Decatur hires full-time PR person, extends marketing campaign

Dec. 20 — The city of Decatur continues to adjust its public relations management with the hiring of a new communications specialist and the extension of its marketing campaign contract.

Mayor Kent Lawrence announced at this week’s City Council meeting that Carter Watkins will start Jan. 5 as the new communications specialist. Carter has been working under contract with the city since this summer.

Lawrence made the announcement along with the City Council’s approval of a one-year, $200,842 contract extension with Red Sage Communications Inc. for the “Positively Decatur” marketing campaign.

Watkins was Shoals bureau chief for WHNT-19 for 24 years before working in communications with the Florence City and Madison County school systems. Human Resources Director Richelle Sandlin said Watkins’ annual salary at her new job is $99,508.

The city has had a mix of communications management in recent years, including two part-time public relations managers, since specialist Emily Stewart left in 2022 after five years on the job. Former Mayor Tab Bowling hired a full-time communications specialist in May, but she left the position after less than a week on the job.

Lawrence, who was elected mayor on Aug. 26, said hiring a full-time public relations manager was a stated priority during his election campaign this summer.

“That was the first hire I wanted to make,” Lawrence said. “Luckily Carter was already there and doing a wonderful job for us, so we made it permanent now.”

In a written statement, Watkins said he is “grateful for the opportunity” to serve the city in this full-time role.

“I appreciate the trust Mayor Kent Lawrence has placed in me to lead the city’s internal and external communications and to help ensure our message is clear, accurate and timely for our residents, employees and partners,” Watkins said.

He said the new mayor “has been clear since day one about the direction he wants to take Decatur. His focus on transparency, fiscal accountability, strong neighborhoods and smart growth sets the tone for how we communicate and how we serve. My role is to help support that vision, tell the city’s story with honesty and pride, and work every day for the citizens of Decatur…”

The city previously employed Steve Garner’s Do It With You marketing company as an independent contractor to manage its social media presence. The city paid Garner’s company $1,300 a month, or $15,600 a year. Lawrence said Watkins will now take over all of the city’s social media outlets.

Owned by Ellen Didier, Red Sage is entering its fourth year of producing “Positively Decatur,” a storytelling initiative aimed at promoting the positive aspects of the city.

Didier said she thought the marketing initiative had been a success.

“I feel like we’re getting good responses from the community about the diversity of our stories,” Didier said. “Our community has been through a lot of tough things and then to be able to have something that people remember that we’re neighbors, that we’re good people that live in this community, that we love this community and that there’s a lot of really nice people here, it’s a good thing.”

The contract stipulates that Red Sage will hold quarterly meetings with stakeholders; do monthly video and digital storytelling, including one 90-second video per month with 1.65 hours of reviews; two blogs per month; paid social advertising (internal and external audiences); operate a social media management system; and make an electronic newsletter.

Didier said in his presentation at last week’s work session that the Positively Decatur campaign’s target audiences are residents, prospective residents, regional audiences from Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Washington, D.C., new graduates, retirees and public employees moving to Redstone Arsenal.

Since launching in April 2022, she reports the campaign has generated 45,000 website visits and more than 7 million impressions. Impressions are the total number of times a user sees an ad, video, image or search result on an online platform, whether or not they clicked through to the website. This has created a consistent positive sentiment of 93 to 97 percent year over year, Didier said.

According to Didier, the campaign created “much less negative engagement (while promoting) resident pride, positivity on advertising messages, new murals and fun things happening in Decatur, and more pushback in comments against negativity.” »

Their report says they saw 22,300 clicks on social ads and 22,600 clicks on Google ads. They created 84,200 engagements on Facebook, 16,800 likes on Instagram and 90,000 video views.

Red Sage runs targeted advertising campaigns on Google focused on general awareness and residential recruiting, including a “Why Live in Decatur” page; and targeting new graduates and young professionals aged 24 to 34; and the relocation of government.

The e-newsletter focuses on “Moving to Decatur”, “Activities in Decatur”, “Volunteering in Decatur”, “Working in Decatur” and “Networking in Decatur”.

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432