Port discusses level of support for media campaign

COLFAX – On Thursday, May 21, Port of Whitman County staff presented a new media campaign from Northwest RiverPartners that is directed towards Generation Z and millennials. The staff is requesting support for this campaign from the commissioners to help the project move forward.

The new digital campaign is titled “Our Power is Water.” Ads for this campaign will run on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Viant Streaming and NPR podcasts until the beginning of August.

These ads will be directed towards the younger crowd across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

According to Northwest RiverPartners, its ad budget is $330,000. With this budget the goal is to reach roughly 600,000 and have approximately 24 million content views, including more than nine million completed video views.

Along with the already established ad budget, Northwest RiverPartners is asking additional funding of $500,000 from its members. This additional $500,000 would increase total view by roughly 40 percent and increase the audience by 33 percent.

“I like the idea of this campaign, but I wonder how thin are we being stretched for support,” said Port Commissioner Tom Kammerzell.

Port Executive Director Joe Poire added that with the lack of activity these past few months with port operations, the budget is well equipped.

Sarah Highfield, port communications director, said contributions to the $500,000 have already been submitted by the City of Richland, Port of Clarkston and Grant and Chelan counties.

“It's good to be apart of, but it's hard when we don't have any other guidelines on how close they are to the goal,” said Port Commissioner Kristine Meyer. “My max would be $10,000 with not having any other information.”

Kammerzell said that to be able to make an informed decision, the commissioners would need more information regarding other contributions to the campaign.

Currently, the general consensus from the port commissioners is to put forward $10,000, but they won't make a definite decision until there is an idea of what other counties and ports are contributing and how close Northwest RiverPartners is to its goal.