Marketing Gold Camp History
The program I developed to market gold camp history focused on raising desperately needed historic preservation funding for Cripple Creek, Colorado. It was driven by a number of for-profit partnerships that joined the city government, Cripple Creek Museum, Butte Opera House and a wide variety of casinos and other private businesses.
The Challenge
Serving as the city’s Marketing and Economic Development Director, I was tasked with solving several historic preservation, infrastructure and public services funding challenges.
The bad news was that many historic buildings were literally falling down. But, the good news was that the State of Colorado had recently voted to allow casino gaming in Cripple Creek. As a result, if sufficient casino patronage could be attracted to Cripple Creek’s remote mountain location, gaming tax revenue just might ignite a new gold rush to support historic preservation.
Research
A feasibility study indicated that 1) several casino organizations were interested in exploring Cripple Creek opportunities, and 2) several feeder markets had potential to support Cripple Creek casinos. However, those studies also indicated that there was currently little awareness of, nor interest in Cripple Creek, as a gaming destination.
Strategy
In response to these research findings, I created extensive public/private partnerships dedicated to preserving gold camp history. Partners included the City government, two dozen casinos, and several tourist attractions and nonprofit organizations. We produced an extensive calendar of special events and promoted them through extensive media partnerships in potential feeder markets.
Results
During campaign Year 1, Cripple Creek’s nonprofit marketing program attracted more than 100,000 visitors and casino patrons, and generated gaming tax funding for historic preservation estimated at $500,000.
Need A Little Help?
Please do contact me if your organization needs a little (or maybe a lot of) help taking your marketing campaign to the top of the Internet.
