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BRATTLEBORO -- Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jerry Goldberg will take his chances with two million eyeballs.
That's about how many people (one million, that is) who will look up at the giant screens in Times Square each day next week and see a new advertisement promoting tourism in Brattleboro after Goldberg penned a deal with "Horizon Travel Magazine," a publication of the Wall Street Journal.
As part of the chamber's deal with Horizon, a five-second ad for Brattleboro will flash over the Great White Way, 120 times, on two different screens, between Sept. 7 and Sept. 13.
The ads, which will coincide with a full-page ad in "Horizon Travel Magazine," are meant to draw more visitors to the southeastern corner of Vermont.
"We are always trying to tap the metropolitan market," Goldberg said. "Even if a tiny portion of the one million people who are going to see this thinks about Brattleboro that is a lot more than no one seeing it at all."
Horizon partners with ABC and MTV and the Brattleboro ad will run on the enormous screens for those two companies that tower over Times Square, on Broadway, in the heart of New York City.
When the Horizon representative called Goldberg to ask if the chamber wanted to advertise in the magazine, he was not sure the rates were in line with what the chamber was used to.
Then Goldberg heard about the Broadway tie-in and he was hooked.
He's
The five-second ad has four images of the town, including a shot of boats on the West River outside the Marina Restaurant, a panoramic view of Brattleboro from the top of the Brooks House and a photo of the Gazebo on the Common during a brilliant fall day.
The final photo shows Goldberg, standing near the new Interstate 91 sign he helped get back up after it was taken down during construction.
"I'm making my Broadway debut," said Goldberg, who used to live in New York and worked at CBS in marketing, communications, advertising and promotion.
The commercial is part of the chamber's larger efforts to continue promoting tourism to Brattleboro.
Following the Brooks House fire, and then Tropical Storm Irene, downtown Brattleboro has had its share of challenges, Goldberg said.
There are still empty storefronts in the Brooks House and Goldberg said it is important that the businesses that are still open know that the chamber is working to bring visitors to town.
"We have a great town and we think that people who visit will return because we are unique," he said. "We had a couple of major kicks to the gut last year and we have still not fully healed. I want Brattleboro talked about and kept in the hearts and minds of as many people as possible."
Howard Weiss-Tisman can be reached at hwtisman@reformer.com or at 802-254-2311 ext. 279.
