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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMDAC 1.13.12 FINAL 1 Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Meeting The Arrabelle 2pm – 5pm Friday, January 13, 2012 VLMDAC Members Present: Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs), Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District), Mia Vlaar (East West Resorts), Susie Tjossem (Vail Town Council), Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart), Adam Sutner (Vail Resorts), John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME), Pete Hayda, Vice Chair (Rock Resorts) Also Present: Sybill Navas (CSE), Joyce Gettleman (CSE), Cali Adkisson (CSE), Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing), Kristin Yantis (MYPR), Amy Schwelling (SITE Marketing), Chris Romer (VVP), Kelli McDonald (TOV), Jill Lammers (VVP), Suzanne Silverthorne (TOV) On the phone: Ilene Rapkin (iOpeners), Kellie Moen (Booyah!) ABSENT: Skip Thurnauer I. Introduction a. Meggen Kirkham- We wanted to give the board, per your request, a meeting to develop and expand on what we talked about during the previous meeting. The board felt we needed to expand more on the brand marketing matrix we presented at the last meeting. This is an open forum, strategy session for the entire board. II. High Level Review of Brand Research. See slide. a. Meggen- Packaging is driven by value. What components do we put in? b. John Dawsey- It’s important to do whatever will drive the most benefit. c. Kelli McDonald- From a PR standpoint and focusing on packaging, we have talked to the event promoters. They are lining up with individual hotels and letting the hotel lead the marketing efforts. d. Mia- There is a component that ties into money and branding. e. Kristin- Value is definitely high on the priority standpoint; we have some creative PR oriented packages. f. Chris- In regards to OTA, 27% of business is booked through online travel agencies. In the summer, we could be in that ballpark because there is a more a la carte nature of travel. g. Susie- People become leery of packaging, people want to be able to control exactly what they are getting h. Meggen - The individual properties can do this, but it is harder to do in for the destination in general. i. Key Findings, Vacation Profile. See slide. i. Meggen- We have found that guests are looking for and enjoy a lot of variety in vacation spots. 2 ii. Kelli- We have talked with the information centers to possibly expand their offerings, especially with the new center in Lionshead. iii. Beth- What is the direction of the new information center? iv. Kelli- We will talk about that on Thursday. We will discuss the voids, what we need, and what the VLDMAC would like to see in the center. v. Susie- This is an opportunity to really expand our reach. vi. Beth- Are there any negatives to having a physical location and welcome center? vii. Susie- There was a study done that found people want less time planning and more time doing. There is data that a physical location is a positive. viii. Kelli- How do we marry that center with the mountain center? We don’t want people to have to go to various different stops. j. Key Findings Regarding Brand Health. See slide. i. Meggen- Why are some of the reasons we are behind Aspen and Tahoe? We should be very proud of where we are with total brand awareness. ii. Adam- I was surprised that we were effectively number two. The brand in summer and winter is becoming effective. iii. Meggen- Vail has some room to improve from the conversion standpoint. k. Activity Profile Chart- See slide. i. Kelli- When talking about hiking, it is important to understand what different people consider hiking. l. Drivers of Destination Choice- See slide. i. Kelli- Clearly, we are driving the destination for Colorado guests with events. For people who are OOR, the events don’t necessarily drive the destination choice, with the exception of the Dance Festival and Bravo. ii. Beth- There is a lot of direct marketing on the front range towards the Colorado guest. What are the biggest drivers? iii. Meggen- Most are coming for the outdoor experience, but it is different for different people. iv. Pete- It is outdoors with family. That is important. v. Laurie- When we think about events, we have to be careful about generalizing. This is what makes it hard to market to Colorado vs. OOR guests. vi. Beth- In the last three years, there has been a tremendous swing to create more iconic events to bring people into town. The research tells us there are more important things that bring people here. Hiking is so prominent and the TOV and Vail Mountain do very little to promote hiking. We are not doing a very good job to meet the needs of the people who do come here for hiking, culinary or shopping experiences. 