HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMDAC MeetingJuneFINAL
Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council
The Antlers Lodge
Thursday, June 21, 2012
8:30 -11:30am
VLMDAC Members Present : Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart); Susie Tjossem (Vail
Town Council); Adam Sutner (Vail Resorts); Pete Hayda, Vice Chair (Rock Resorts); John
Dawsey, Treasurer (CME); Mia Vlaar (East West Resorts); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation
District); Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs)
Absent: Skip Thurnauer
Also Present : Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Kathleen Halloran (Town of Vail ); Sybill
Navas (CSE); Joyce Gedelman -Viers (CSE); Rayla Kundolf (CSE): Bobby Bank (CSE); Sonny
Kersteins (CSE); Cali Adkisson (CSE); Barry Davis (CSE); Jill Lammers (Vail Valley
Partnership); Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership); Jessica Stevens (Vail Va lley
Partnership); Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing); Kris tin Yantis (MYPR); Haley McNeil
(MYPR); Alana Smith (Larkspur); Margaret Rogers (Vail Town Council); Rob LeVine
(Antlers); Suzanne Silverthorne (Town of Vail); Steven Long (Vail Mountain Marketing);
S arah Franke (Group 970); Trent Brotherton (CTO); Brian Smith (Booyah!); Michael
Holton (VVMC); Missy Johnson (Highline); Ellen Miller; Pam Stenmark; Ir i na Litviakou
(TOV); Shawna Topor (East West Partners); Bettina Medina (Slifer Designs)
Via Phone: Katie Holdsworth (Booyah!)
Meeting called to order at 8:33 am.
1. May Financials - Kathleen Halloran
a. April collections were over $400,000, which puts us at about 11% higher
than this time last year. W e are a t about 68% percent of the year.
b. I will be giving Kel li a projection of revenue to use for 2013 budgeting . It
won’t be as high as it was this year.
c. We are coming into budget season.
d. Kelli - We went back to Council with the supplemental request this year .
W e will take a look at that .
2. Approval of minutes from M ay 17 VLMDAC meeting.
Motion to accept minutes/Mia Vlaar. S econded /Laurie Mullen.
3. Restaurant Group Report – Alana Smith
a. Alana - T hank you for letting us be here today . The Restaurant Group has
met three times since April. N orm ally , there are anywhere be tween 12 to
20 restaurants at the meetings . Our m ost recent meeting was on June 11 .
i. We have been focusing on certain topics and questions. See
handout.
ii. Answers and discussion to some of the questions.
1) We think as many event s we can have are good .
2) Oktoberfest or the Farmer’s M arket should not be considered
signature culina r y events .
3) Oktoberfest m ight be more effective if there was only one
event instead of two .
4) Gourme t on Gore is a signatur e event.
5) Vail Rest aurant Month is really well marketed. It ’s easy for
restaurants to participate because there are so few attendees.
The re is a strong feeling that if it were shorter, it might be
more effective. Maybe hold th e event for 10 days or 2 weeks.
Calling it Restaurant Month when other businesses are
highlighted might b e confusing. This event s hould still receive
the same amount of funding.
6) Taste of Vail should be the signature even t. I n its current state
it is not what it could be. The goal of Taste of Vail sh ould be to
focus on the restaurants in Vail. We don’t need to take it to
the scale of Aspen. We want to r eally highlight what we have
here. There are amazing things about this event but, the most
frustrations were about coordination and communication.
The re might be some structural difficulties t hat affect the
success of Taste of Vail. Of the 12 restau rants present at the
last meeting, we will give our full endorsement of this event if
we could meet with the Taste of V ail board to give our input.
We need to see that the gu est’s expectations are exceeded.
