THE BALLOON MAN

Iowa fair's ads pay off

Despite the Omaha-area influx at the Iowa State Fair this year, overall attendance was down — not reaching the 1 million mark for the first time since 2001. The company that conducted the survey does not have 2009 Omaha-area attendance figures.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Andrew J. NelsonWORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Deep-fried Twinkies, live animal births and family fun in the Iowa sun are apparently strong draws to people in the Omaha area.The Iowa State Fair estimates that it drew nearly 150,000 visitors from the Omaha area to its 2010 fair. That would be about 15 percent of the 967,381 who attended the fair during its 11-day run in August.
That means the advertisements for the fair seen and heard all over Omaha this summer probably will return next year.
Iowa fair officials saw a prime opportunity to lure eastern Nebraskans to Des Moines this year with the move of the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island. The Nebraska fair relocated there after more than 100 years in Lincoln.
The Iowa State Fair ran advertisements in The World-Herald, on billboards and on metro-area television and radio stations.
The result? An online survey commissioned by the fair indicated that 17 percent of those living in the Omaha area attended the Iowa State Fair. Residents were surveyed in eight counties — five in eastern Nebraska and three in western Iowa.
“The research that we received certainly validated the advertising we were doing,” said Lori Chappell, marketing director for the fair. “We hope to continue to attract fairgoers from the Omaha market for years to come.”
Despite the Omaha-area influx, overall fair attendance was down — not reaching the 1 million mark for the first time since 2001. The survey company does not have 2009 Omaha-area attendance figures.Chappell stressed that Iowa fair officials are not trying to draw people away from the Nebraska State Fair. They hope many from eastern Nebraska will attend both fairs. Grand Island and Des Moines are about the same distance from Omaha.
“They had a fantastic year,” Chappell said. “So it was a win-win all around.”read more at:http://www.omaha.com/article/20101114/NEWS01/711149885/1013