HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMDACNov15FINALVail Local Marketing District Advisory Council
The Antlers Lodge
Thursday, November 15, 2012
8:30-11:30am
VLMDAC Members Present: Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart); Susie Tjossem (Vail
Town Council); Mia Vlaar (East West Resorts); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District);
Skip Thurnauer; Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs); Pete Hayda, Vice Chair (Rock Resorts);
John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME)
Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Sybill Navas (CSE); Jenn Bruno (CSE); Sonny
Kerstiens (CSE); Cali Adkisson (CSE); Barry Davis (CSE); Clare Hefferen (Town of Vail); Jill
Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership); Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership); Jessica Stevens
(Vail Valley Partnership); Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing); Kristin Yantis (MYPR); Haley
McNeil (MYPR); Kristina Johnson (Vail Valley Partnership); Adam Sutner; Gabe Shalley
(Vail Resorts); Meredith Richards (Bravo!); Jim Palermo (Bravo!); Heather Kersteins;
Robin Litt; Bobby Bank (CSE); Rob LeVine (Antlers); Angela Mueller; Steve Wodlinger
(TV8); Todd Mossa (East West); Lauren Glendenning
On the phone: Josh Culver(Booyah!)
I. VLMD October Financials.
a) Kelli- Kathleen is happy with the way the collections are coming in and we
are expecting to hit the projected budget by the end of the year. We just
have one last plea to all the vendors to get their invoices in by December 15.
II. VLMD Minutes from October 18 Meeting.
a) Motion to accept minutes as presented/John Dawsey. Seconded/Laurie
Mullen.
III. Introduction of Jim Palermo from Bravo! Meredith Richards.
a) Meredith- We are very excited to have Jim Palermo as a part of Bravo!
b) Jim- I love music festivals because I think they occupy a wonderful place in
the art world. I am delighted to be here and I look forward to meeting with
all of you.
IV. CSE Results on 2013 Funding Allocations. Jenn Bruno
a) Jenn- I want to thank the VLMD for having us back. We are very excited
about the 2013 calendar.
b) Adam- I want to commend the CSE on their incredibly hard and focused
work. It has certainly netted some great events. First and foremost, we are
working to get the CSE objectives in line with the town’s objectives and then
in line with the VLMD.
c) 2013 Allocations- See slide.
d) The big insight throughout the whole process was the perceived
ineffectiveness of marketing efforts. The events that failed were the ones
with poor marketing strategies.
e) We see that summer is growing at a rate faster than winter.
f) We are going after a potential Memorial Day event. The challenges with this
weekend are the weather and school schedules. The board has rallied
around the onus of taking event attendance research. When you try to
understand ROI, the most important criteria is event attendance.
g) We also started to talk about Thanksgiving and the month of January.
h) 2013 Allocations- The Starting Point – See slide.
i) 2012 Calendar Overview- See slide.
j) For 2012, we thought we were a little too back weighted towards the end of
the season.
k) 2013 Calendar – New events/new timing. See slide.
l) We kept Vail Rocks, but we asked them to move it. We feel the balance is a
lot better throughout the summer.
m) Mia- You don’t feel like you took out something at the end of the summer
that would change the dynamic during October and September?
n) Adam- We passed on the Tour of Vail. We are still hoping for the Pro-Cycling
Challenge. Soul Fest was a big discussion. Everyone agrees it is a terrific
product. We are going back to them to try and get more collaboration from
a marketing and production standpoint.
o) Mia- At the song writers’ festival, the quality of the talent was incredible.
However, everyone I talked to could not believe how few people were in
attendance.
p) Susie- As a vacation driver, once these events are in town, they need to
really step up the marketing. They need to target the local market. Once
people get here from out of town, they get their information from local
sources.
q) Kelli- We are going to work more closely with the event promoters and
review their marketing plans. We need to approve it. The CSE is not going to
just write checks and then wait for the post event recap.
r) Adam- In terms of investment, we are looking to grow the Kids Adventure
Race. We are also looking to add an international component to events like
Kick-It 3v3 Soccer.
s) Susie- Did anyone ask the soccer tournament to do a similar event in May?
t) Jenn- The problem is that they will not have fields in 2014.
u) Susie- Are we also looking at events like Holidaze and Thanksgiving?
v) Adam- We talked about that yesterday. Next year we are going to seriously
look at that.
w) 2013 Memorial Day discussion- See slide.
x) Susie- For next Thanksgiving, there is no funding being held back.
y) Adam- We are going to recommend that.
z) Mia- To Adam’s point, the song writers festival…
aa) Chris Romer- For clarification, these are two different events that we are
talking about- the Seasons of Song Festival and the NRC event.
bb) Pete- It would be a great event in January.
cc) Jenn- People come here to ski, but also to après ski. This song writers
festival would be a great opportunity
dd) Kelli- In terms of the seed money and weaning people off funding…
ee) Pete- It’s more of a philosophy. How can we get people to be more self-
funded?
ff) Jenn- It’s hard for event producers. There are just not enough sponsors
wanting to fund all these events.
gg) Kelli- There will be some more direction from the CSE on where the funding
will go. There will be more oversight and strategy on how that money is
used.
hh) Further discussion.
1. Beth- What would that $15,000 for event liaison go for?
2. Sybill- It would be a contract position.
3. Kelli- It would be expanding Clare’s current contract with the Town of Vail.
4. Pete- Will that person work with the different ways to market in the
Town of Vail?
5. Kelli- It’s mainly for the promoters who are not here in the valley.
6. Adam- Soul Fest is a great example. It’s a great event, but needs help.
7. Pete- Season of Song is a good example too. Will event producers be
open to this?
8. Bobby- It’s sort of a last step.
9. Kelli- We need to review their marketing plan against the marketing
checklist.