Pending fut ure changes, the Rest aurant Group will support the
T aste of V ail . The possibility of m eeting with the Taste of Vail
board was very well received and we look forward to
collaborating with them.
b. We really appreciate this opport unity to speak with all of you and for you
to take the time to listen to our feedback.
c. Beth - T hat report really excee ds our expectations. T hank you.
d. Rayla - About 8 years ago Gourmet on Gore was st arted as a L abor D ay
even t because there was nothing during that time. As for Restaurant
Month, you have to go to the producers and work with them . For Taste of
Vail, you need to talk to the producers as well.
e. Pete - Is there any opportunity f or us to star t working with you more about
Taste of V ail to really try to get this event to a national level ?
f. Kelli - I want to mention the timing of this event. Taste of Vail is in April
and VLMDAC does not market during that time .
g. Beth - One could argue Apri l is almost the shoulder season. It is a wea k
month .
h. Mi a - I think Pete makes a good point. I think this event needs to be when
it is .
i. Adam - We stumbled across research in summer and winter saying tha t
food is a big deal for guests. The long -term benefit to develop the
Restaurant brand and culture here in Vail and to bring that into our
identity is very important .
j. Susie - I t w as a Town of V a il initiative through the VEAC to bring the
restaurant community together. The restaurant group was formed to be
sort of an advi sory group for the CSE and VLMD. Your feedback was
fabulous. T hank you very much.
k. Kelli - W e need to talk about some next steps . What is the next st ep for the
CSE? Is it more appropriate f or the CSE t o put forth a strategy for the
Restaurant Group? W ould that be more important?
l. Sybill - T he street events that we have with food are universally successful .
It might be worth sitting down with the CSE and the Restaurant Group to
explain and clarify why eve nts are where they are, how these events
evolve d , the politics behind certain e vents and why the location of events
is important.
m. Beth - I would recommend th at the CSE attend the next Restaurant Group.
I encourage everyone to take a fresh look at these events.
n. Margaret - H ave Oktoberfest during one weekend at both locations. One
big event mig h t create cooperation instead of competition .
o. Chris - G et ting caug ht up in the politics w ould be a really slippery slope.
We should work for what is best for everyone . That is the way to go .
p. Sybill - T he CSE is charged with varying the locations of events.
q. Ch ris - L osing the positive momentum we have now would be a shame .
r. Alana - W e are ver y pleased with where we are now. W e have a pretty
cohesive group . We would like the CSE to attend our next meeting.
4. Joint Meeting with CSE
a. Strategic A lignment - See slide.
b. Summer 2012 strategies - see slide
1) We are telling people more often and communicating all of the
reasons to come to V ail.
2) We use Vail R esorts email data base on a monthly basis .
c. Successes - W e got tog e ther with the partners and brainstor med about
what we thought went well.
1) Kelli - The C ouncil came to us and wanted to know the ROI on all
these events being fund ed . There will be a report put out about
that . The T own of V ail has made streamlining the calendar a
priority. W e have been strivin g for this for years .
2) Sybill - T he permits are looking like they are going to be done in the
next three to four weeks. There are only so many people in the IT
dep artmen t. It has really turned into a lot bigger project than we
previously thought .
3) Maybe ther e needs to be additional meetings with event
producers to coordinate marketing and event s .
4) Mtrips - T he TEVA weekend was up 10%. The weekend of August
11 th is up. T he fo llowing weekend when the Gran Fo ndo is taking
place , is up as well .
5) Adam - To ugh Mudder weekend was up 20% this year in occupancy
in Vail . I n Vail , we benefited more .
6) Beth - W e are working on getting a similar event .
7) Ch r is - W e are working on bringing in any number of events.
8) Krist i n - W e have experienced that sometimes the message of the
event producer does not seem to trickle down to the various
contractors. W orking more one on one with that would help .
9) Beth - I think the cooper ative spirit has been excellent. T hank you
to everyone.
d. Cha llenges and Opp ortunitie s.
1) Do we need events every weekend ? See slide .
2) Beth - The public survey came back saying 80%+ of people
recognize events are economically important to the town.
3) Rayl a - We do things every weekend. T he middle of the week is
more challenging. When people are here o n the ir summer vacation ,
they are usually here for the whole week. Doing something during
th e week would be great for restaurants, r etail and hotels.
4) Pete - I think we need a n iconic fall event .
5) Chris - The event nam e of the music group coming this fall is called
Season of Song. Two to three thousand people are expected to
attend. T here will be a number of concerts throughout the town.
