{"id":31833,"date":"2019-04-11T16:07:54","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T20:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=31833"},"modified":"2019-04-22T17:26:28","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T21:26:28","slug":"andrew-meader-helps-bring-film-companies-to-washington-county-for-location-shoots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/04\/andrew-meader-helps-bring-film-companies-to-washington-county-for-location-shoots\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Meader Helps Bring Film Companies To Washington County For Location Shoots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Andrew Meader, left, of 8 of Eight Strategies, with Film Festival Director Chad Rabinovitz.
Courtesy 8 of Eight Strategies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a corrected version from 4\/11\/19.<\/i><\/p>\n

By Susan E. Campbell
\nAndrew Meader has spent the past two years on a mission to promote tourism and increase visitation in Washington County.
\nSo far there has been a quantifiable increase in traffic and dollars spent while in the county, but Meader will not take all the credit.
\nHe is part of a triad of professionals working with the governor\u2019s office and the local economic development agency to build awareness of, and bring industry into, the area where Meader grew up and has spent much of his career.
\n\u201cI sit on the Economic Development Council for the Capital region and got to know Laura Oswald, director for economic development for Washington County,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were involved in a lot of meetings and often talked about tourism.\u201d
\nOswald told Meader she was always looking for firms like his to promote the county. His company, 8 of Eight Strategies LLC, offers marketing strategy, business consulting, and project management to help clients reach their full potential.
\n\u201cI threw my hat in the ring,\u201d said Meader. \u201cMy primary role is to formulate a marketing plan and to oversee strategy and outreach.\u201d
\nHis firm partners with black dog DESIGNS for graphics and a dedicated web site. The third in the group, Mannix Marketing, is responsible for social media and publishing content on local sites, he said.
\nThe three have contracted with Washington County and report to Oswald. Their budget is derived from Washington County funds, state occupancy tax, and I Love New York, an Empire State Development program that has promoted tourism for decades, according to Meader.
\nMeader said he was familiar with Washington County before but now knows a lot more about the area. He is a graduate of Lake George High School and attended Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. After college he spent two years with Up With People and then settled in Hawaii for 10 years.
\n\u201cBut I missed the seasons and my folks,\u201d Meader said. \u201cThe Glens Falls area is a different kind of paradise.\u201d
\nReturning to New York, he took a position at Six Flags as director of corporate alliances and sold sponsorships in that capacity. Going back out on his own as a consultant five years later in 2016 was something that he said \u201cjust evolved.\u201d
\n\u201cI was working with the Adirondack outlets buying media and then consulting for Park Theater, and was accustomed to producing events all around the country,\u201d he said. \u201cBy early 2017 I had started a business, 8 of Eight Strategies LLC, at 174 Glen St. downtown.\u201d
\nMeader said he is the eighth of eight children and his business name is a nod to his mother, who put all eight children through college.
\n\u201cOften people will say, what is there to do in Washington County?\u201d he said. \u201cWe are working to rebrand how people think about a tourism business by highlighting what\u2019s already there \u2013 apple picking, craft breweries, music, theater, sports, the county fair, and much more.\u201d
\nThe first part of last year Meader spent developing a new brand, \u201cSee. Taste. Explore.\u201d\u00a0 His focus has been on highlighting what is unique and authentic about the area.
\n\u201cSee the art, culture and rich history Washington County has to offer,\u201d Meader said. \u201cTaste local brews and farm-to-table products of an agriculturally rich region. Explore the outdoors paddling along the Battenkill or biking or hiking around the city.\u201d
\nHe also catalogued all the assets Washington County offers to tourists and residents and started to count web site views for those assets. These numbers would provide a baseline for measuring success of the group\u2019s rebranding efforts.
\n\u201cAirbnb and Home Away are easy metrics and we are seeing a dramatic 40 percent increase in the number of bookings and the number of nights stayed,\u201d Meader said.
\nThere were an encouraging one million impressions on the refreshed official tourism web site www.washingtoncounty.fun<\/a>, Meader said, and 70 percent of them were from outside the county.
\nThe group also released a video about antiquing in Washington County \u201cfrom Whitehall to Eagle Bridge and everyplace in between,\u201d he said. The video ran on washingtoncounty.fun, Facebook and YouTube and garnered 17,000 views.
\n\u201cThese numbers show that we are doing what we said we could do,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difficult part is tracking how much money people spend while on their visits.\u201d
\nFilm is an aspect of Meader\u2019s experience that he is enjoying seeing \u201cgrow exponentially\u201d in Washington County and that can be directly measured in dollars and cents.
\n\u201cWhen searching New York for a location for filming, people were asking the Governor\u2019s Film Office and Empire Economic Development questions about shooting and those agencies could not give the answers,\u201d he said.
\nBut Meader could.
\nThe demand for locations prompted him to establish the Adirondack Film Commission, an independent non-profit organization, in July 2018.<\/span> As commissioner, Meader is charged with promoting film, television and video production in the greater Glens Falls\/Lake George area, which includes Washington and Warren counties.
\n\u201cThere are unbelievable things to shoot in Washington County,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has the industrial spaces, the agricultural areas, the cities, and the historic spaces. All the infrastructure is in place.\u201d
\nWhile Washington County is up against other locations in the state, \u201cWe are a new option,\u201d Meader said.
\nThere have been three features films since Meader started courting directors and location scouts, he said. “Radium Girls” was shot in 2016, “Spy Intervention” in 2017, and a film called “Viscus” in 2018.
\n\u201cThere are many projects in the pipeline and even one or two will infuse money into the community,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cMoney is spent on hotels, catering, extras, car rentals, hardware and supplies, and location fees.\u201d
\n\u201cSince expenses are reported back to the Governor\u2019s Film Office for a tax credit, we can track the economic impact locally, which could be $15,000 up to $100,000 per day,\u201d said Meader.
\nMeader said he is enjoying the entrepreneurial aspects of his role in the community, which he said incorporates not only marketing but also business development and economic development.
\n\u201cI do think of myself as an entrepreneur when I help other businesses by contributing or providing an idea that helps them reach their full potential,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI have found a niche I\u2019m good at,\u201d said Meader. \u201cStarting your own business and figuring out how to make ends meet can be a challenge, but I\u2019m glad I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a corrected version from 4\/11\/19. By Susan E. Campbell Andrew Meader has spent the past two years on a mission to promote tourism and increase visitation in Washington County. So far there has been a quantifiable increase in traffic and dollars spent while in the county, but Meader will not take all the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":31834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nAndrew Meader Helps Bring Film Companies To Washington County For Location Shoots - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/04\/andrew-meader-helps-bring-film-companies-to-washington-county-for-location-shoots\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Andrew Meader Helps Bring Film Companies To Washington County For Location Shoots - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a corrected version from 4\/11\/19. 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