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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMD February 21 FINALVail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Thursday, February 21, 2013 The Antlers Caribou/Pronghorn Room 8:30-11:30 AM 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); Davy Ratchford(Vail Resorts) Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Sybill Navas (CSE); Clare Hefferen (Town of Vail); Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership); Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership); Heather Kersteins (Vail Valley Partnership); Kristina Johnson (Vail Valley Partnership); Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing); Kristin Yantis (MYPR); Adam Sutner (MKT Vail); Bobby Bank (CSE); Steve Wodlinger (TV8); Kathleen Halloran (Town of Vail); Satchele Burns (Videographer); Amy Schwelling; Brian Rodine (Vail Mountain Marketing); Dr. Jack Eck (VVMC); Stephanie Spence (VVMC); Jamie Stone (DiscoverWell); Margaret Rogers (Vail Town Council) On the Phone: Josh Culver, Booyah! Meeting called to order at 8:42am. January 2013 Monthly Financial Report- Kathleen Halloran. We gave you two financial statements for this year. 2012 was a record year and that helps us start off with another half a million dollars in the fund balance. Pete- Why were there so much savings? Meggen- I can’t speak for the destination line item, but we received a lot of savings from the FAM trips. Kelli – Digital marketing had savings based on reallocation within the line item of networks performing better than expected Approval of January 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes. Motion to accept minutes Skip Thurnauer/Seconded John Dawsey. Anschutz Health and Wellness Site Visit Report Beth – Margaret will give a report of what we found during the site visit. Margaret- It is an incredible facility which has everything anyone would want in regards to health and well-being. The concept of the building and the whole process is to further the idea that health and wellness is a goal to achieve. There is a bistro and a demonstration kitchen where you can take cooking classes. They have a grocery store set up by Kroger where they rate each product according to nutritional value. There is also a health club, meeting rooms and a machine called the 'Bod Pod’ which tells your BMI. Margaret- We have all of these components in Vail. However, we don’t have a unified direction or program for developing Vail as the health and wellness place to be. We don’t want to be late on this train. John Peters is the contact at the Center and he can help us with Vail. Susie- The affiliation with CU is important. This is what they want to be known for across the country. Margaret- Anshutz is very interested in working with the town of Vail. We need to figure out which entities need to do what. Once we have the script, then we can figure out who the key players are. Beth- Thank you Margaret. There are a lot of things to consider. One thing to consider is working with hospital. Stephanie Spence- The board of the hospital is very enthusiastic about creating a health and wellness center. We are in a learning phase right now. The timeline is to complete the plan by this summer. John- How are the programs (at the Anschutz Center) funded? Is it insurance? Margaret- It is not an insurance based program. It’s proactive, as opposed to reactive. Beth- One option is to wait and see in July the direction the hospital will pursue. And if they don’t have their plan in place, then we could use the savings to hire someone as a composer. At the VEAC meeting a few weeks ago, Chris made a presentation. Chris- We gave a presentation on the economic development of health and wellness. We have not really defined what health and wellness means to us. There are a lot of things going on at the state and local level. We don’t quite have a definition of what it means to us at this point. Beth- I think it is safe to say that someone will pick up this gauntlet if the hospital does not continue with it. Stephanie- I think the answer is that we take up this gauntlet together. Creative Strategy Update- MKT Vail Vail Brand Evolution Discussion- See slide. For Winter and Year round strategy there are three pillars- physical, emotional and cultural vitality. Our target audience is a disparate audience. There is an emotional connection between destination and guest. Strategic Situation Analysis- Longer term. See slide. The real relevance for 2015 is strategic. The last time we had a ski championship, our international audience grew the following year. Vail Brand Framework- The team came up with two potential models. See slide. Vail is a place of rest and rejuvenation (Model One Discussion). Health and Wellness is a sensibility. “I go to Vail because I feel better and live incredibly well when I am there.” Model Two- Sense of living well through its world-class health and wellbeing infrastructure. Health and wellbeing is substantial enough to have its own pillar. The paradox of Model Two is that the Vail lifestyle would forestall the need for the medicinal side of health and wellness. The group concluded that Model One would really be the way to go. Vail Brand Framework- Revalidation. “Vail=Joy of Living.” See slide. Adam- By no means are we set on these words. Meggen- This is not anything that a consumer would see. For the communications model, it’s important to know how you are going to talk about this. One model is B2B and the other is B2C. See slide. For B2C, we need to develop the words. What are our iconic assets? What is it doing to add to the desirability of our brand? Recommendation – See slide. The team strongly recommends pursuing the Model One scenario. John- I think integration is a key part. Davy- We want to own this space and there are others out there who think they can own this space also. Adam- Our team will meet again this week with the objective to come back again in March with some new conceptual ideas. Burton US Open Television Spots Adam- Can we use these spots to begin to explore what health and well-being would