T here is an educational component as well. They do this type of
event in LA and Nas hv ille and here it is an offshoot of those events.
6) Beth - I s that the only scheduled event during that time?
7) Kelli –We have put the producers of all the September events in
contact with each other to really encourage them to work together
and make this tim e great .
8) Pete - I f you combine this event with the Restaurant Group you
could really make this an iconic event .
9) Kelli - A ll of the wheels are in motion to make sure this is a great
event. W e will do everything we can to make sure it goes well .
10) Sybill - It als o must be noted that this is a ticketed event .
11) John – I n terms of the volume , we have to balance that with
available resources. The feedback we are getting is really
important. O ver time , we want to align different things like
culinary and music . I think this is something that could really make
us stand out.
12) Chris - Looking at the efforts of the ACE init iative, the funding
structure they discussed is re ally important .
13) Meggen - It ’s important to really streamline the information on the
funding sources .
14) Kelli - T he way the process is set up right now is not really the best .
15) Sybill - Related to that issue, is follow -through. H ow do y ou write
up a contract with event producers when their funding is coming
from various sources ?
16) Meggen - Logo usage is tricky to control. For the ‘V ail like nothing
on Earth’ logo - when the CSE is not funding that event, do we
want this logo on that event? I am putting the question out there .
17) Kelli - We select the events we want to have use the logo. When an
event promoter uses the logo and doesn’t follow the appropriate
process, a problem arises .
18) Kelli - Adam has identified someone on his team to address the
issue of appropriate branding with events .
19) Rayla - Maybe it would help if we h ad a report on compliance with
marketing and logo usage brought to the CSE ?
20) Susie - T here have also b een some problems this year about
producers thinking they had approv al from the Forest Service, Vail
Resorts or the Town of Vail for their event. And , in fact, they did
not. We need to work on that.
21) Adam - I t’s the event producer’s responsibility to make sure they
know.
22) Sybill - I propose we ad d to the RFP the question of saying please
list the venues that you are planning to use.
23) Beth - It seems we all agree there are some issues around this .
e. ACE Update.
1) La urie - ACE is an initiative for a tax increase to create a dedicated
funding source for events. The survey showed that people were
not in favor of this. We learned a lot about events, funding, etc.
We are looking for direction from the Town Counci l as how to
proceed from here.
2) Rayla - I thi nk you should still pursue this. I t would avoid the
discrepancies between three different funding mechanisms. If one
funding mechanism w ere put into place, it would enable more
coordinated decisions .
3) Beth - W e foc used a little too much on the funding and not quite
enough discussio n on the process. We asked the Council on how to
continue and they bypassed . I t is really left to the ACE committee
to decide on how to continue .
4) Margaret - What we wanted you to do is g et the community on
board first. O nce there is a much broader sense of community
knowledge, then you go back and put the tax on the ballot. When
you have an uneducated community and the word “tax” comes up,
the answer is always “no.”
5) Pete - W hen it comes to lodging, I did not see a plan. This is going
to hit our guests. I f there is a great plan, then it might work. B ut , I
did not see this plan. This is my personal opinion.
6) Susie - We ran out of time to really tighten up the concept.
7) Kelli - T he re was no clear direction from Council .
8) Beth - There was no vote at the Council meeting , so it was not clear
the direction they want us to go.
9) Margaret - There were four people in favor. W e need to call up
Stan and tell him that .
10) Beth - We also need to addre ss h ow will th e Vail Golf Clubhouse be
license d.
11) Laurie - For the space at the golf course, there are a few options on
how that could be licensed. Like Donavan P avilion, you could do a
variety of events there.
12) Kelli – An Optional Premise L icense is an opti on. I t would be at the
discretion of the operator to turn off the license.
13) Beth - This is very complex. From a marketing standpoint, it a ffects
the variety of venues available to event producers .
14) Jamie - I c an’t speak to our stance on this. It will come dow n to a
discussion between the VRD board and the town council.
15) Beth - B y the time July 3 rd comes around , there will be a proposal in
front of Town Council. W hoever can be prese nt at this meeting,
please be there. I’ll draft a letter and send it to everyone. Sign it i f
you w ant. T hen I will send it on .
