Usually, Carole Ketterhagen doesn't believe in deviating from an advertising budget planned months in advance.
But the director of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau made an exception last month after submitting a winning bid in a silent auction.
Staged at the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus Foundation dinner in Washington, the auction offered deals on donated advertising from a variety of media.
Ketterhagen's winning $10,500 bid was good enough to buy $47,000 worth of advertising. As a result, full-page ads touting the virtues of the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area will appear in upcoming regional editions of Fortune and USA Today. The Fortune ad will be full-color and run in the Northeast while the black and white USA Today ad will be seen in the Midwest.
The $10,500, which is coming from hotel tax money that bankrolls the local tourist bureau, will pay for scholarships for students trying to get into the hospitality industry.
"I saw it as an extraordinary marketing opportunity," Ketterhagen explained.
