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VLMDAC June MinutesPublic Notice Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Thursday, June 21, 2018 Grand View Room 8:30 – 11:30 AM Packet: https://bit.ly/2xQCVtP VLMDAC Members Present: Phil Metz (Vail Resorts) Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor) Jessie Klehfoth (VRD) Cindy Krieg (Doubletree) Skip Thurnauer Beth Slifer (Slifer Designs) Also Present: Mia Vlaar (Town of Vail) Laura Waniuk (Town of Vail) Carlie Smith (Town of Vail) Jessica Sweetin (Vail Resorts) Hannah Eflin (Vail Resorts) David Neff (Vail Resorts) Kristin Yantis (MYPR) Jennifer Viditz-Ward (Vail Resorts) Sandra Perrig-Holst (VVP) Anna Robinson (VVP) Chris Romer (VVP) Susan Proffitt (VVP) Jeff Strahl (Cactus) Ainslee Fortune (Cactus) Chris Cremer (Alterra Mountain Group) Ellie Bray (Vail Resorts Central Reservations) Matt Walsh (Vail Resorts Central Reservations) Gabe Shalley (Vail Resorts – EGE Air Alliance) Liz Campbell (Vail Snowsports Museum) Satchele Burns (Deadline Motion) Sidney Bonser AGENDA: - May 2018 Monthly Financial Report (5 minutes), Carlie Smith Tax revenue is up to $1.8M which is up from budget, but down YOY. Budgeted expenses are at 30%. - Approval of May 17, 2018 Minutes (5 minutes), Board Motion/Second/Pass (Laurie Mullen/Phil Metz/Unanimous) - Vail Verano Update (20 minutes), Kristin Yantis, Jennifer Viditz Ward, MYPR International Tactic Review: The Mexican family demographic is catching on – safety, kids camp options & direct flights appeal to them. Teen group coming to Vail in a few weeks. Panama and Columbia are emerging markets due to the COPA flight into Denver as well as Brazilians in Miami. See slides for details. Event Recap: “Vail Verano Warm Up” - Allowed access to Casa Barragan (exclusive, not always open to the public). Spinning/Yoga/Wellness/Etc. Dance Fest – see slides for details & photos. Good opportunities for branding & showing videos. Developing a package with Sebastian for Mexican families to come up for Dance Festival. Recap of La Teatreria event within the Dance Fest event. Also hosted a golf event (add-on) Review of social/general press coverage – see slides for details. Review of paid media – see slides for details. Discussion RE: is Sylvia exclusive to Vail? She is currently under contract, but we should make sure to keep her due to other multi-resort pass competition. Discussion RE: continued influence of political pressures. Does not seem to affect Vail guests to the same extent. Expect booking pace to pick up after their presidential election. - Vail Recreation District Update (15 minutes), Jessie Klehfoth VRD is excited to present offerings for the “families with older kids” demographic. Separate from the Town of Vail but work closely. (i.e. – owner vs, operator) Review of facilities – See slides for details. Review of Teen/Tween programming: Camp Vail sample schedule (choose your own adventure). VRD is a licensed day care center, which is a differentiator. Moved this summer to Golden Peak Children’s Center (school construction). Camp Eco Fun – work closely with Walking Mtns on this camp. Different topic each week. Extreme Camp Vail – older age range. Paddle boarding/rafting/go karting/etc. Pre-Kamp Vail is for the younger siblings. Mad Scientist Camp is also for tween age range. Staffing Spanish-speaking counselors to target the Mexico market. Sports Camps – taught by professional athletes and coaches. Review of sports camp offerings & pros – see slides for details. Mountain Bike Race Series – now seeing lots of guests competing. Now have a kids-only race in the series. This is becoming a high school sport offering. Trail Running Series – moved to Saturdays so guests can enjoy the weekend. Whitewater Race Series – good spectator event. Review of tournaments – see slides for details. Other things to do: skatepark, Imagination Station – expanding to art classes, virtual reality, etc. Vail Gymnastics Center – open teen gym on Mondays. Dobson Ice Arena – open skate & hockey/figure skate camps. Vail Tennis Center – clay is resurfaced every summer. Golden Peak Pickleball Center – newest offering! Vail Golf Club – approachable & family friendly. Kids Adventure Games coming up in August. Review of other demographics offerings (Active Professionals, Super Boomers) – see slides for details. Lots of adult camps offered. Discussion RE: hard to promote the camps because they sell out so fast. They are trying to respond by expanding their offerings. Try to add counselors if they are filling up. July and August will always be tough. Discussion RE: local