16) Marg aret - I t ’s helpful to the discussion to know the position of the
VLMD .
5. Colorado Tourism Presentation – Trent Brotherton
a. This office has really transformed in the past year.
b. The ‘Come to Life ’ campaign - This was the first time in 12 years a
campaign was tested. See slide.
c. Spring Summer Markets - I put together a comprehensive media kit, that
you all have, please contact me with any questions.
d. What really tested passionate ly about this campai gn was life and beauty.
We wanted to get that emotional heartstring and tug on it.
e. It has been a huge success.
f. There have been major changes to Colorado.com I t i s still importan t to
have a site to provide all the information. P eople also like to pick up the
phone and call.
g. On the website, we moved the na vigation to the top of the page. See slide
for more details.
h. We refined the hotels and l odg ing search .
i. Any business related to tourism can have a free listing .
j. Y ou can also pay more to add more information in your listing. Each
individual b usiness is responsible for adding their info to the site. People
can book direct to the property from this site .
k. We are going in a n ew direction for 2013 official state vacation guide.
P eopl e want to be i nspired. We are creating a flipbook concept. The first
40 pa ges will be photos, stories and bits of information. The map will be in
the middle of the book . When you flip it over, you will have all the
resources on how t o plan your trip to Col orado. We are also going to have
seasonal magazines summer and winter.
l. We are going to have a lot of advertising opportunities.
m. Beth - M aybe you can schedule something with Kelli to come back and talk
to us about advertising at a later time?
6. TOV Community Survey - Suzanne Silverthorne
a. We received a t otal of 677 response s.
b. I t hought I would go through some of the responses that might be of
particular interest to you.
c. Economic Impact of Events - See slide.
d. We have split the responses into two catego ries - residents and business
owner . For the business owners, there was a subtle shift this year. I went
through som e of the responses from the business o wners and I could not
find a trend in their responses.
e. Kelli - We will comb through th e responses agai n and se e what we can
glean from those responses.
f. Events Satisfaction Ratings - See slide.
g. Only 15% of responders identified themselves as business owners. We
need t o better understand why some business owners do not like events .
h. Sybill - I f I co uld make a guess, some business owners do not like specific
events because it affects their business negatively in some way.
i. Susie - Like the Restaurant Group is providing feedback, maybe we need a
group of retailers to provide feed back also ?
j. What is your favorite event in Vail? See slide.
k. Town Direction. See slide .
l. The b usiness owners’ score is a little lower than the residents score. There
were some concerns a b o ut the municipal site redevelopment.
m. Community Issues - See slide.
n. What one area is your highest priority? See slide.
o. There is m ore synergy between business owners and non -business owners
with this category .
p. Opinions - S ee slide .
q. Laurie - H ow are we this year in comparison to previous years?
r. Suzanne - W e will create a lis t to take back to R R C of things we want to
dissect more.
s. Kelli - I think overall, we are trending in the right direction.
t. Beth - Thank you. T his is all encouraging.
7. Digital Update - Booyah! (Brian Smith with Katie Holdsworth on the phone)
a. See Power Point for full details.
b. Our click -through rate is looking really healthy.
c. Display. Performance update .
d. Display. Banner Creative.
e. SEO On -site work. Content and Technical .
f. Offsite pro motion.
g. SEO Accomplishments.
h. SEO Keyword Rankings.
i. SEO Ke yword Traffic Drivers.
j. SEO O rganic Traffic .
k. John – A re there things that you have tried that haven’t worked?
l. Brian - W e try to stick to the things we know will work. Some challenges
we face involve some of the calendar issues.
m. Brian – T o get into the specif ics you really need to have a specific landing
page for condos, lodges, etc.
n. Br i an - E very visit doesn’t equate to a sale, but you are giving them the info
that they need.
o. Adam - I am start ing to see a pattern. I t ’s hard to say that things are not
working .
p. Beth - I s it fair to say that winter and summer are trending up the same ?
q. Adam - I t ’s fair to say that summer is trending up more steeply.
r. Jamie – The Vail Golf Club is having busiest summer ever. Y outh
programming is tracking up as well.
