HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMD May FINAL 1
Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Vail Marriott
Sun Down Room
8:30 -11:15 am
VLMDAC Members Present : Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart); Susie Tjossem (Vail
Town Council); Skip Thurnauer; Pete Hayda, Vice Chair (Rock Resorts); Mia Vlaar (East
West Resorts); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District)
Absent: Adam Sutner (Vail Resorts); John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME); Beth Slifer, Chair
(Slifer Designs)
Also Present : Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Kathleen Halloran (Town o f Vail); Chris
Romer (Vail Valley Partnership); Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership); Kristina Johnson
(Vail Valley Partnership); Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing); Kristin Yantis (MYPR); Brian
Rodine (Vail Mountain Marketing); Sybill Navas (CSE); Meredith Richards (Bravo!); Amy
Schwelling (SITE); Haley McNeil (MYPR); Rob LeVine (Vail Symposium); John Stone (Vail
Symposium); Kellie Moen (Booyah!); Alby Segal (Vail Symposium); Liana Carlson (Vail
Symposium); Alanis Smith (Larkspur); Jenn Bruno (CSE); Bobb y B ank (CSE); Emily
McCormack (Hula Communications)
Via Phone : Katie Holdsworth (Booyah!)
The m eeting was called to order at 8:35 am.
I. April Financials - Ka thleen Halloran.
a. The collections are d own 18%. This doe s not mean lodging sales are
down 18%.
b. We b u dgeted to be down 6%.
c. Kelli - Y ou are not expecting us to adjust our budget , correct?
d. Kathleen - No, not at this time .
II. Approval of Minutes from the April 26 VLMDAC meetin g: Upon motion duly
made and seconded, it was unanimously resolved to approve t he meeting
minutes of April 26, 2012 as presented. Motioned/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/Laurie
Mullen. Passed unanimously.
III. Living At Your Peak Marketing P lan - Vail Symposium
a. First, we w ant to thank all of you for your support a nd funding.
b. The f ront p age of the handout is the print ad. Our website went live last
Saturday .
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c. Rob goes through the home page of the website .
d. Rob - What sets us apart is our custom programming.
e. Susie - H ave you thought of adding a public component to all of this ?
f. Rob - We have tho ught a lot about that. I think a blog component will
definitely become available .
g. Pete - W ould you consider doing some sort of health fair in a public area
to appeal to a broader audience ?
h. John - A fair is definitely on the radar for next year .
i. Alby - W e are going to try t o do a public event on Thursday. W e are
looking to kick it off with something very public.
j. Pete - There is a restaur ant group being led by Matt from Sweet Basil. I s
there a way to work with that group?
k. Alby - W e are working wi th I -Openers and Restaurant M onth .
l. John - T here will be a large print pre sence in a variety of magazines and
locally in the Vail Daily. W e also have an online presence. We have an
aggressive PR program going . We plan on profiling speakers. W e have a
testimonial from the g overnor’s office. We are involved with local
organizationsAandAwe’reAhaving launch parties in the Denver area as well.
m. Alby - T he strategy is that we will work in concentric circles. We have
ambassadors in certain cities trying to get participants. We are working
with a few large corporate networks. Those networks are spreading the
word across their companies. One of our team members is focused on
having personal trainers talk to their clients. W e are also working with 24
Hour F itness. Our goal is to have t his event sold out by July 30.
n. John - W e are hoping to get a nati onal media presence to come to Vail
during the event . We can have 550 total participants for this year. The
awareness piece will really be spread out nationally.
o. Pete - Y our goal is to create an annual event during this time of the year? I
wish you guys the best.
p. Rob - W e hope it ’s not just an annual event, but really a cornerstone of
what we are trying to do with health and wellness. T he quality of
pre senters is really mind -boggling. T he viral , word o f mouth is going to be
enormous.
q. Pete - I applaud you guys taking this on. I t could really be a n iconic event
for Vail. Do you have sponsor opportunities or are you set on sponsors ?
r. John - W e have me t our sponsorship goals . When a person register s, they
will register as a full -time participant . Then we wi ll send them an interest
survey. After we receive that, an event concierge will call and go through
their personal schedule .
s. Kelli - S peaking on behalf of the VLMD AC , will m embers of the advisory
coun cil have an opportunity t o go to some of these events ?
t. John - Definitely. S ome of the events have a very limited seating, but
other events will be avail able for a much larger audience. T he smal ler
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events will work on a first -come , first -serve ba sis. We are challenging
each of our speakers to make it interactive in some way.
u. Mia - The website Spa F inder might be a nice vehicle for you. I t is used by
a lot of the people you would want to be attending this event .
IV. CSE Update - Sybill Navas
a. For the Fou rth of July this year, the pa rade will not be that different. O ne
of the reasons we are working with a new producer this year is because
we want to keep people in town. T here will be a be er garden set up with
two bands. Because of the probability of a fir e ban on the Fourth, the
CSE allocated an additional $15,000 for close proximity fireworks . These
will be s et off somewhere in the village. We are trying to be
environmentally conscious, so a big fireworks display will probably not be
happening.
b. Kelli - I w ill send you a link to show you what these displays look like . T hey
are pretty spectacular .
c. Laurie - Is there a chance that V a i l is going to be one of the only places in
the area that will have fireworks ?
d. Sybill - IAdon’tAknowAwhatA vonAisAdoing.ATheirAfirew orks are ove r a lake, so
I would assume they would still be able to do fireworks .
e. Kelli - We are working with Suzanne to get the wor d out that this year the
fireworks are still going on , but in a different location . This year will j ust
be a different kind o f show. T he fireworks vendor is coming out over
Memorial Day weekend and we are going to see a test .
f. Jenn - T his was something we felt we needed to make a decision on. T his
also gives families a reason to stay in the village .
g. Kelli - We have to let people kn ow that this year is going to be a different
experience. O ur charge is to get the word out to people.
h. Pete - If it ’s in the Solaris P laza, i s there a music component after? W hat
time are the fireworks over ?
i. Sybil l - W e h ave things scheduled until 10pm. Beca use of the M ojo Man
cancellation we had $60,000 returned to us. Every event producer I have
talked to said they are going to apply for additional funds. Unfortunately ,
because of the structure of the CSE , th ese funds need to be spent in 2012.
W e a re lookin g at something around T hanksgiving or the beginning of the
ski season.
j. Kelli - There is a vacancy on the CSE. I f you know anyone who would be a
good member to the CSE , please ask them to apply.
V. Web site presentation - Vail Mountain Marketing, Brian Ro dine
a. We will go over a few slides. S o far , o ur visits are up from last year. O ur
traffic is up, which is good news .
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b. Vai l.com Page breakdown - see slide. W e are getting a lot of looks into
mountain cams and mountain specifics. W hen we get closer to an event,
there are a lot more looks on that event ’s page .
c. Lodging revenue is pretty tepid. The summer customer usually waits until
the last minute to book .
d. We set up a package for Tough M udder. T here are a lot of people who
are coming in and B eaver C reek is sold o ut. S o , Vail is getting the
overflow .
e. Our website gives a brief overview of the event and t hen directs people
to the event site. P eople , in general, want more things a la carte. T hey
want to choose their own lodging .
f. Mia - F rom a PR perspective, we need to get the Fo urth of July message
out there. This year it is going to be different .
g. Kelli - I t might be worth putting the link up on the website to show the
fireworks as well.
h. Pete - I t would be good to put a flyer in all the hotels .
i. Mia - T he most important t hing is that people know they have to come
into town to see the fireworks .
j. Kelli - W e are spending $35,000 on fireworks.
k. Skip - I n a season where not many communities will be able to have
fireworks, we have taken the ext ra steps to still have them.
l. Jenn - And this is a very family friendly event in Vail Village .
m. Brian - For Vail d ining, we are working through all of that. Vail.com is not
really set up to be a dining site .
n. Mia - C an we promote dining specials ?
o. Brian - It is not really the website ’sAjobAtoAfocus on the specifics of each
restaur ant. M ainly , it ’s just to promote the whole experience in Vail and
helpApeopleAgetAtoAtheArestaurant’sAw ebsite.AIt’sAaAmassiveAundertakingAto
stay on top of the restaurant information.
p. Mia - It is important, especially in the of fseason, to let people know there
are a lot of wonderful things to do for a lot cheaper.
q. Pete - A ny updates on the hiking app ?
r. Brian - I t’sAaAworkAinAprogress . Right now it is in the approval process .
s. Laurie - Kelli , how are we doing with the printed hiki ng/biking piece?
t. Kelli - O ur goal is to have the printed piece by the Te v a G ames .
u. Susie - I suggest we use the 4 th of J uly parade to promote the new hiking
and biking map. It could be a float or people handing out the maps during
the parade .
VI. PR Update - MYPR, Kristen Yantis
a. In the last few months, we have been doing a lot of in -market media
visits. See slide .
b. I am v ery happy to have Haley McNeil on board. S he is my new account
coordinator .
