Watertown gives funding for Thompson Park marketing efforts

Jan. 27—WATERTOWN — More people are finding out about historic Thompson Park, thanks to a marketing campaign that has produced more than 500,000 hits in Google searches since the fall of 2021.

The marketing program is designed to attract more people to the city-owned park. On Thursday, the Watertown Local Development Corporation, also known as the Watertown Trust, was given a progress report how an $80,000 grant had helped to get the message out about the park.

With last year's $40,000 in funding and this year's funds, Watertown Trust officials think that the marketing program is getting the outcome that they thought it would.

"It definitely shows significant interest," said Watertown Trust CEO Donald W. Rutherford.

The folks at Zoo New York put together the marketing program. The city has never devoted a marketing campaign to the park.

The first year of the marketing campaign focused on gathering data on how many clicks the park receives on social media. The park also received 363,995 views on Instagram and has 499 followers on Facebook and reached 64,000 people since November 2021.

Larry Sorrel, the zoo's executive director, believes more people are going to the park as a result of the marketing program based on the number of people attending park and zoo events.

Kristina Friel, a part-time zoo employee, oversees the park's marketing program. She'll continue her work of gathering data and evidence of its effectiveness with the second half of the $80,000 grant this year.

She'll also look for other funding sources to fund the part-time position of park marketing coordinator.