Hutchinson ? Hoping to boost attendance by drawing more of the younger crowd, the Kansas State Fair is turning to a new pitchman.

At a weekend meeting, members of the fair board picked the Greteman Group as its advertising agency. The Wichita firm won out over Catalyst Creative Marketing of Hutchinson, the fair’s marketing arm for two decades.

“One of the goals the fair board gave us was to increase attendance,” said Beth Chapple, Greteman’s vice president and director of strategic marketing and new account acquisition. “We think that teenagers and young adults are our greatest opportunity for growth.

“Sometimes they don’t think the fair is very hip. Lots of peer pressure in that teen group. Maybe they think the fair’s kind of cheesy. Cost is a factor for them, and that carries over to young adults. So we’re going to target our messaging and the way we place that messaging to hit hard for those groups without the exclusion of adults and families.”

“We want people to sit back and say, ‘Wow. There’s something new and different at the fair, and I need to take another look at it,”‘ added Sonia Greteman, the agency owner.

The contract, not signed yet, is for $175,000, the same that Catalyst had last year.

Mike Gaiskill, a fair board member who served on the committee that recommended selection of Greteman, said the Wichita agency showed “an excitement and enthusiasm about the fair that we haven’t seen.”

That enthusiasm may be central to the fair’s survival, Gaiskill said.

“If this fair is going to flourish, if we’re going to increase attendance, it’s going to have to come from the younger people,” he said. “We want the older folks to continue to come, but we need to build on the younger people.”