vs. guest ratio? Jessie to follow up with data. Discussion RE: how are they integrating with Vail.com? Everything is on the VRD website, but they are currently working with Hannah (VR) to integrate into the Vail.com website. Discussion RE: Parking at the Golf Club. Complaints tend to come from locals, rather than destination. Town Council is going to look at the problem, as the amenity is taxpayer funded. Discussion RE: what is VRD comfortable promoting? What won’t be sold out? Discussion RE: how early can people book? Is there camp footage? Videos are very effective! First Monday of April is start of camp booking. Discussion RE: brochure – this is new. They are sending it to everyone on their list and distribute to all hotels. Discussion RE: golf greens. Lack of snow damaged many of the greens – staff is working around the clock to open all 18 holes with regulation greens by July 2nd. Board requested more data on participant types specifically guests versus locals in camps and programs. - EGE Airline Update (10 minutes), Gabe Shalley Review of Pacing – generally ahead, especially June. See slides for details. Competition is driving down pricing to capture locals market. Capacity is down in July/August due to aircraft change so that gap may even out. Review of “occupancy” – see slides for details. Airlines are booking further out, which is driving occupancy. Review of Booking Pace – see slides for details. Average booking timeframe is 60 days out and getting shorter. Review of summer origins – see slides for details. Dallas & Houston lead the pack. Discussion RE: what made last year a bad year? Airlines were holding out for higher revenue, which they have adjusted this year. Discussion RE: can we look at NY/Newark together? Review of competitive landscape – EGE is #5. There are no new routes this summer for anyone – instead they are adding more seats and more shoulder season service. Discussion RE: Steamboat is going to the ballot this year to vote on a tax to support minimum revenue guarantees for their airport to expand service. - Creative, Asset Capture, Digital Update (40 minutes), Cactus Digital media update through end of May – see slides for details. All stats are up YOY. New 8s videos are performing 20% above industry average. Event videos, canvas ads & Instagram stories are driving higher CTR. Discussion RE: inclusion of YOY stats when presenting the data. Summer 19 creative direction – more Vail-centric topics. Will keep rock-climbing as the aspirational component but will focus everything else in the resort/village. Script has been shortened. Looking to cast two local Vail families. Review of “mood boards” for each activity – see slides for creative. Next steps: casting, location scouting, preproduction meeting. Shoot in late July (weather pending). Discussion RE: are we capturing all new assets? Yes, that it the plan, especially with the focus on teen audience. - Retail Execution, CTO Email (15 minutes), Cactus Buy three nights, get the fourth free. Updated content, not placement. Review of revised social & video content – see slides for detail. Review of performance: very strong, especially the Mobile AI CTR (90% above average). See slides for details. Discussion RE: can we get a recommendation on what an appropriate budget reallocation would be in case it is needed later in the season? CO Tourism Office Email – new opportunity for 271K emails with open rate of 16 – 18%. Sends on July 3rd. Using this as a test to gauge value of engaging with CTO database. It is a summer message (as opposed to Fall) and includes a non-value, more all-encompassing CTA. Will report stats as they come in. Cactus should show digital results with year over year comparisons and retail as a percentage of overall spend for context. - Group Sales Update (20 minutes), VVP Destimetrics Occupancy – report came out yesterday. Have been watching the weekends pre/post July 4th and comparing to industry wide stats. We are down & so is the industry – this is what lead to the retail campaign & lodging offer. Bookings made in May were same YOY, but we lost ground on those particular weekends (which means guests are booking other dates). Those two weekends continue to be a concern. Breck is the only competitor that said they were close to last summer’s occupancy. Estimate for those weekends is 75% - 80% occupancy. Bottom line – it’s not us. Can we compare with the last time July 4th fell on a Wednesday? Best guess is that we are losing the in-state travelers – they might be taking the whole week off and going somewhere else. Review of macro-trends (state wide) – stats