HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMDAC JulyVail Local Marketing District Advisory Council
Thursday, July 19, 2012
The Antlers
Caribou/Pronghorn Room
8:30 – 10:45 AM
VLMDAC Members Present : Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart); Susie Tjossem (Vail
Town Council); Skip Thurnauer; Pete Hayda, Vice Ch air (Rock Resorts); Mia Vlaar (East
West Resorts); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District); John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME);
Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs)
Absent: Adam Sutner (Vail Resorts)
Also Present : Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Kathleen Hallora n (Town of Vail); Chris
Romer (Vail Valley Partnership); Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership); Jessica Stevens
(Vail Valley Partnership); Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing); Haley NcNeil (MYPR); Sybill
Navas (CSE); Amy Schwelling (SITE); Haley McNeil (MYPR); Rob LeVine (Vail Symposium);
John Stone (Vail Symposium); Jenn Bruno (CSE); Joyce Gedelman -Viers (CSE); Steven
Long (Vail Mountain Marketing); Barry Davis (CSE); Michael Holton (VVMC); Katie
Holdsworth (Booyah!); Satchele Burns (Vail Mountain Marketing); Amy Parliament (RTP)
Via Phone: Kellie Moen (Booyah!)
Meeting called to order at 8:32 AM.
I. June Financials - Kathleen Halloran
a. The news is good. For this year , we are projected to reach $2.2 million in
lodging tax. This a llows for flexib ility for 2013. If you kept expenses the
same at $2.3 million , it would keep a fund balance of 37%.
b. Beth - T here was a time wh en we thought a fund balance of 25% would be
good. L et ’s be sure not to overlook some opportunity .
c. Kelli - W ould you be comfortable with a $2.3 million expense budget ,
Kathleen?
d. Kath leen - I would be comfortable with that .
e. Kelli - Tour of Vail Marketing Plan presented
f. Beth - D o you both recommend that we accept this plan ?
g. M otion to acc ept marketing plan as presented/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/Skip
Thurnauer . Passed unanimously
h. Kelli - There is an I -openers rec ommendation in the packet. They are
returning $2 ,600 to the VLMDAC.
II. Approval of minutes from June 21 VLMDAC meeting.
a. Motion to approve minutes/John Dawsey. Seconded/Jamie Gunion .
III. Year to Date results - All.
a. Kelli - Results to date: Occupancy - See slide .
i. W e are ahead of pace vs. last year on the books. W e continue
increasing occupancy .
ii. Vail is lagging slightly behind in average daily rate in summer .
iii. Kelli - W e would like t o discuss this with the hotels .
iv. Beth - H ow do we get the word to them ?
v. Chris - Our occupancy numbers are really very strong. W e have a
lot of inventory .
vi. Kelli - W e need to continue to take the leadership role and not be
afraid .
vii. Pete - We do have a lot of inventory and the group business is
pretty competitive .
viii. Kelli - Actual sales tax is pre tty even. B ut in lodging we are up .
ix. Beth - I n 2011 , we were up 11% over 2010 .
x. Kelli - Correct , for the year and for both winter and summer
seasons .
b. Parking Counts - W e had some challenges because of the constructio n
and equipment problems. We had the largest 4 th of J uly, since 2005 .
i. Kelli - O ur challenge last year was informing people of the new
express bus to Ford Park . Between Bravo and Dance, people are
starting to understand they can park in Lionshead and take the
express bus .
ii. Enplanements are down because total capacity has decreased.
iii. John - Frontier is look ing into daily flights for the fall .
c. Event Attendance - Estimated numbers for 2012. Weather and f ires may
have played a part in some lower numbers .
d. Group sales - See slide. Ch ris Romer .
i. Leads and conversions remain pretty stable.
ii. We had quite a few big programs in Feb ruary . This is a little
unusual because most o f our results tend to be Summer/F all
business .
iii. We have really put a focus behind medical meetings. This is a big
market and w e have just started to tap it. We are g oing to trade
shows and s tarting that effort with loc al outreach .
iv. For event recruiting, w e only included the new events. See slide .
v. John - The 2012 numbers look good. A ny comparisons to the 2007
numbers ?
vi. Chris - I don’t have that exact comparison, but I do know that 2012
was our best year .
vii. Skip - O n a national trend, is corporate travel changing ?
viii. Chris - It is changing. I ncent ive trips are changing. S maller groups
are coming and they are less likely to sign a contract long er out. It
is coming back, but it looks different.
e. Intercept study - See slide .
i. Kelli - W e are at a 77 net promoter score in the summer. And that
is great . In less than 5 years , we are getting closer to where the
mountain is in the winter .
ii. Beth - We nee d to pull out details like that and then emphasize
those numbers to the C ouncil. It would be great to put those
numbers in an article that Kristen writes for the paper.
iii. S usie - Ral f Garrison was talking about this. W e are ahead, but we
should not rest on o ur laurels. W e should ta ke this advantage and
go ahead.
iv. Mia - It is important to show that we are plotting along with the
goals.
v. Chris - At the tactic al level with the VLMDAC, each vendor is trying
to reach specific goals . I t ’s important to match the TOV goa ls also .
vi. Susie - I would suggest you go through it offline with An dy, prior to
presenting, so he can lead the conversation.
vii. Beth - Stealing market share? H e keeps asking about that. Do we
have numbers that are clear?
viii. Chris - A ll we have are the MTRips report s.
ix. Kelli - W e have the mountain community’s sales tax report, but it
is not as clean.
x. Skip - M aybe , just do a market share summary slide, which
includes hard and soft metrics ?
f. Public Relations - See slide . Kelli McDonald
i. If you have no t been on the web site , www.issuu.com , please
check it out.
ii. Key Messages are shifting .
iii. Upcoming Placements -See slide .
iv. Upcoming Activities - See slide .
g. Promotions - See slide. Meggen Kirkham
i.Front Range Print Media Overview - See slide .
h. Kelli - W e could look into having 800 numbers .
i. Meggen - We are going to talk about television spots. Satchele will
be here to talk about those.
j. Kelli - I t ’s hard to get much more reach on this. 95 is a b o ut the top
that you can get as far as reach.
h . VBCR Results - B ookings are all up .
i. Kelli - T hese numbers are not insignificant. I am not sure we know
why thes e numbers are up. W e will get more analyses from the
reservation a gents .
ii. Meggen - W e have been doing monthly meeting s with the
res ervation agents .
iii. Laurie - W e have chosen not to put 800 numbers and vail.com on a
lot of ads.
iv. Susie - C ons umers have changed their habits. T hey are going
online and book ing their own trips.
v. Mia - It is important to have these agents address issues for people
who have never been here and need someone to talk to.
vi. Meggen - Can you release the call reports? It’s the actual dialogue.
Stev en will you follow up with that?
vii. Pete - W hen we visit them, what do we talk about ?
viii. Meggen - We visit once a month. A t the beginning of the summer ,
it’s more o f an extensive training. It’s an overview o f what is new
for the summer.
ix. Pete - I s there something else we can do to find out how to better
utilize this chann el? I don’t know if anything would come out of it,
but it might be good for them .
x. Kelli - W hy don’t we have them be a part of the September
meeting? That’s a great idea Pete.
i . Mexico - See slide .
i. We are working on s pecific m etrics to track Mexico business.
There really is not a verifiable way we are tracking that now.
ii. Jamie - D uring our strategy session , it wo uld be helpful to bring J en
in.
iii. Susie - Are we ever going to go to a full translation on our
website? Most websites have the different flag s for different
languages. Y ou click on that flag and the whole website is
translated.
iv. John - I f you want to really a ppeal to that audience, we need to
look at the whole content, not just a direct translation.
v. Mia - T he call to a ction is completely different. O ur goal is to ge t
them to go to the wholesalers. I t’s a totally different animal.
j . Mexico - PR - See Slide
i. John - Is there an y real estate data on sales to L atin Americans?
ii. Pete - A re there any things with English c lasses being provided for
children?
iii. Susie - I n Telluride, they use the private school all summer long to
teach classes .
iv. Beth - T he VMS is always looking for things like this.
k . Booyah -Search and Display. See slide .
i. YoY Conversions - See slide 2012.
ii. Search Results - See slide.
iii. Conversions and CTR - S ee slide. In 2011 , the Vail Brand was #1.
T his year Vail lodging took precedence.
iv. Display results - S e e slide .
v. Up 34% on shopping cart entries.
vi. Cost vs. conversions - See slide.
vii. Landing Page Testing – Contin u ous A/B testing by creative . The
events landing page has the highest conversion rate .
viii. This is something we are always testing. I f we see something no t
working, we change it.
ix. Discover Vail has the highest AOV. Experience Vail has the highest
conversion rate .
x. The Fourth of J uly banner did really well. We will be looking at
doing a Labor D ay banner as well .
xi. Susie - ‘E xperience ’ and ‘D iscover ’ seem to be the stronger
messages people are responding to .
xii. Skip - C an we track, geographically, the responders? If we can, w e
want to be able to use that.
IV. TV Spots Discussion. Satchele Burns and Meggen Kirkham.
a. Video Results.
i. We have spent about $8 ,000 to test this. It has a great click
through rate, but it ’s not doing its job to convert orders. I wanted
to get some feedback from this group. Maybe we need a stronger
call to action on these videos?
ii. Meggen - W e are goi ng to work on a new summer spot to bump
up the logo.
iii. Pete - What is the purpose of the video in the winter ?
iv. Satchele - T he purpose of the video in the winter is to get people
to the website.
v. Beth - T h e CTR - does that show th at these videos are compelling?
vi. John - W e need t o look at these holistical ly . F or that additional
spend , are we getting an exponential inc rease in the CTR or
conversions? A ll of these play a different part .
vii. Kelli - Katie would like us to do more testing on this .
viii. Mia - Satchele is right. W e need images that are more in line with
th e winter images. Images t hat are just as exciting .
ix. Satchele - It is also important to pay attention to the static images
before the video starts .
x. Susie - W e need to pay attent ion to the holistic approach. T o me ,
it’s the younger audience who really watches t hese videos.
xi. Beth - W e need you to come back and do more work on this.
xii. Katie - W e are monitoring things very closely and reallocating
media dollars when necessary.
b . Website/Email - See slide.
i. During the email campaign, there wa s a glitch in the trackin g data.
W e were not able to track May .
ii. We are e mailing the winter guests for summer marketing .
iii. The open rate is very strong.
iv. Jamie - T he VR D is having an excelle nt summer. Golf is up 24%.
The Kids Adventure R ace sold out one month earlier this yea r.
v. Beth - A t the economic council meeting, there were a lot of
questions.
vi. Meggen - W e are overlaying a l ot of the messaging this summer
with brand spots and event messaging.
vii. Pete - It would be nice to see, for the cu linary, some comfort food
shots. What we have now focuses really on the gourmet.
viii. John - F or the food, maybe some more patio shots .
ix. Kelli - Is there a shot of the village?
x. Satchele - W e can change this. The visual is the re to get them
through the spot. I t ’s an idea, a feeling. I t ’s an aspirationa l place.
xi. Beth - T hat whole co mposition was great. M y favorite was the
music, which showed everything. Maybe we should look more at
the culinary message.
xii. Meggen - When we look at Vail Restaurant M onth, we can go back
to culinary .
xiii. Susie - W here are these runni ng ?
xiv. Meggen - In De nver and on the F ront R ange .
xv. Kelli - I think the main question right now is the call to action .
xvi. Satchele - In my humble marketing opinion, I don’t think we need
a call to action .
xvii. Skip - I f we are going to try to judge these on some type of re sult ,
then we need some call to action .
xviii. Susie - I don’t see how a call to action would do anything but
cheapen these ads. Maybe make the size of the logo bigg er at the
beginning and the end?
V. Other business.
a. K elli will send out information requested .
b. Beth - W hat is the scheduling of the TV spots?
c. Meggen - W e are on air from May to October . Each spot runs f or about
two weeks. We won’t see culinary again, but that mess age will be woven
back in into Fall messaging.
VI. Adjournment
a. M otion to adjourn /Pete Hayda. Seconded/Jamie Gunion.
b. Meeting adjourned at 10:42 AM.
VII. Upcoming Meeting s :
August 2, 2:00 – 4:00, Sebastian, Restaurant Group Meeting
August 16, 8:30 -11:30AM, The Antlers Lodge, VLMDAC
September 6, 8:30 -11:00AM,The Antlers Lodge, VLMDAC Special Meeting
September 18, TBD, Council Chambers, VLMD 2013 B udget Presentation
September 20, 8:30 -11:00 AM, The Marriott