The Park County Travel Council has authorized the hiring of a new brand content creator and coordinator with the hopes of saving money by trimming subcontractor expenses. The hire could save the council $280,000 a year, said Executive Director Ryan Hauck.

The council has been subcontracting photographers and videographers, sometimes upwards of $40,000 per contract, Hauck said. The new hire would be available on a full-time basis and the total cost to the council in the first year, including benefits and federal requirements, will be about $100,000 a year, he said during the December meeting at Yellowstone Regional Airport.

“A typical photo shoot that gets a professional photographer in here for anywhere between 200 to 300 very, very good edited assets that you can use for years to come typically cost anywhere between $30,000 to $40,000 per session,” he said in a follow-up interview.

Short form videos from a subcontractor can cost as much as $500 for 15 seconds to be used on social media like Facebook, Tik Tok and Instagram, he said.

“Hosting can get spendy fast. [Short form videos for marketing purposes] can be all the way up to like $500 per edited video and we do hundreds of those videos every single year,” he said.

The vote was nearly unanimous, with board member Ruffin Prevost being the only vote against the motion. Prevost wanted a deeper dive into the return on investment for the new employee prior to taking a vote.

“I’m not saying this position wouldn’t have a role and there wouldn’t be a benefit to it. I just don’t know that the return on investment in this position would give us more bang for our buck than investing that money on greater exposure of our existing assets,” he said.

Council member John Wetzel, who is also Powell mayor, said having a new employee would also be an advantage because they would be local, giving them a better understanding of Park County tourism assets, and available for in-house projects a subcontractor couldn’t do. He made the motion to authorize the new hire and chairperson Mike Darby seconded the motion. The motion was approved 9-1.

The Park County Travel Council is a Joint Powers Board comprised of 10 volunteer board members. Four members are appointed by Park County Commissioners, two by the Cody City Council, two by the Powell City Council and one by the Meeteetse City Council. A representative from the Wyoming Business Council’s Travel Commission is also on the board. The board meeting, open to the public, usually meets the third Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. in the boardroom at the PCTC office located at 1306 Sheridan Avenue.