HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMD May 2013 FINALVail Local Marketing District Advisory Council
Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Vail Marriott
Mountain View Room
8:30-11:00 AM
VLMDAC Members Present: Susie Tjossem (Vail Town Council); Mia Vlaar (East West
Resorts); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District); Skip Thurnauer; John Dawsey,
Treasurer (CME); Davy Ratchford (Vail Resorts); Michael Holton (VVMC)
Absent: Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart)
On the Phone: Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs); Josh Culver (Booyah!)
Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail); Clare Hefferen (Town of Vail); Jill Lammers
(Vail Valley Partnership); Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership); Meggen Kirkham (SITE
Marketing); Bobby Bank (CSE); Satchele Burns (Videographer); Chris Kuhn (Booyah!);
Alex Rawall (Booyah!); Steve Wodlinger (TV8); Kirsten Texler (Key Link PR); Todd Mossa;
Derek Schmidt; Brian Holton; Amy Schwelling; Brandon Durgan (Sage Outdoors); Brian
Rodine (Vail Marketing)
I. April 2013 Monthly Financial Report
a) A whole new financial system is going into TOV.
b) March collections were $1.3 million. Lodging revenue is up. During the ski
season, all record months for the Town of Vail.
c) Chris- Group sales look pretty good. We are pretty even with where we
were last year. A number of the properties had repeat groups that are no t
coming back. We picked up a lot of ground in April.
d) Kelli- The Mtrip report shows many peaks and valleys for the coming
months, something to keep a close eye on.
II. Approval of April 19, 2013 Meeting Minutes
a) Motion to approve/John Dawsey. Seconded/Skip Thurnauer. Passed
unanimously.
III. Twin Tunnels Update- VVP
a) Chris Romer- At the request of this group, I sat down with Kristin Yantis and
Suzanne Silverthorn to discuss the twin tunnel messaging.
b) CDOT has done a good job with getting the word out about the b lasting
schedule by utilizing the website, email alerts and the mobile app.
c) Mia- It seems like the best way to communicate is to use the tools CDOT is
providing.
d) Chris- There are some messaging tactics that could be done within each
lodging property also. For example, sliding the blasting schedule under each
door and encouraging guests to stay longer to avoid the delay. This would
benefit the lodges and enhance the guest’s travel experience.
IV. Front Range Update- SITE.
a) Denver Post Details- We are sprinkling the brand messaging throughout the
summer. We have really highlighted some key messages. See slide.
b) Mia- I think it looks great. With a $150,000 spend with the Denver Post, it
would be good to get their ideas on different events and promotions they
have which could target a great audience for Vail. The DNA parent company,
AdTaxi, pitched us. Have you looked into that?
c) Alex- It is similar to what we are already using, Rocketfuel.
d) Meggen- At the last meeting there was a fairly significant discussion about
whether or not to include the vail.com call to action. When I circled back
with Adam, we took it off. Then we had a conversation with Davy and
thought it best for vail.com to be on every ad. That is our recommendation.
e) Mia- The concern came from the repetitiveness in the design. If we go back
to the design team and say we want vail.com in every ad, it will be a design
issue.
f) Davy- You should always have a call to action. If the design hinders that,
then it’s the design’s fault
g) Meggen- Survivor casting call. See slide.
1. We are working on getting special Vail VIPs to be a part of the casting call.
We could have 5 VIPs that go to the front of the line. We can brainstorm
to determine who these people are.
h) Beth- Do we know if Ryan Sutter is going to compete? We should approach
him.
i) Mia- Anyone who we want to do this as a VIP, also needs to want to be on
Survivor. What are the action steps to get the event together ?
j) Meggen- We have meetings scheduled.
k) Update on some programming- see slide.
l) The AVP group is scouting places to have a tournament. They are going to
be coming to Vail.
V. Destination Update.
a) Houston billboards are up. See slide.
b) This has been a hugely collaborative effort. We do have the opportunity to
change our creative in July.
c) Visuals of the billboard. See slide.
d) Mia- I think next month would be a good time for Gabe to come and give us
an update.
VI. Video & TV Spots- SITE.
a) Feast! Vail video
1. Davy- At the end of the video when the last logo comes up, it seems like
there is a lot to look at. Maybe take the Feast! logo off and just have the
call to action and price point.
b) For the Go Pro Mountain games, fifteen-second ads will be used on TV as
bookends.
c) John- Is there any audio of the announcers saying “Vail, Colorado?”
d) Jamie- Go Pro is going to brand this event in a very different way.
e) Mia- The abbreviated VVF doesn’t say anything. It would be better to use
the full ‘Vail Valley Foundation.’
f) Davy- Maybe you could list the content as a constant line at the bottom?
g) Meggen- The brand video is in production. Watch for communication on
that.
h) Kelli- We might set up a separate meeting to discuss this further.