look like? We did four spots focusing on the concepts of physical, emotional, cultural and well-being. There is immense TV coverage for the Open. Town of Vail gets a 30 second spot. Kelli- There is a huge plan in place to bring people in. The big unknown is the Front Range visitor. Susie- We just need to make sure those messages are right on target. Winter Update- Brian Rodine. The biggest story is there is a shortening of the booking window. Davy- We do research every day on the mountain. It’s also the same shorter booking window with ski school. Brian- It’s kind of a weird time and causing a lot of stress. We have been putting out consistent snow messaging. We have the best organic reach and then we tend to boost that a little with paid messaging. The soft periods are early March. Lodging seems to be holding well. The Snowball Event in Mexico went really well. and Spring Back to Vail bands have been announced. Swearing in Davy Ratchford - Pam Brandmeyer Air Program Update- VVP- Chris Romer Board of Directors- See slide. The industry itself has consolidated quite a bit. Some facts and figures – I can send this out to anyone who is interested. We’ve lost about 27% of winter seats into Eagle since the peak in 2007. Unfortunately, a lot of our competitors are seeing an increase in capacity and enplanements. Competitive Set Funding Structures- See slide. We are trying to revamp this effort with a new board of directors and outreach efforts. Our goal is to get at least 200 businesses involved. For each of our competitors, there is a public funding component and private business component. We are much more dependent on private funding. The short term goal of the EGE Air Alliance is to get a Houston non- stop flight on United. We want to grow service throughout the year. The target markets are Houston, Chicago, Toronto, Washington D.C. and possibly Jet Blue out of Boston. The total funding target from private businesses and public funding is in the range of $1.8 to $2.4 million. Beth- Is there a marketing plan to drive people to these airlines? Chris- There is not a marketing plan in place, but more of an educational component. Current Funding Status- See slide. We are about $50,000 short. Fund Raising Strategy- See slide. We have tried to structure it in a logical manner. It’s about bringing in a big coalition across all different sectors. The Eagle Chamber of Commerce contributed this year, which is huge. Susie- Are you looking for a county wide public tax? Chris- That is definitely a possibility. PR Update - MYPR At SIA, we had four appointments. The Texas media mission was Feb 12-14, where we had a suite at a Mavericks game. There are some immediate opportunities for the culinary scene & Vail Rocks! Future planning for New York and LA. LA is a tough market, so we are thinking of setting up residence for the day. We would like to get a cabana for the day and have media come to us. We have a number of chefs who are interested in working with us. The next day we would hold the same type of function at a different location. LA is not one of our key markets, but it is the second largest media market in the country. Beth- What is the magnitude of cost? Kristin- That is the next step. I don’t have a lot of the specifics as far as budget goes. It would probably cost around $10,000 and we do have it in the budget. Beth- Does everyone like this idea? I say go for it. We do need to emphasize the shopping as well in our messaging. Davy- Have we ever experimented with social influencer events? Kristin- We have done some TweetUps in New York. Beth- Slifer Smith and Frampton did a similar event in Mexico City. Kelli – We had social influencers at the 50th anniversary film premier in NYC Mexico Update – All. Summer Strategy- 2013. See Slide. We are out a little ahead with some of the key moving pieces. We want everything to work extra hard with a follow up moving piece. We put together a seed card. We are working with the lodges to get those placed on guest’s pillows and inviting them to come back to Vail in the summer. We are working on getting specific package offerings – Bravo, VIDF, VRD. For the sales/PR mission from May 12-18th, we are hosting three rather large hole-in-one events. We are inviting not just media, but some major influencers. It will be six days of packed energy and excitement in Mexico. We are also looking into an Inaugural Copa de Mexico Golf Tournament here in Vail. Adam- We want this to be a key social event in Vail. Kristin- There is some good momentum behind this. Mia- I would suggest tying in the real estate companies. Mexico digital- New Summer Spanish Website- See slide. Our idea is to step up and do a real-time Spanish website. It’s not necessarily a reboot, but more like a reinvest. John- How is the Destino Vail traffic? Brian- Most traffic comes from vail.com website and clicking on international page. For the budget, we are looking for your green light as far as all this goes. John- What is the threshold before we go back in front of the council for a supplemental request? Kelli- It’s normally around $150,000. Beth- Are we doing anything with Brazil? Davy- There are definitely a lot of people coming from Brazil. We don’t have any exact numbers yet. Pete- I think we should all get together to see what are the big opportunities and where we will get the most bang for our buck in a short amount of time. Adam- I would direct this team back to our objectives for the year. It’s probably best to focus on Mexico and figure out what the right voice is and how to get it in front of the right people. Beth- We need a strategic consideration of where we need to have our resources. Kelli- We can do that. Do we need to have some board volunteers to focus on this? Beth- Would Pete and Mia like to volunteer? Kelli- You can filter it all through me. Other Business. Chris- We want to welcome Sandra as a new member to the Vail Valley Partnership. The Annual Event Summit is next Tuesday. Adjournment. Motion to adjourn. There was no official motion or second. Meeting adjourned 11:43am. Upcoming Meetings. March 21, 8:30-11:00am, The Antlers