10. Sybill- At the December meeting, we are going to have to look at the
contracts to revise and update to include these new directions.
11. Pete- I think $15,000 is not enough to do a good job with this. I love the
concept of this, but it would be worth it to invest more money.
12. Beth- We need more local people aware of these events. We need an
internal marketing plan.
13. Jenn- We are looking at the CSE to be partners, not just sponsors, of the
events we fund.
14. Beth- If you put some definition into that contract position and present it
to us in December, we will look at it.
15. Jenn- I want to touch on culinary events. We stopped funding Vail
Restaurant Month, but we don’t want to lose our culinary momentum in
the fall. We are looking at putting money into a Vail Restaurant Week. It
would be a two-weekend span. We are going to continue to fund
Gourmet on Gore. Oktoberfest is great. It may not bring people into town,
but it gives people a reason to stay.
16. Laurie- Everyone has spent so much time on this.
17. Kelli- If one of you would write a letter to endorse their efforts, that
would be appreciated.
18. Beth- Laurie, would you like to write this letter? We are all impressed
with the efforts of the CSE. Thank you.
19. Susie- I want to thank you for the hours you have spent on this. For a
volunteer board, it is very much appreciated.
V. PR Update- MYPR/Kristin Yantis
a) At the partner meeting, we looked at the in-kind we receive from our hotel
and restaurant and activity partners. We had about $50,000 worth of in-kind
through hotel, activity and F&B comps and discounts. We hosted our
partners to thank them for their efforts. We could not have the level of
hosting we do without our community partners stepping up.
b) In New York, Kelli and I will attend the Vail 50th anniversary film premiere.
We are working closely with Liz Biebl and Vail Mountain. We have beautiful
photo boards and we distributed about 150 invitations. Thank you for
supporting that effort in December. We are also very excited and happy to
partner with Vail Resorts.
c) The PR update is brief this month, but we will get more in depth in December.
VI. RFQ Finalist Presentations-
a) Tandem- Randall Martinez, Principal and Creative Director, Kate Collins and
Rich Statz.
1. Summer Vail History- See slide.
2. Immersion Process- Kate.
a. For the first question, we have a four step strategy for this which
includes consumer insight , stakeholder insight, assessment of assets
and gap analysis.
3. Creative Direction -See slide.
a. We will find out what exists to maximize the winter/summer cross sell.
b. We want to ‘Extend the Stoke’ to u psell with longer, more frequent
visits.
c. Rich- We put together some top level data in order to analyze the data
from Twitter. See map handout.
d. Why do we need this data? From here we can drill, in bulk, into
individual profiles.
e. Trend of search volume over time- See handout.
f. We will use traditional marketing techniques. Capitalizing on the idea
of creating personas with segmentation and positive stereotyping. We
can direct the marketing campaign specifically to them.
4. Why Tandem? See slide.
a. We have institutional knowledge and our team is fully integrated. We
are streamlined and local. We all bring a distinct skill set to the table.
b. Susie- You were using Twitter as a social media vehicle. Do you feel
that is one of the most effective?
c. Rich- It’s easiest to grab data from and the users tend to be a little
more affluent.
d. John- Of the strategic campaigns, which one was your favorite and
why was it so successful?
e. Randall- The Vail Plaza Club was the most successful. There were a lot
of challenges and very strict benchmarks we needed to achieve.
f. Beth- This was very comprehensive. Thank you very much.
b) CCT Advertising from Denver. Tom Leydon, Chris Clemens- President, Ann
McCumber – Creative Director
1. About CCT. We are an award winning, full-service advertising firm with an
expertise in 5 to 9 brands. These are brands that help people enjoy their
free time.
2. Question 1- Immersion.
a. On a project like yours, there is a lot to learn. Before we ever had our
first meeting, we would come to the table with a lot of work already
done. We would get on the phone with as many of your key
stakeholders as possible. We would reach out to the local communities
of vendors.
3. Question 2 – Strategic brand planning experience.
a. Tom- I want to focus on our process. We put together panels of
consumers who experience your product. What w ould motivate you to
visit?
4. Question 3 Process for a creative evolution.
a. We use a ‘love hate moo’ model.
b. We have a ‘Change in Direction Expertise’ demonstrated by the ‘Hug a
Hunter’ campaign.
5. Why CCT?
a. There are three reasons. Our size, our experience with 5 to 9 brands
and we are outside of Vail.
c) MKT Vail LLC- Adam Sutner
1. Question 1- Immersion. See slide.
a. With my c urrent community relationships, it’s important these
relationships are seamless.
b. I will meet with all the board members and town council members. I
will nurture and maintain Vail Mountain relations.
2. Question 2. See slide.
a. The creative direction needs to remain fresh, resonant and true to
who and what Vail is.
b. We should take the time to explore our creative direction. The
landscape of Vail has changed dramatically.
c. We would work with our current roster to generate fresh work.
3. Question 3. See slide.
a. I have 25 years experience with brand leadership. I’ve worked a lot
with the methodology on how to develop brands. I am passionate
about brands and consider myself really knowledgeable in this area.
4. Question 4. See slide.
a. The 2008 Vail campaign was the wrong tone for the market. We
needed to respond quickly. We needed to get heads in beds and
change the brand. We responded with the ‘Vail all the love’ campaign.
It generated effect and impacted the season.
5. Question 5- See slide.
a. Adam- we have to do what is right for the totality of the VLMD and
the summer business. The summer personality is different and a
happy compromise needs to be reached.
VII. Adjournment.
a) Motion to adjourn/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/John Dawsey.
b) Meeting adjourned at 11:42.
VIII. Upcoming Meetings
a) December 20, 8:30-11:30am, The Antlers