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. . . To refresh the Pure Michigan online resource for visitors, tourism official in Lansing will use expertise from 1,300 miles to the south.
Lindsay VanHulle of Crain's Detroit Business, reports on the imported talent:
The state’s Pure Michigan tourism website is getting an overhaul — with help from a Florida-based marketing company.
Miles Media Group, based in Sarasota, Fla., on Tuesday won a nearly $400,000 contract to rebuild Michigan.org from the Michigan Strategic Fund, a division of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The $389,690, one-year contract includes four annual renewal options. . . .
The first year of the contract is entirely for the redesign, according to the MEDC. The state included one-year contract options worth $141,240 each for four additional years for site hosting and maintenance.
The Sarasota team's proposal beat 12 unidentified Michigan bidders and nine from elsewhere, VanHulle adds from the capital (ours, not Florida's). "MEDC officials did not disclose whether Miles Media Group was the lowest bidder," Crain's says.
Some revenue does come back to Michigan because a Brighton marketing agency, TwoSix Digital, serves as a subcontractor, according to Crain's.
In 2013, "the bid awarded to produce the Pure Michigan Travel Guide went to an Iowa publishing company at a cost higher than the two bids submitted from Michigan companies," Crain's said that year in an article by Chris Gautz, VanHulle's predecessor in Lansing.
This time, the successful bidder specializes in "working with state tourism offices, convention & visitors bureaus, hotels and other organizations in the tourism industry to create forward thinking online, mobile, email and print content marketing solutions.," its LinkedIn page says.