VII. Digital Update- Booyah!.
a) Objectives-See slide.
b) Creative Considerations- We are looking at targeting, placements, client
objectives, ‘heads in beds,’ etc.
c) Online display – See slide. This is more for general brand awareness.
d) Mia- I am concerned about the Vail logo
e) Chris Kuhn- The Vail logo is static throughout the animation.
f) Beth- What is the timing on these events?
g) Mia- I believe what Beth is saying is we need to look closely at the timeline
and make sure there are ads running for events a little longer out for those
destination guests planning their trip a few months in advance.
h) Online display creative- See slide. These are directed at Colorado travelers
with the tag line ‘Find your Path,’ ‘Find your Line,’ ‘Find your Trail,’ ‘B alance
Found.’ These have a more direct CTA- ‘Book now.’
i) Next segment- geo-targeted general- See slide.
j) Meggen- Gabe reviewed these and said it’s not necessary to have the
United logo.
k) Susie- Instead of ‘get out of the heat’ maybe say ‘escape the heat.’
l) Event segment- See slide.
m) Skip- What’s the targeting on these specific event ads?
n) Alex- This is a blend, combined with the brand ad and specific event ads ,
geared towards Front Range.
o) Davy- The struggle I am having is that some of this visual content could be
from anywhere. The more shots specific to Vail, the better. I am also
struggling with the length. Fifteen seconds seem long.
p) Chris Kuhn- Another idea we had is to separate the background and the
foreground. We want to test it and if it works we would like to use it.
q) Alex- We can always layer in sequential imaging.
r) Davy- Once you test it, you can change it.
s) Michael- The side Vail logo seems too large for these small ads.
t) Meggen- The consensus is to remove the Vail treatment on the right until
the last frame.
u) Mia- The geo-targeted general ads succeed more in grabbing your eye. The
event ads seem too busy.
v) Kelli- What I am hearing from the group is that they need more of a sense of
place?
w) Davy- Are there any shots that show the Go Pro Mountain games more as a
spectator event?
x) Davy- What are the search terms that you are looking for?
y) Alex- In looking at Twitter, these are the best practices they recommend.
#VailLife is something already organically out there. So that is something to
look at.
VIII. VLMD Database – Booyah!.
a) Alex- We have been working with Meggen, Kelli and Adam with a pilot
program. We wanted to get something up and off the ground this year.
b) Kelli- We have been using vail.com for many years. This is a way to get new
active names for Vail in the summer.
c) John- How much is this costing and why don’t we take this out of the fund
balance?
d) Kelli- We have allocated $100,000 supplemental out of the fund balance
already.
e) Alex- Currently, this is $32,000 reallocated from the display budget. With
this reallocation, we would expect a decrease in overall conversions. But we
are looking at the long-term trade off of owning an audience year after year.
f) Mia- Why do we need a third platform?
g) Kelli- The thought from the task force was to have a mechanism in place to
reach new audiences who may not engage with vail.com and who may be
interested in Vail summer activities and offerings.
h) Brian- There is room for growth. Maybe there is a smaller step we can take
other than spending $30,000?
i) Kelli- We also talked about going to the event promoters and asking to get
their email list. The Town of Vail is not necessarily the best place to house
that list.
j) Alex- We can revise this plan and make it more bootstrap.
k) Kelli- Why don’t we ask Booyah! to revise this and bring it to the meeting on
the 28th.
l) Mia- The intent is to just capture the names, not to email them yet. But the
VLMD needs to have a separate database. We need to focus on capturi ng
the data. The goal was that people who might be interested in Vail summer
might not be interested in Vail winter. We need to capture that audience.
m) Motion for Booyah! to come back to us on the 28th and look at the proposed
database then/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/John Dawsey.
IX. Other Business.
a) Meggen- Adam and Kristin are in Mexico. Everything is going great.
b) Destino.vail launched last night.
c) Mia- How do we measure Mexican visitation in the summer?
d) Chris- We have the summer intercept study.
e) Kelli- Chris has made some phone calls to the lodges about international
visitors.
f) Michael Holton- Seeing the new look and feel of all the print ads, we did not
bring the same look and feel to the videos. Are we hoping to have the same
look across everything?
g) Satchele- We can make small changes to the font and colors making it more
in line with the print and website campaign.
X. Adjournment.
a) Motion to adjourn/Davy Ratchford. Seconded/Jamie Gunion. Meeting
adjourned 10:58am.
XI. Upcoming meetings
a) VLMDAC, June 20, 8:30-11am, Manor Vail