Kibbe on Marketing: The Primary Circus Brings More Than Peanuts

The 2012 New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Primary will be my fourth go-around in this extrordinary political event. My husband and I moved to the Granite State in January 2000 just in time for that contest. I have vivid memories of stopping into the Outback in Bedford, our apartment still full of wet boxes from the blizzard, to find the restaurant jammed to the rafters with everything from TV anchors, AP journalists, local newsies and even a few bonafide diners like us.

This latest Primary had me thinking about the ecomonic impact of the event. Analysts say it actually is no big deal in terms of actual dollars, but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate.

Our once-every-four-years media circus supports local businesses about as much as the average Laconia Bike Week, says the University of New Hampshire. UNH did a study several years ago on the impact of the 2000 Primary on the local economy (and I looked for more recent stats, but apparently there are none), and found the event’s total impact at that time was $264 million. When compared to the Leaf Peeper season, with 2011 estimates over nearly $1 billion, the Primary is chump change.

I suppose that’s an unfair comparision – the fall foliage season lasts longer (or does it?) and I don’t have more recent spending numbers for the Primary, but I think it means considerably more to the state.

Let’s start with the news media itself. Sure, they don’t linger to visit like actual tourists, but today we have a whole panoply of folks who call themselves “journalists” covering the event – from bloggers and hyperlocal writers to actual journos who write for actual media outlets to the folks who film the candidate for commercials and out-of-town campaign staffers. All these people are spending money at restaurants, bars, coffee shops, maybe hotels and even a few parking tickets. Each Primary, that number grows. More people, more money spent.

Then there’s visitors from nearby regions just over our borders who come up to see what all the fuss is about. They, too, eat, drink and otherwise make merry.

Perhaps most interesting are the people who are here for a short time or who only see us on TV – and remember something that inadvertantly slipped through. Perhaps they’ll think, “Gosh, what a beautiful state that is. What a cute coffee shop, the people seem so nice. That resort by that big lake is incredible. I think I’ll visit there again and stay this time.”

I wonder if anyone has cranked some numbers on how many visitors we get from folks whose first exposure to New Hampshire was from the Primary? The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office has said the Primary wasn’t created as a tourist event. Maybe there should be some thought given to that?

Cindy Kibbe, an editor for a New England business publication for nearly a decade, can be reached at cindykibbe@comcast.net.