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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMDOct.18FINALVail Local Marketing District Advisory Council The Antlers Lodge Thursday, October 18, 2012 8:30-11:30am VLMDAC Members Present: Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart); Susie Tjossem (Vail Town Council); Skip Thurnauer; Pete Hayda, Vice Chair (Rock Resorts); John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME) Absent: Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs); Mia Vlaar (East West Resorts); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District) Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Kathleen Halloran (Town of Vail); Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership); Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership); Jessica Stevens (Vail Valley Partnership); Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing); Kristin Yantis (MYPR); Haley McNeil (MYPR); Sybill Navas (CSE); Cali Adkisson (CSE); Bobby Banks (CSE); Jenn Bruno (CSE); Barry Davis (CSE); Dave Chapin (CSE); Sonny Kersteins (CSE); Rayla Kundolf (CSE); Margaret Rogers (Vail Town Council); Clare Hefferen (Town of Vail); Michael Imhof (Vail Valley Foundation); Duncan Horner (Vail Valley Foundation); Sarah Travis (); Doug Westenskow (VRI); Bryant Leech (VRI); Adam Sutner (Highline); David Becher (RRC); Chris Cares (RRC) Via Phone: Ilene Rapkin (iOpeners); Josh Culver(Booyah!) Meeting called to order at 8:37am. I. Approval of September 20 Meeting Minutes a. Motion to approve minutes/Skip Thurnauer. Seconded/Laurie Mullen. II. CSE Executive Summary- Jenn Bruno a. We have altered our grading material to better reflect our goals. b. We are looking at the calendar as a whole, not just trying to fill every weekend. c. Event producers will be held accountable for creating events worthy of Vail. d. Through our self-examination of our funding, we have realized that out of town producers fail for similar reasons. e. Our strategic direction is to become a more active partner with event producers. f. We will be giving tools to producers to succeed. g. This year we are looking at Memorial Day differently. The CSE invested in research to see what will drive visitors to Vail during this weekend. We are facing this challenge with a new strategic approach. h. We have been inspired by our successes and failures. i. We look forward taking a new strategic approach in 2013. j. Discussion- 1) Margaret- Are we willing to make changes to the charter, or do whatever needs to be done in order for the funding to make more sense? You could help us by presenting and explaining how we could assist the CSE and VLMD. 2) Kathleen- The charter is a state law, let me look into the process of changing it. 3) Margaret- We budget so conservatively, which is good for the town, but maybe not the best use of the money. 4) Dave- Is the reserve fund touchable? 5) Margaret- It’s always touchable, but we don’t like to spend it. 6) Pete- Realistically, what is the timing needed to put on an event- 18 months? 7) Adam- Six to eight months feels about right. 8) Mike Imhof- I agree with you Margaret. It’s a great idea. We are grateful for the funding, but we also have to be really independent and strong without your funding. If we are not there financially, then we have bigger problems. 9) Margaret- I am more worried about things like Memorial Day weekend, One of the roadblocks is that the funding is held for a long time. 10) Rayla- We have done funding twice in one year. 11) Skip- When you are asking producers for their marketing plan, they also need to have a plan for their cash flow. 12) Sybill- The film festival, for example, is early in the year. They have to wait until the first of December to see what we will give them. And their marketing plan is contingent on what we give them. 13) Kathleen- Could the CSE have their funding allocation meeting earlier? 14) Pete- Jenn, that was great for everyone. Thank you. III. September Financials- Kathleen Halloran a. On Tuesday night the VLMD passed Plan B budget of $2.5 million. b. I will keep updating you on revenue throughout the year. c. To all the vendors, please get your invoices in. We are getting close to the end of the year. There is a cut off. When our auditors show up, the books are closed. d. Kelli- There was a presentation at the Economic Council meeting from Mtrip. There is a new report called the Compset report. It’s a report from 4 or 5 different resorts. We picked Aspen, Steamboat Springs, Breckenridge, Park City and Whistler. Anything you want to replace? e. Laurie- How is that different from the mountain community reports? f. Kelli- They are going to do a calculation for total growth sales. g. Pete- What about Tahoe? h. Kelli- We did not feel like they were a big competitor. i. Susie- I would suggest that we have some sort of base to compare it to, some other variables. j. Kelli- I will come back to you next month with additional information about these reports. IV. Event Economic Impact Study Results- David Becher & Chris Cares, RRC Associates a. Susie- It would be helpful if Council could get this information prior to the meeting on November 20th. b. Purpose, Methodology, Results- See Slide. c. Aggregate results- The results are still preliminary. We get the attendance results from the event producers. So, some we have not received yet. d. The overall focus was to evaluate the incremental economic impact of events to the Town of Vail. e. Events included in analysis- See slide. 