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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMD April 19th FINALVail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Friday, April 19, 2013 The Antlers Caribou/Pronghorn Room 8:30-10:30 AM VLMDAC Members Present: Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart); Mia Vlaar, Vice Chair (East West Resorts); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District); Skip Thurnauer; Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs); John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME); Davy Ratchford (Vail Resorts); Michael Holton (Vail Valley Medical Center) Absent: Susie Tjossem (Vail Town Council) Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Clare Hefferen (Town of Vail); Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership); Kristina Johnson (Vail Valley Partnership); Adam Sutner (MKT Vail); Bobby Bank (CSE); Tammy Nagel (Town of Vail); Amy Schwelling (SITE); Stephanie Spence (VVMC); Jamie Stone (DiscoverWell); Amy Cassidy (CSE); Scott Miller (Vail Daily); Alex Rawall ( Booyah!) On the phone: Kristin Yantis (MYPR) I. Swearing in of Michael Holton- Tammy Nagel Motion to appoint Mia Vlaar as Vice Chair/Laurie Mullen. Seconded/John Dawsey. All in favor. Passed unanimously. II. March 2013 Monthly Financial Report- Kelli McDonald a) With the approved $100,000 supplemental funding. we are currently at a 37% fund balance. We are required to maintain a 25% fund balance. 37% is pretty healthy. b) Beth- There is a question of whether we are being responsible about these funds by just letting them sit in the bank. I would like for us to start thinking about possibly using this money to come up with something new that could be extraordinary for Vail. III. Approval of March 21, 2013 Meeting Minutes. Motion to approve March minutes as presented/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/Skip Thurnauer. All in favor. Passed unanimously. IV. Health and Wellbeing Update- MKT Vail. a) We received a fair amount of feedback from the VEAC. See slide. b) They want us to think hard about the proof points and deliverables. c) The Council is supportive of the Wellness Center concept. The VLMD would set a tone and a path for this initiative. d) Kelli- We will lead this from a marketing standpoint and supporting the concept to the community, not from a capital infrastructure standpoint. e) John- This concept can be shared across so many entities in the community. f) Adam- Our role is to connect the dots. g) Michael- I would like to get more of my bearings before I dig in and define the health and wellness initiative. h) Stephanie Spence- We are hiring a consultant to do a feasibility study on a wellness center and we will share the results with everyone. i) The health and well-being mission. See slide. j) We are looking at about a 2.5 year timeline. V. Creative concepts- MKT Vail. a) Creative Development – process overview. See slide. b) Susie, Mia, Laurie, Davy and Skip formed a VLMDAC sub-committee to preview some of the creative development. We made some revisions, and what you are going to see today is our recommended direction. These are still concepts and there is room for change. c) The next steps are approval, production and the Denver Post final negotiation and sizing. d) In the first concept you are going to see, we are using the visual boldness of Vail. These are brand ads, which are used to create an image of Vail. e) The next ads are ‘hard-working’ ads that feature event and product. These are focused more on specific events. f) Discussion. 1. Skip- The creative agency did a good job of following the direction we gave them. 2. Adam- They are pretty elegant ads and give us the platform to go in many directions. 3. John- I love the bleed. The image is going to stand out no matter where you find it. 4. Beth- I really like it. Is this going be integrated digitally? 5. Adam- Yes, but we have to work with our digital partners to get these images. I had a meeting with Satchel and we are also going to bring this into the video realm. This creative can go just about anywhere. 6. Kelli- We are looking for approval from you all for these concepts. 7. Adam- We are looking to find an ad for the Bravo! program. 8. Michael- We are saying ‘Vail’ three times in these ads. It seems a little desperate. I think it should be a little subtler. 9. Beth- I see your point, but I don’t know if I agree with you. The question is which one do you take out? 10. Adam- I would propose to just feed this back to the agency and see what they come up with. 11. Laurie- We have done it both ways, with and without a call to action, over the years. We have to determine the application and how we use it. g) Competitive Creative Comparison-See slides. h) We have a modest budget to shoot new photography. i) Brand Video Update. – See Slide. 