3 vii. John- Is there anything that tells us people are coming here just to hike? Or is it something people just do when they come here? viii. Mia- The events are what differentiate us from Aspen or Tahoe. ix. Beth- We are not emphasizing the experiences of culinary, hiking, or shopping. It doesn’t matter if we are exactly better or equal to Aspen, but when people come here, this research tells us that people want to do these things. We are not properly emphasizing these three things. We are not giving fair play to what is really important to people. m. Attribute Ratings- Vail CO Sort- See slide. i. Kelli- The CO visitor is able to return more often and see the new things year after year. ii. Meggen- The big takeaways are that in culinary we are neck and neck with Aspen. We rank much higher than Aspen for the family vacation. iii. Adam- I’d like to weigh in, after having done this exact methodology for winter. We should spend more for out of state marketing. The other takeaway is the culinary experience. We should shore up the whole hiking experience better and make it more accessible. The fact that people were rating us for culinary is important. I wonder if there is a bigger idea there. Should we audit our imagery? iv. Kristin- In New York, the photos blew media away. v. Adam- Could we do a national TV spot about culinary in the summer? vi. Beth- What is the messaging? How do we move forward, if we know these areas, how do we message that? vii. Kelli- The attributes are one thing and the messaging is another. viii. Meggen- It’s a lead message and a lead image. In the messaging we have woven in the hiking, culinary and shopping message. n. Recommendations from Research Company-See slide i. Dig deeper to see what a great family vacation means. ii. Working hard to keep families in our images. iii. Shift more dollars into Destination Marketing iv. More word of mouth advertising III. Continued Discussion a. Hiking i. Susie- We are so centrally located, we should be proud of what we have. ii. Pete- Does anyone know how many trail heads there are into a national forest that start in the TOV? iii. Beth- I think hiking is an opportunity and no one is taking advantage of it. iv. Susie- Over Christmas, locals went for hikes. It goes hand in hand with skiing. Its accessible and the town bus system takes you right there. 4 v. Beth- We need to concentrate on improving the experience and messaging about hiking. The TOV and Vail Mountain need to be our partners. With the culinary experience, we avoid visuals that give credit to specific establishments. We have to take the next step. In our imagery, we need to show those iconic restaurants and chefs. vi. Adam- A good, practical example of what we did in the winter was to increase family activities. We added new physical things and programs. We created new imagery that showcased those things. vii. Beth- We need a hiking map. Who would do that? viii. Sybill- In regards to the hiking map, the forest service had some problems with the marketing and promotion of hiking because of the impact it would make to the trails. ix. Adam- We could create an insider’s guide to hiking in the Vail Valley and put it on the website. x. Mia- The content exists on all of these hikes? xi. Beth- The maps need to say how you get to the trailheads. xii. Adam- Look at the example of parking. It was a problem two years ago and through communication the issue has gradually diffused itself. b. Vail Restaurant Month i. Mia- Does the idea of restaurant “month” make sense? The idea of a week might more sense. ii. Beth- Someone needs to call a meeting of all the restaurants in Vail. Make it an open forum to brainstorm. iii. Kristin- We talked about how to get this started. What are the next steps? iv. Ilene (on the phone): What are you trying to do with this culinary message? Are you trying to get Vail to work together? Are you trying to drive people to Vail? Or are you trying to create a really big buzz, like the food festival in Aspen? What are the budgets? What are the motivations for this? v. Beth- To summarize, culinary is something recognized by our visitors as important. vi. Ilene- It would be great to look to our imagery. It would be very helpful to explore this. vii. Beth- We need to understand what some of the restaurants are thinking. We need to get back to topic. c. Shopping i. Susie- This group can do a good job of educating the merchants that shopping is in the top three. ii. Beth- Someone should be getting the shop owners together. Hours are very important. We, as a marketing board, think the shopping experience needs to be expanded and improved. iii. Kelli- It needs to come from peer pressure. From the retail standpoint, there are different groups that have broken off and 5 formed their own merchant group. Even the restaurants say they think their business would be better if the shops stay open later. iv. Beth- Maybe we could prepare something that would be more user friendly for these groups. Our research tells us these are the most important things in Vail. Here are some ideas for increasing your revenue. What about the platinum service program? v. Chris- There are about 50 businesses that participate in this program. vi. Beth- This is such a major resource for my retail business. It is our recommendation that the retailers notice this program. vii. Susie- Maybe we can talk about this from a Town council perspective? It might help to show the benefits to the retailers. IV. Vail’s Brand Diagram- See Slide. a. Future Brand Direction- The intent of the Burke research was to see where the brand really resonates with our guests. b. Physical c. Cultural d. Emotional e. Kristin- Eagle County is one of the healthiest counties in the state, if not the nation. People want to connect with the Vail lifestyle. To look at these things from a PR perspective, we need proof points to make them come to life. f. Kelli- It is the visual that does it for people. How do we visualize this diagram? g. John- What are the social networks saying about us? h. Adam- There is a spirit and ethos here that should be differentiating. The beauty of Vail is that at anytime you come here, there is something to do. i. Laurie- I think these are two different discussions. One is about the media and the other is about the customer base. j. Kristin- The challenge I have is the proof points. k. Beth- I don’t believe we have nailed the explanation of what ‘health and wellness’ stands for. l. Mia- While you are here, you are really just trying to connect to your spouse, to your kids or to your friends. There has got to be that connection message. m. Meggen- Going back to the ‘emotional’ category, any suggestions or thoughts? n. Susie- ‘Connect, reconnect, rejuvenate and sanctuary.’ These are words that get talked about a lot, especially by the international guests. o. Beth- ‘Emotional’ is not the right word for that category. p. Kelli- We looked at labeling it ‘inspirational,’ but we didn’t want to get people into thinking of ‘spiritual.’ q. Susie- We have been trying to educate the Town Council. The words we use are very important. They want to hang dollars on each of these groups. r. Kelli- ‘Outdoor recreation’ instead of ‘physical?’ 6 s. Beth- We should get rid of the word ‘emotional’ and move the Farmer’s Market to ‘cultural’. t. Kelli-‘Well-being?’ A possible word for ‘emotional.’ u. Meggen- We will play around with the notion of ‘well-being.’ We started to put together a list of what is new. See slide. v. Beth- We have a lot of new construction. Our competitors do not. w. Chris- It is a bigger story. We need to go back four to five years and talk about what’s new during this time. x. Kristin- Keeping the momentum going. This is the messaging. V. Summer 2012 Calendar. See slide. a. Meggen- We have a lot going on. b. Beth- It would be good to have a version of this slide on the website. c. Meggen- Our ad for the winter Teva games publication will talk about what to do in the summer. d. Adam- Teva is geared towards outdoor adventure people. e. Beth- Should we be telling these people about the arts and cultural? f. Pete- Should we give this ad to Mojo Man for marketing? g. Beth- Are there other comparable events that would appeal to this group? h. Kelli- The Kids Adventure Race is another event. i. Beth- These layouts are not the right approach. I think the layouts should be different than anything we have seen so far. j. Adam- It should be a snapshot of summer in Vail. On the homepage there are three rotating hero images. This type of image conveys the brand in a single snapshot. k. Laurie- When do summer events become seen on the website? l. Kelli- We would like direction on upgrades and enhancements. m. Mia- Is there any reason you couldn’t hire someone to do the content sooner? n. Laurie- A lot of people are already thinking about what they are going to be doing this summer. o. Beth- It is simple to talk about, but can we get it done? p. Sybill- We are way behind in how we present our summer calendar. q. Beth- Someone needs to give Adam the calendar and he will put it online. r. Adam- I can give it to staff and it could be loaded next week. s. Kelli- We will get that going. t. Beth- And the ad for the Teva games? u. Meggen- We are clear that we will target the adventure audience. We are a little unclear about the layout. v. Kelli- We will keep the winter brand, look and feel. We will work with Adam and come back with a design. w. Beth- I don’t want it to look like a newspaper ad. I don’t like the calendar look. x. Kelli- We have good direction to move on this. VI. Conclusion a. Beth- We have continuously touched on a few things we want to recommend to the Town Council. Some of us have expressed that we 7 should not shy away from highlighting places that deserve to be noted by name. b. Pete- I will talk to Ilene, about the length of Vail Restaurant Month. c. Chris- I think the restaurant community needs to weigh in on what they want. d. Pete- We could bookend a restaurant week with the National Association of Music Manufacturers in September. e. Sybill- On Ilene’s behalf, I think one of the challenges she has is that not all restaurants participate. f. Chris- Couldn’t you request that the funding be only for one week? g. Sybill- The CSE did encourage her to do one big kick-off event. h. Susie- What is her vehicle for reaching out? i. Beth- It’s a formula problem. The formula is not quite right. We have to relieve the pressure on any one restaurant that they have to carry the event. This needs to be revisited. Meeting adjourned at 4:50.