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c. In March , we were in Dallas for the Mavericks game and one -on -on es. I t
was a great turn out .
d. For our second N ew Y ork visit, we were on a $5 ,000 budget. W e were
able to do that trip for half. We had a great meeting with the Wall S t reet
Journal.
e. We have s ome long leads from that trip. We met with a woman from
Travel and Leisure. O ne of their most visited pages is their deals page. We
are going to work on possible deals for the fall.
f. For the Denver event - see slide. There was a big focus on the KEEN Kids
Adventure R ace. Thi s was one of my favorite events. Kids came and we
had a gondola that w as actually a photo booth. I n the back ground was a
picture of Vail. We met with Flair, a new magazine. They are hoping to
come up and do a fashion shoot here. W e recommended Jenn and Luca
as the mountain fashion experts.
g. Kelli - It wa s a great event. I t was a lot easier to engage with the media.
W e had a good size group, but not so many people that you could not
talk to everyone.
h. Laurie - H aving partners like Walking Mountains was a great thing. P eople
were excited about that.
i. Next we ek is a very busy we ek, I will be in SoCal a nd Haley will be in
Mexico City. W e continue to find w e get more leads from those one -on -
one events.
j. Laurie - I have a comment on the packaging. People never really buy the
package that you set up. B ut some people are looking for places to do
that. I think the VLMD need s to look for ways to provide guests with this
assistance.
k. Pet e - I think to build your own package works well. It has been successful
in Jackson H ole .
l. Laurie - F or fall and into next year, publication s are still looking for deals
to include on their pages.
m. Kelli - I would like to work more with the lodges on this.
n. Kristin - With Travel + Leisure, their deal s page is the most popular page.
People like to look. T hey might not exactly book the deal, but it get s the
phone to ring .
o. Mia - Y ou can really lean o n events to put things together. Y ou can put the
deal wi th the event and create a package. I t ’s something that gets peo ple
thinking about a number they can handle .
p. Kristin - It sounds like packages are some thing good to still have on our
radar.
q. On the Denver L ife magazine cover, thereAisAJack’sAphoto.AAT his shows you
the importance of this group ’s investment in Jack. Vail a nd Beaver Creek
are the feature. There is also a S olaris feature .
r. Our m edia coverage will all be catalogued on the website -
www.issuu.com . Please log onto this to see all the coverage.
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User name: VailSummer
Password: vlmdac
s. Go to My Library, there is a virtual magazine rack. Go to 2012, media
report. The h ighlight clips are in the front. We will post a big report right
before the meetings .
t. Vail is being considered in August , as the next dining place to go. We are
working with Food & Wine for this .
u. Travelocity has been working with the Today sh ow and it will showcase
Vail as one of the places to be for Memorial Day weekend .
v. Something new is the Harvest Dinner/Denver Media Event. This is where I
would like to spend the $2 ,500 extra from the New York trip. We are
looking at August 28 to highlight Vail ’sAchefs.AItAwillAbeAaAveryAtargetedA
event.
w. Skip - That looks like a nice opportunity to get a final kick for the fall .
x. For the Macaroni Meetup, w e are working to meet with them. I t seems
like their expectations were a little different than what we had previously
thought.
y. Kelli - H aving the correct info rmation when booking these big groups is
really important. W hen things go direct ly to a property, there needs to be
communication ab out what their expectations are. The example of the
Estee Lauder group th at came at the end of April. Maybe the VVP can
help with that ?
z. Kristin - For the Macaroni Meetup, if you know of anyone who would be a
good presenter in the community, please let me know.
aa. Mia - Fresh Approach at the schools might be good for them .
bb. Meredith - W as there any discussion about culture at the Denver event ?
cc. Kristin - Y es, we talked about everything.
dd. Susie - The TOV spends a lot of money to support the Alpine Gardens,
how is that venue being highlighted?
ee. Kristin - We do highlight the gardens. We weave in images of the gardens
into a lot of our media efforts .
ff. Meggen - W e have included images of our gardens in the Mexico City
collateral .
VII. Calendars - SITE
a. Summer Master calendar.
1) The summe r gondola does not start until J une 8 th . W e are making
that poi nt to the concierges.
2) Pete - A re you hitting the reservation centers? Vail/BC reservations
will be a good place to go.
3) Chris - A re we doing a summer lodging kick off meeting? That is a
perfect distribution channel for what Pete is talking about .
4) Brian - Ye s , the email about that will go out soon .
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5) Kelli - It would be good to get the media calendar to the event
producers .
b. Calendar of Marketing Efforts
1) Meggen - We are working on getting some packages on the Colorado
& Co. programming on KUSA . Satchele sent the T eva spot last week,
so that will be on air soon. It will be followed by our music spot and
then the Bravo spot will roll out after that. The Outdoor E levation ad
is out. All the media is running and is out there.
c. Laurie - R egarding the calendars,Aisn’tAthe TOV doing something differ ent?
d. Kelli - Y es, we are hoping to put to gether a master calendar online. We
are hoping t o h ave this done by July . It will be more inclusive of the
activities that are happening .