1. We have two pieces of music from Xylos and M.Ward. We are shooting aerial photography now. Another brand video for a United in-flight video will play in July. VI. Front Range Media Strategies- MKT Vail. a) In TV, ‘Flourishing families’ is our target audience. That is the Vail customer. b) Vail target descriptor- See slide. c) Denver Post Plan Overview- See handout for preliminary schedule. d) Front Range TV- The budget is a little less this year because we are getting smarter on what TV we buy. This year we are going for higher quality and more targeted programs. We are going to add CBS to the Comcast Cable buy because it is the powerhouse station in Denver. e) Front Range TV programming considerations- See list/slide. f) CBS added value is the Vail Challenge. It’s a Survivor casting call taking place August 17th and 18th. g) Adam- there are different stages, then there is an interview piece h) Mia- These people are pre-selected? i) Adam- Yes, that is my understanding. It possibly could get opened up to a couple of local people. They will provide a complimentary campaign around this. They are looking for local partners to produce this event. VII. Destination Marketing Update- MKT Vail. a) Michael- Have we done an in flight magazine before? b) Adam- We have looked at those in the past. We have used mainly Mexican in – flight magazines. We think Vail fares better in the three dimensional realm of TV. For the in- flight videos, it reaches their whole network. c) For AA Dallas, there are free opportunities being explored through Vail Resorts Air Marketing and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. VIII. Mexico Update- MKT Vail. a) We are complementing vail.com., not duplicating. b) John- We need to have Jack take more photos that feature Latin American families. c) Adam- We are going to try to partner with a leading online travel agency. They are going to come back to us with a point of view on who that might be. It’s incumbent on us to figure out how the Mexican customer is booking their travel. d) Mexico – Summer sales mission. See slide. e) Laurie- A few slides back we talked about the Vail audience as being ‘Flourishing Families, but the Mexican audience is more of the ‘Power Elite.’ Motion by Mia Vlaar to accept the plan as provided by MKT Vail, while incorporating all the new concepts. Seconded/John Dawsey. All in favor. Passed unanimously. IX. Summer Web Site Update- Kelli McDonald. a) McDonald referenced the update provided by Vail Resorts. If you have any issues, please send them to me and I will let Brian know. We are in the process of rotating summer content in. It will start in earnest next week, once the mountain closes, but is well underway already. X. VLMD Database- Laurie Mullen. a) To remind everyone, we have about 6,000 names in our summer database. Vail Resorts has 90,000 names in their database and they have let us use that for several years now. We know there is not a whole lot of crossover from winter to summer. We know there are a lot of travelers who know of Vail, but might not be considering Vail as a summer destination. We need to figure out and develop better practices and due diligence around customer acquisition for the non-ski months. b) Adam- CRM technology has become very state-of-the-art. We don’t need to allocate a large sum to do this. c) Laurie- We need to develop strategy, budget and plan for 2014. d) Kelli- We think it’s time to take a look at being strategic for the guests that come here in the summer. e) Mia- Why wait a year? I would encourage us to take some of the surplus and put it towards this. f) Beth- Let’s collect data this summer from people who are present. g) Adam- You could ask the team to put this together and accelerate it. There could be a first step of a smaller software package. Maybe we put the gas on this and see where we get to by July? h) Laurie- We will put together a small team and see what our resources are. Give us a month to figure out the resources. Motion to spend the next 30 days putting a plan together for the VLMD database/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/Skip Thurnauer. All in favor. Passed unanimously. XI. Other Business. a) You all have a memo from VVP about summer occupancy trends. We are tracking behind last year at this time. b) Kristina- Some of the reasons behind this are there is a shorter booking window, some of the larger groups have grown too big for Vail, and it’s still pretty early. c) John- The main thing about summer is what is on the books. It’s the group base that is going to help during the slower times. d) Adam- The booking cycle is also changing. It’s a pace issue. e) John- Groups are also in that shorter booking window. f) Kelli- Chris and I wanted to bring it to your attention and say this is not how we have looked in the past and keep it on our radar. g) Mia- ADR is growing faster than occupancy. h) Adam- This report is from March 31. I say we just keep an eye on this and if it’s still the same way on May 31st then we should focus some attention on it. i) Kelli- It’s not alarming, but we need to keep an eye on it. j) Adam- Everything macro in this industry has convinced the consumer to wait. If it were closer in, then we would need to make moves. It’s a vagary of pace. k) Laurie- At the next meeting if we need to be more tactical, we could definitely react at that point. l) Mia- We also need to look at the Twin Tunnels and how they are affecting travel. m) Kelli- We could ask Chris or Jamie to comment on that at the next meeting to the Vail Marriott. n) Kelli- Please note the venue change for next meeting. o) Beth- We are going to have to start looking at kids camps that will cater towards the Mexican market. p) Kelli- Once epic discovery gets built, there might be another avenue to market with. q) Adam- The community needs to develop more products and we need to be able to talk to the second homeowner. r) Beth- That should be on the agenda for July before we begin budgeting for 2014. Motion to adjourn/John Dawsey. Seconded/Jamie Gunion. All in favor. Passed unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 11:27am. XII. Upcoming Meetings VLMDAC, May 16, 8:30-11am, The Vail Marriott PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE