Dukes County sponsors commercial video promotion

Dukes County has contracted with a Rochester, New York marketing company to produce a series of video vignettes about Island towns and businesses to appear on the county website , according to a letter on county stationary sent to many local businesses earlier this month.

The company, CGI Communications, uses the official letter from Dukes County manager Russell Smith as an introduction to local business owners.

"The County of Dukes is excited to announce the launch of a new program that we feel will present our Island in a new and informative way," writes Mr. Smith in the letter. "We have entered into a three-year agreement with CGI Communications to produce a series of streaming online videos highlighting all our county has to offer its residents, visitors, and businesses. These informational videos are produced at no cost to the towns or the county."

CGI Communications charges a fee to local businesses that appear in the program, according to company executive Meghan Hoffman, and also sells advertising that appears with the video.

"We are going to be filming a series of videos that we're putting on the county's official government website," Ms. Hoffman said in a brief phone conversation Monday. "It is a sponsorship program; there is a fee for the businesses to be featured in the program."

Ms. Hoffman said she needed to take another call and would call back. She did not call back, or return subsequent phone messages from The Times.

CGI Communications describes itself as the leading online marketing provider in the country.

In a letter reminding one local business of a scheduled meeting with a local representative of CGI Communications, Ms. Hoffman described the venture as a community project.

"She will be coming by to introduce the new community project that Dukes County and the Chamber of Commerce have just launched, geared toward visitors and inbound residents," Ms. Hoffman wrote in the letter. "We will be featuring a select few businesses from each town and have thus far had an excellent response. We are meeting with Edgartown National Bank, Thorncraft [sic] Inn, Martha's Vineyard Mortgage, Martha's Vineyard Hospital, Island Realty, Dockside Inn, among others. I know Erica is very eager to present the program to you! As promised, I have attached the letter of support written by County Manager, Russel [sic] Smith, that will futher [sic] explain the program."

Mark Luce, manager of the Dockside Inn in Oak Bluffs, said the company made an initial contact with him.

A Sales Letter for Your Mailing List

Start by placing a small classified ad in one of your local newspapers. You should place your ad in a weekend or Sunday paper that will reach as many people as possible, and of course, do everything you can to keep your costs as low as possible. How ever, do not skimp on your advertising budget. To be successful – to make as much money as possible with your idea – you’ll need to reach as many people as you can afford, and as often as you can.

Advanced business correspondence

The Sales Promotion Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976

An expostulatory letter to a certain right honourable person upon his late promotion

The AMA handbook of business letters

Christmas 2004 Promotion Letter