8. Hike & Bike App – Steve n Long (Vail Marketing )
a. App and map have been created d ue to hiking and biking results in
research studies. See slides for examples of map functionality.
b. The app is now available in the I -phone app store .
c. Kelli - W e have had a second round of u pgrades. W e are looking at how we
can enhance it .
d. Steve n - W e have taken out all the refe re nces to the 50 th , in order to make
it more sustainable .
9. PR update - Kristin Yantis (MYPR)
a. In Market Media Visits - S ee slide .
b. General Update - See slide.
c. F rank Johnson and Vail Mountain L o dge and Spa hosted us for lunch. I t
was great.
d. We are looking to do a cruiser crawl at some point .
e. At TBEX, there were over 700 bl oggers at the event in keystone. I had 20%
that I targeted . I m et with almost all of them .
f. We ha ve a strong relationship with the CTO PR team.
g. We have not FAM -ed the CTO PR team. S o , we are going to have them
come up and visit.
h. Kelli - F or Vail America Days, we have a new event promoter this year. I t ’s
going to be a very different event. For the f ireworks, we still have the go
ahead from the fire chief .
i. Beth - It’s a complicated issue. W e don’t want to seem insensitive to the
fire ban.
j. Susie - The fireworks are non -combustible. W e took the extra steps to
bring those here . That message is important to get out.
k. Kristin - T he coverage is up in the amoun t of space that Vail gets in articles.
Our strategy was to t ake up more ‘real estate’ in articles. W e have been
able to accomplish that.
10. Asset I nventory Status – Vail Valley Partners hip (Chris Romer)
a. With the M ojo M an cancellation, there was more money put into the
budget.
b. The proposal is to create a more comprehensive document showing all
TOV assets and to create an electronic format that is easily accessible .
c. People would be able t o use it for various needs .
d. Kelli - I t is really a marketing tool.
e. Chris - We are asking for $23 ,500 for this effort.
Motion to allocate $23,500 to support this effort/Susie Tjossem. Seconded/A dam
Sutner. All in favor. P assed unanimously.
f. Beth - W hen can we expect to receiv e this?
g. Chris - You can expect to see it by October. I t’s a big project.
11. Mexico update - SITE (Meggen Kirkham)
a. Mexico Sales/PR Mission - See slide .
b. Kristi n - Haley went down to Mexico City. W e had a media luncheon .
c. Mexico Wholesale/PR FAMs - See slide.
i. I t was a huge success, they really enjoyed themselves
ii. Kristin - We have our Mexican FAM trip coming in on Saturday. W e
have a lot of activities lined up for that.
d. M exico SEO/Paid search - Booyah! See slide .
e. Mexico Appro ved 2012 Tactics - See slide.
i. Our efforts are making an impact. There is opportunity t o more
dir ectly market to our wholesalers. T here are a lot of things to
consider for next year .
f. Krist i n - W e would like to pull in some of the local partners who also targ et
Mexico and get their input as well.
g. Laurie - D o we have a way to track how we are doing in this market?
h. Adam - I think we could put together a relatively low cost survey .
i. Meggen - T he summer brochure is out in Spanish. A nything that we can do
or translat e into Spanish, goes a long way .
12. Other B usiness
a. Kelli - There is a joint meeting sch eduled with this group and the Economic
C ouncil. I f there are specific topics you would like to co ver, please let me
know. Meggen and I will work to pull together content.
b. The US F orest S ervice is soliciting comments on proposed activities on Vail
M ountain for the summer. I think i t would be good to send an email
supporting these efforts .
c. Adam - T he vision of all our activit ies is very green. We are staying t rue to
the bill, creating jobs and staying in line with the Vail brand. We are going
to be B eta testing for all the resorts. Next summer there will be some
modest addit ions.
Motion to adjourn/L aurie Mullen. Seconded/Ja mie Gunion .
Meeting adjourned at 11:49 am.
13. Next Meeting:
a. July 19, 2012. 8:30 -11:00am , The Antlers Lodge.