are strong both on spending and visitation. See slides for details. Review of group vs. leisure index stats. Of the 6 months that VVP group sales focuses on, 4 show that group business makes up a significant portion of visitors. Review of KPIs – see slides for details. One of every 3 leads sent converts. Discussion RE: makeup of groups – they run the gamut. Susan Proffitt – all data specific to CO. Has been doing group sales in CO market for 25 years. New accounts – trending up 30%. Expected to increase due to the Knowland software. Groups booked are up 25%. Review of vertical market mix – see slides for details. Sales efforts are shifting away from medical and over to corporate. Industry trends: overall spend is flat, rates are increasing, new hotels have limited meeting space. Spend more on safety/security. Want local food, community gift bags, unique experiences. Domestic business travel is down and conferences are downsizing. In a good market, hotels do not take multi-year contracts or are raising rates significantly. Review of key successes: see slides for details. Review of key challenges: Loss of large groups. Medical groups are under scrutiny for everything they spend, so Vail is too “high-profile.” FBLA outgrew the space (177% increase in attendees). CO Muni League - need to rotate the location around the state. Review of comp set conference offerings- see slides for details. Does not include the new Gaylord Resort and the Denver Convention Center remodel. Discussion RE: sharing this data with Town Council. Groups are looking for “all under one roof”. Good starting point would be 25 – 30k square feet. Keystone conference is 60k. Other trends: demand is outpacing supply (statewide), due to value driven options. Conference center data, especially competitive destinations should be refined and shared with Town Council. - Web, Email, and Social Update (10 minutes), Hannah Eflin Update on May email performance. Review of sent vs. upcoming. August/September emails will shift to winter, not summer. This is based on guest booking behaviors. Also deployed the same strategy for summer – summer sends began earlier than ever and will continue that trend. Discussion RE: is there opportunity to market both winter & summer in August/Sept? Rather than relying solely on VR emails, we need to find other databases to utilize to fill in need periods. Can we collect some information on resources to continue messaging for board retreat? Review of email results: see slides for details. Still testing the frequency & cadence for different audiences, so stats will continue to change as they get more efficient. Unsubscribe rate is down 75% YOY. Teen email CTR went up, open rate down slightly. Review of creative – see slides for details. Review of Summer Activity web migration. Functionality & flexibility is much better than previous format. Review of navigation flow – see slides for details. Flow is based on guests’ interests, rather than revenue driving vs. non. Discussion RE: seasonal transition? There shouldn’t be a transition, as the content lives year- round. Some change of imagery and video content. Navigation will stay in the same place year-round. All products are now bookable. No updates on sales yet, but can pull that data and include in future reports. Social update. Review of overall top performing posts (5/1 - 6/12) – see slides for details. Review of event content top performers – see slides for details. Review of family/teen top performers – see slides for details. Discussion RE: social channel is the most nimble medium. Test content on teen panel. Social video. Review of strategy and completed vs. upcoming. Sampling of the most successful videos. - Town Council July 3 Presentation (10 minutes), Cactus Slides included in packets. Goal is to keep the content very top line. KPIs, prospects, cadence, media allocations, creative (videos, social, print) and budget. Please send feedback by Thursday. Discussion RE: KPIs are different from the standard KPIs. Are the standard KPIs still relevant? Or should they be broader? - Other Business o July 19th meeting will be abbreviated – adjourn at 10am for board retreat. o Fireworks are still on for the time being. The call will be made closer to the date. - Adjournment Motion/Second/Pass (Skip Thurnauer/Laurie Mullen/Unanimous) - Upcoming Meetings: o VLMDAC Town Council Update, July 3, Time TBD o VLMDAC Meeting, July 19, 2018, 8:30 – 10:00AM, Grand View Room o NOTE: VLMDAC AUGUST MEETING NEW DATE & TIME (DUE TO COLORADO CLASSIC) THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2 – 4PM, GRAND VIEW ROOM