VIII. Online Media update - Booyah!
a. Kellie - We are scheduled to launch next week.
b. Display - Banner Creative. See slide.
c. Katie (on the phone)- T he banners focus a lot on hiking, dining and
relaxation. For the Discover Vail banner, the idea is to showcase all the
new things people might not be aware of. The Experience Vail banner
goes over a variety of mountain images, hiking, shopping and dining.
These are the four main banners. T here will be five banners total.
d. Pete - W h e re did you get your fourth of July info?
e. Kelli e - W e d on’tAtypicallyAdoAthatAforAtheAF o urth of July, but maybe this
year we should ?
f. Pete - E specially because of the day it falls on this year .
g. Katie - We can do a Fourth of July banner. T hat is no problem .
h. Media Strategy - see slide .
i. Media Partners - see slide.
1) Google - We are testing out sp ecial ty travel this summer to find an
upscale travel audience.
2) Adara - These are f lights that were booked on K ayak, United, Delta,
and US Airways. We are interested to see how this partner works for
us this summer .
3) Globetrotting - This is a mix of family luxury travel sites .
4) Media6 - P eople who share social engagements with people who
visit vail.com .
5) Rocketfuel - They are a very successful partner .
6) Google Display N etwork, You Tube, and DataXu.
j. Media Timeline - Planning on launching next Monday with Google and
M e dia 6 .
IX. Asset Inventory Update
a. Kelli - The C ou ncil has requested more updates. I am working with Kat to
update the content and talking to the VVP for a designed piece. W hat the
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council needs is more of a factual update on the inventory. It would be
al located out of our contingency budget.
b. Laurie - W ho uses this piece ?
c. Kelli - We developed it. T he partners - still use it as information to give to
groups we are trying to recruit here .
d. Laurie - It’s probably outdated frequently .
e. Kelli – I will come back to y ou all with the timeline and budget estimate at
the June meeting .
f. Mia - A re there guided hikes in Vail? We need to get the word out more
about this . IAliveAhereAandAIAdidn’tAevenAknowAthat.A
g. Kristin - W ith the new app, we are going to do a hiking/biking focu sed
press release .
h. Kelli - W e can get that on the website once we get the information .
X. Other business
a. Chris – Everyone has a copy of the 2012 Summer TOV Intercept Survey .
Vail Mountain Marke t i n g and RRC have been coordinating from a guest
standpoint s ince both are conducting surveys this summer .
b. Pete - H ow many people for the VLMD survey ?
c. Chris - A bout 1200 . W e are also wo rking with the CO tourism board to
have a road show. It is tentatively scheduled for June 12 -13. W e will
email that out .
d. Pete - Where does the survey take place ?
e. Chris - Everywhere , all over town
f. Kelli - I t ’s not longer than the winter survey because they have had
success with that length . I f we find there are a lot of n egative answer s to
the impacts of construction , it ’s better for us t o go back and say internally
that we need to do a better job of buttoning up things before the guests
arrive for the summer season .
g. B obby - I am looking for feedback with the info rmation center. I f someone
goes on a hike, should we encourage them to post on Facebook? We
have the opportunity t o collect emails, but in the past I have be en told
not to use those emails. I am looking for direction from this group .
h. Laurie - We definitely could be doing a lot more with the positive
responses we receive from guests. Do we do something with these
emails?
i. Bobby - I have been told not t o use these emails in the past, but t he new
committee is telling me I should use these emails
j. Skip - I t would be beneficial to collect those emails.
k. Bobby - I f you want to tell K elli what y ou think , that would be helpful .
l. Kelli - C ollecting email addresses does have value. We could ask people if
they want to receive info rmation from the TO V .
m. Laurie - Maybe this top ic should be on the agenda for the Fall? T here is
no reason we should not be me ssaging summer guests.
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n. K e lli - A reminder that the next meeting is a joint meeting with the CSE.
The restaurant group has asked to make a presentation as well. T he main
topic of the meeting will be to hear from the CSE about their strategy for
2013 .
XI. A djournment. Motion to accept adjournment. Motioned/Laurie Mullen.
Seconded/Mia Vlaar . Passed unanimously. Meeting was adjourned at 11:23 am .
XII. Next Meeting
June 21, 8:30 – 11:00am, The Antlers Lodge
Joint meeting with the Commission on Special Events