Ovando highlighted in Montana tourism commercial

To the surprise of many Ovando residents, Montana's 2018 Community of the Year found itself highlighted in a new commercial promoting tourism in the state.

A new 30-second commercial called "Montana: Discover the Moment" features shots of the town and local businesses as a cars pulls into town and stops at the Blackfoot Commercial Company, before a couple heads out to do some exploring on their bikes.

Word of the commercial reached Ovando by way of Couer D'alene, where it was spotted by Ovando native Kalene Travis while she was watching House Hunters on HGTV.

Travis shared a video of the commercial, taken as it ran on her TV, on Facebook, where it caught the attention of Kathy Schoendoerfer, owner of the Blackfoot Angler (and unofficial town spokesperson).

"Here was this commercial on HGTV and it was the 2019 Visit Montana commercial. Here we were basically highlighted in it," she said. "I just about fell off my chair."

Schonedoerfer contacted the tourism office for links to the video, which wasn't readily showing up in Google or YouTube searches.

She said she recalled seeing the camera crew and a guy flying a drone in town last summer, but admitted she wasn't sure at the time what it was they were doing. She said the small size of the new video cameras used for the shoot had her wondering if it might not just be someone's school project, while others speculated the crew might have been filming a car commercial.

Fred Valiton said he knew at the time what the filming was for. Aside from the aerial shot showing downtown Ovando, most of the images in town were shot over a four-hour period in and around his business, the Blackfoot Commercial Company. Valiton said they spent about an hour-and-a-half inside his business, just to get the right shot out through his store window. Given the amount of time they spent, he confessed to being surprised the commercial only featured the town briefly.

"I thought it would be more of Ovando," he said, but noted it's definitely a good deal for the community regardless. "We got exposure and it didn't cost us anything."

Plus, he said the crew all bought Ovando hats and T-shirts as they left.

The commercial is part of a Montana Tourism office effort that focuses on the #montanamoment social media campaign and encourages prospective visitors to "Discover Your Montana Moment." The promotion includes commercials and episodes on the MontanaTV YouTube channel that prompts visitors to Explore the Moment, Seek the Moment, Treasure the Moment and, of course, Discover the Moment in Montana.

Schoendoerfer suspects Ovando and the surrounding area was highlighted as a result of being awarded the Community of the Year title by the Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development last year.

"They wanted to highlight cycling and fishing and hiking and everything, and that's what we got the award for," she said. "It's really cool that this commercial is being shown all over the United States. It doesn't say 'and here's Ovando!' but we're super stoked about it."