1) There were 28 events and around 200 days with event occasions included in this analysis. f. Methodology- See slide. g. We try to get 100-200 survey completions for each event. h. Target & Actual Survey Response- See slide. i. Chris- We feel very good about our samples. But anyone who goes out and tries to do intercept surveys knows there are challenges. We are acknowledging there is a challenge, but we also believe we have very thorough data. j. Skip- Where there all shortfalls, are there examples on how we can improve? k. Chris- Yes, we will go into that. l. Calculating Economic Impact- See slide. m. Aggregate Results- Visitor Type. See slide. n. Per Capita Daily Spending- See slide. o. Kelli- The average room night is $199. This is more of what we are looking at, as opposed to $88 per person. p. Barry- When does this start and stop? q. David- The survey is from late March to October 15th. r. Pete- How do we get groups and events together in the future to improve these numbers? That is why we are here. s. Importance of Event in Decision – See slide. t. Bobby- The full-time residents should get asked also. u. Susie- I agree with Bobby. These full-time residents might have houseguests. v. Kelli- I think we wanted to err on the side of conservative. w. Skip- You are capturing the economic data, so it’s not as if you are ignoring them entirely. x. Economic Impact for 28 Events- See slide. y. Susie- Now that you have seen all this, do you have a suggested methodology that we could use? z. Chris- We do have some ideas. We are looking at occupancy and parking structure fill. We do believe there is significant inflation. We have the ability to count and we took photos of a lot of events. There is also some very wide variety across events. aa. Kelli- This is not something we want to do once. We want to do it a couple of times. There are other methodologies we can look at. bb. Susie- How about the events that overlap? Is there any way to pull those apart? cc. Chris- We are looking at that and taking it into consideration . dd. Individual Event Results- See slide. ee. Some of the lower per capita daily spending events were a bit of a head scratcher for us. So, we have taken a pretty hard look at these. ff. Sybill- Does that include the ticket price? gg. Rayla- Some of these are skewed. hh. Chris- We are working through that. ii. Closing thoughts- See slide. 1) We think the survey has provided a lot of important information, but there are also limitations. 2) Laurie- As you evaluate the attendance factor, is your plan to show it as it was and then go back to that 50%? 3) David- In some cases we are quite comfortable, in other cases there might be an adjustment. 4) Chris- We are going to base it on the data we’ve reviewed, not just arbitrarily. 5) Adam- For the event attendance issue, we have talked about this internally. All events are different. In my opinion, we need to come up with a method and use it across all our events. 6) Susie- If we present this with those inflated numbers, people are going to shoot holes in it. You need to vet those numbers before you present them. 7) Chris- We are looking at each of the events individually. This is a continual discussion. 8) Susie- Do you have any model of people doing this for a long time? 9) Margaret- Can we separate the ones that we know are accurate? 10) Mike Imhof- We hire separate people to do this. 11) Duncan- I don’t think the size of the sample will really affect the results. Around 100-200 people is a good size for a sample. It would be beneficial for everyone to be looking at the same type of report. V. CSE Strategic Direction- Adam Sutner a. New Mission Statement- See slide. b. Town Council Economic Goals- See slide. c. Aligned with the VLDAC 2013 Objectives- See slide. d. Current 2013 CSE and Proposed CSE objectives. e. These are aligned and carried down from the Town’s objectives, VLMD to CSE. f. For the old 2012 scorecard, the job of the CSE board was to look at this and get it more tight and aligned. g. The new 2013 scorecard is much more robust from a marketing side. h. The marketing of events makes all the difference. The events that have not worked have been poorly marketed. The plan is to get the CSE more involved in this process. i. John- Is there something we can do to ensure that marketing efforts, if done poorly, are not overlooked? j. Adam- We do have a recommendation for this. For lack of a better word, it will be called the marketing checklist. k. Kelli- The CSE and staff will be looking at this marketing checklist for marketing plans presented by producers. l. Adam- It has to be cascaded down into the entire process. We are working on that. Executional standards have been mixed. At the end of the day, it’s our brand and our community. There were some occasions this year where these standards were not delivered. The current intercept study, with the exception of attendance, is pretty spot on