created to advertise living in one of seven NSW regional cities, and Orange has only committed to remain for another 12 months.

Evocities chairman and Albury City mayor Kevin Mack told The Daily Advertiser that the remaining member councils would meet in Sydney on Thursday for a regular scheduled meeting.

Cr Mack said the 12-month strategic meeting would discuss "what the model looks like moving forward on less money".

"The issue with Wagga and Armidale are two separate issues but we move on," he said.

"If it becomes an issue for them, it's not necessarily an issue for us because we see value in the product.

"We believe it does drive our visitation, our relocators and it certainly does drive financial outcomes and benefits."

Evocities founding chairman and Tamworth mayor Col Murray told The Northern Daily Leader that it would be a big call to scrap the program after millions of dollars worth of council investment over the last decade.

Cr Mack said it would be challenging for Wagga to get the same level of exposure in the Sydney advertising market with just an $80,000 budget with any other organisation.

"You would spend $80,000 just in marketing with your local newspaper," he said.

"But that's a choice they can make but we are looking at making the product work more efficiently, looking at ways at understand where the opportunities are.

"We are talking with the government about further funding to promote the regions; we don't see the absence of the other two cities as being a negative, we see it more so as an opportunity to revisit what we are doing."

Cr Mack said Wagga had "absolutely" seen a return on its investment in Evocities via new residents and businesses.

One of the criticisms that Wagga City staff reported to councillors was around an Evocities video and radio campaign in Sydney with an expectation the 40 advertisements "will be viewed over 2.2 million times".

"Unfortunately there is no further data available that demonstrates the direct link of Evocities campaigns and people relocating," the report to Wagga councillors stated.

Cr Mack said the Sydney meeting would address how Evocities could improve the "metrics" it provided to member councils to demonstrate which of its activities were successful.

"We believe that we have demonstrated a strong case for our product," he said.

"In terms of them understanding those metrics, we have done presentations to Wagga, we have done presentations to other councils.

"Maybe we need to say 'what are the metrics that they do understand that quantifies that spend?'"

Cr Mack said it was sometimes difficult for older councillors who did not grow up with the internet in their lives to understand how to measure the success of digital advertising and social media 'influencers'.

"It's a difficult proposition to explain the Baby Boomer generation," he said.

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