With prestigious new museum, Arkansas seeks image overhaul

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- With the Nov. 11 opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the state of Arkansas is expanding its marketing to include national magazine subscribers from Atlanta to Austin.

A $300,000 one-time advertising buy will pitch Arkansas as a destination for arts and culture, while still promoting the state as a place for outdoor activities such as hiking and camping.

"We've been The Natural State for 25 years now," said Joe David Rice, Arkansas ' tourism director, referring to the state slogan. "We still think we're The Natural State, but we think we ought to be a natural for arts and entertainment, too."

Built by Wal-Mart heir Alice Walton, Crystal Bridges has gotten considerable national publicity since it opened. The museum opening is a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to promote Arkansas alongside the museum, Rice said.

The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism and the state Economic Development Commission have partnered with Crystal Bridges to promote the state in six national magazines: Elle Decor, Food & Wine, Forbes, Fortune, Real Simple and Town & Country.

The ads will be placed in April issues destined for 644,460 subscribers in nine cities: Atlanta, Austin, Texas, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Oklahoma City, St. Louis and Tulsa. Most of those subscribers, 187,500, live in Chicago.

The Arkansas ads won't appear in the magazine editions sold at newsstands.

The advertising campaign, called the 2012 Arkansas Arts and Culture Partnership, will include at least three full pages of advertising. Parks and Tourism, Economic Development and Crystal Bridges are each kicking in $100,000 to be represented.

Other partners could sign on by a Jan. 2 deadline.

Parks and Tourism has a $12 million annual advertising budget, Rice said.

"This is just money we might have spent in Texas Monthly or the St. Louis television stations," he said. "So we've just taken it and reallocated it."

The ads will encourage people to come for Crystal Bridges and see other Arkansas attractions such as state parks and the Civil War battlefields at Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, Rice said.

"What we're trying to do with this partnership is introduce some people to Arkansas who might never have considered coming to Arkansas," Rice said.

Joe Holmes, a spokesman for the Economic Development Commission, said the museum will help his agency lure companies to Arkansas.

"Crystal Bridges, it's not like opening up an amusement park," he said. "As image and quality of life go, this is the type of thing that could be a game-changer for Arkansas and really enhance our image."

Museum officials want visitors to consider Arkansas as not only The Natural State but also "The Cultural State," said Laura Jacobs, a spokesman for Crystal Bridges.

"We hope they will seek out Arkansas as a travel destination for both its natural and cultural resources," she said.

Karen Mullikin, an account supervisor at Little Rock's Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods advertising agency, which is working with Parks and Tourism, said the ads haven't been designed yet, but she hopes they'll lure visitors to Arkansas.

Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said he doesn't think the ad buy will dilute Arkansas' reputation as a place for hunting and fishing.