in agreement with what happens in winter. m. Calendar overview- See slide. n. Adam- The idea was to analyze this and see how to optimize this schedule. o. Chris Romer- If you would look at the averages during the weekend, they are different from the occupancies on a daily basis. p. Sybill- That might be something to include. q. Adam- This calendar does feel a little skewed towards the back and the obvious hole is at the beginning of the summer, around Memorial Day. r. John- If we are trying to drive occupancy, we need to look at the school calendar. It’s something to consider. s. Laurie- As Sonny pointed out at the CSE meeting, do we want to raise our peaks higher or fill in our valleys? t. Pete- For the something like the Challenge Cup, kids will play soccer all year round. u. Susie- Can we go to the local soccer club and ask them to do something for Memorial Day? v. Adam- That is the new strategic approach- to go out and get those tournaments and events that are successful. w. Pete- We work a lot with the soccer tournament. I do believe there is an opportunity for the Town of Vail to step up and do more funding. x. Adam- In the last round of recaps, for lacrosse and soccer, we talked about how they could grow more horizontally across the village by having an expo village or an international component. y. Sybill- There is a junior fly-fishing tournament looking to come in June. z. 2013 Opportunities- Process- See slide. aa. Events earmarked for stronger VLMD integration- See slide. bb. Memorial Day Event- Memorial day is complex. We are going to conduct research. cc. Marketing Checklist- See handout/slide. 1) Adam- People are not spending what they are saying on marketing. We want to have a look at their event output. There should not be the excuse of awareness being an issue. Having someone to answer questions is important. 2) Pete- Is there something in the checklist that says ‘this is an organization that has done something successful and do it like this?’ 3) Laurie- To compare these new events to these iconic events, is somewhat unfair. 4) Adam- This is the conversation we would like to have. Long-term commitments are going to give the stability to events that we are looking for. 5) Kelli- The process of getting the team more involved upfront will help. 6) Bobby- It’s formalizing what we have already been doing. 7) Jenn- Event producers are successful in other cities, but Vail is unique. This will give the CSE more involvement in their success. VI. VLMD Intercept Study Results- Doug Westenskow and Bryant Leech – VRI Research a. Objectives and Methodology- See slide. b. Executive Summary- See slide. c. Recommendations- Customers are very happy with their experience in Vail. d. Guests are most interested in seeing low exertion activities. e. Net Promoter Score- See slide. f. Kelli- Several years ago we were lagging fairly far behind in the summer, it shows that we are truly becoming a year round brand. g. Adam- Vail is 89 in the winter. 82 is a spectacular score for summer. h. Chris Romer- The international visitation number does not seem to align with the actual numbers that are in the streets. i. Kelli- Do we think they are underrepresented in our survey, perhaps? j. Lodging- See slide. k. Nights stayed- This is pretty consistent from 2012 to 2010. l. Group Size- The large groups can significantly skew the data. m. What type of event would you come back for? See slide. n. Over half of guests mentioned music events. o. Town construction and parking- The overall parking experience increased since the last study. p. Construction impact- See slide. We were able to do construction without having an impact on guest’s experience. q. Kelli- We need to do a better job helping to manage expectations with the events in regards to parking. Parking issues are related to specific events, so that is something to remember. r. Top 10 PMSA/MSA Visitation- See slide. (Primary metropolitan statistical area) s. Top 10 Country Visitation- The sample size is only 35. t. Who are you here with – See slide. Our core market is families who want low exertion activities. u. Mean Income- It is higher than last survey. v. Kelli- Is there any further drill down you would like to see? w. John- Under activities, what did you participate in when you were here? And did this event bring you here? x. Pete- Is there anything we can do to find out more about these people? If someone says they are from Texas, can we break that out further? y. Laurie- Can we get both sets of research? z. Kelli- I want to wait with the event study because it is not finished yet. aa. Laurie- We should all have this research at our fingertips. It’s really helpful. bb. Rayla- One thing I noticed was the small percentage of weddings shown on this research. cc. Bryant- Normally with weddings, there is a set schedule for the wedding party and we don’t see them walking around the street. VII. Other business- a. Kristin- When do we find out when our individual budget was approved as submitted? VIII. Adjournment. a. Motion to adjourn/John Dawsey. Seconded/Skip Thurnauer. b. Meeting adjourned at 11:34. IX. Upcoming Meetings a. November 15th, 8:30 – 11:00am, The Antlers b. December 20th, 8:30 – 11:00am, The Antlers