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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMDAC August 2013 DRAFTVail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Tuesday, August 27, 2013 Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa Blue Sky Room 8:30 AM – 11:30 PM VLMDAC Members Present: Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart); Mia Vlaar (East West Resorts); Skip Thurnauer; Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs); Davy Ratchford (Vail Resorts); Michael Holton (VVMC) Absent: John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME); Susie Tjossem (Vail Town Council); Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District) 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); Kirsten Texler (KeyLink PR); Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing); Kristin Yantis (MYPR); Taylor Cook (MYPR); Amy Schwelling; Dave Chapin; Jeff Andrews (East West Resorts); Brian Rodine (Vail Mountain Marketing); Alex Rawall (Booyah!) I. July 2013 Monthly Financial Report – Kelli McDonald a. It looks like a lot of partners are going to have some savings this year. II. Approval of July 18, 2013 Meeting Minutes a. Motion to accept minutes as presented/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/Davy Ratchford. Passed unanimously. III. 2014 Strategies, Operating Plan and Budget – All a. Davy- The partners and I got together a few weeks ago to go over everything for 2014. Prior to that we asked everyone to do a SWOT analysis. b. First, the overview of what we are going to talk about today was copied from Vail Mountain. See slide. c. What are the differences between strategies and tactics? d. Situation Assessment and Sections – See slide. e. Davy- It’s important to have a consistent brand, but a campaign can change. f. 2013 High Level Results to Date – Meggen. See slide. i. We shifted dollars into the Front Range for July and August. We looked at total overnight visits, which this year is at 66%, which is down from 78% from last year. ii. Beth- Did we share these goals with the Council? iii. Kelli- Yes, we will talk about what we want to present in front of the Council a little later today. g. Situation Assessment- 2013 Key Drivers. See slide. h. Occupancy Flat YOY (May-July) – See slide. i. Sales Tax Increase 5.1% (May – June) – See slide. j. Group Occupancy- There was an increase of 5% because of additional human capital. k. Brand Awareness – See slide. l. Guest Insights and Findings Recap – 2011 Burke Brand Research – See slide. m. 2012 Intercept Study- See slide. n. Situation Assessment Competition- Breckenridge, Steamboat, Beaver Creek and Aspen/Snowmass. See slide. i. Kelli- Aspen just came out with 10 goals from the Town. I will send that to you. o. Vail’s Summer SWOT- See slide. p. Davy – Under ‘strengths, ’ is there anything you feel we are missing? i. Mia- I think the spa/pampering aspect is a strength. ii. Michael- I think variety is a strength. q. Davy – For ‘weaknesses,’ any thoughts? i. Beth – There are facility shortcomings, such as the lack of covered wedding venues or auditorium. r. Davy – For ‘threats,’ any thoughts? s. Beth- We don’t have adequate facilities for growth, especially in Lionshead. t. Davy – For ‘opportunities,’ any thoughts? i. Kelli- We don’t have an iconic summer event like Jazz Aspen or Food and Wine Aspen. ii. Davy- The Keen Kids Adventure Race is something we can get behind and make it bigger. iii. Skip- Are there any family packages? I think this is something we need to focus on. iv. Kelli- I think we need to look at the month of June. Is there some sort of family package we can work on? v. Davy-What is iconic? That helps to establish this thought of loyalty, which is an area for us to really broaden on. vi. Mia- Going back to strengths, I think the idea of ‘renewal’ is important, especially from a PR point of view. vii. Kristin- From a PR perspective being ‘new’ is a harder thing to work with. Things tend to be less new, more quickly. This is a conversation we are going to have. viii. Beth- We don’t want to be complacent. We need to continuously rejuvenate. ix. Mia- It would be interesting to look at the pass holders from 3 years ago when summer was included in the year after ski season opposed to what the situation is now. Is this working? x. Jeff- What pass holders are not buying in the summer? xi. Michael- What about the lack of a conference center? xii. Chris- Space in the hotels is good. It is a threat because programs outgrow us and some of our major competitors can accommodate large conferences. We are working our way around some of those challenges. From a reality standpoint, it’s a fact. xiii. Kelli- What are the priorities when we talk about development? This board has influence over those things. It gives us more to market. u. Business Goals – See slide. v. Town Council Economic Goals- See slide. w. Marketing Objectives – See slide. x. 2014 Metrics and Measurements – See slide. y. Lodging Occupancy- 2014 Goal. See slide. i. Meggen- As we have seen with MTrips, our growth has been steep in the past years and at some point it is going to plateau. That is why we feel comfortable with 4%. ii. Beth- Why do you feel comfortable with 4%? I feel like that is a little weak. iii. Kelli- There are possibilities and we are shifting some of the budget to address this. z. Sales Tax Revenue- See slide. i. Laurie- This is the most important metric to look at. ii. Mia- We need to be careful when we look at occupancy because of lodging and second homeowners. Sales tax revenue is what we need to look at. aa. Optimize Visitor Mix- See slide. i. Laurie- We need to put our plan together earlier. bb. MSA-PMSA- See slide. i. Mia- I think these goals are pretty aggressive, especially for out- of-state and international. ii. Davy- August is going to be higher. International is a bit of a stretch. We are shifting local to in-state overnight guests. We need to look at these numbers once again and make a realistic assessment of where we are. cc. Awareness levels and NPS- See slide. dd. 2014 Summary of Strategies- See slide. ee. What’s new for summer 2014- See slide. i. Davy - We think guided hiking and biking is a good opportunity for us. We have hiking and biking, just not the guided aspect. ff. 2014 Strategies- See slide. i. Meggen- We are looking to compare Burke Brand Research from 2011 to this year in terms of what messaging we put out there. For 2014, we are really looking to optimize that mid-week time frame. gg. Overview of Budget. See slide. hh. Meggen – The budget for groups and meetings is increasing mainly to get a new collateral piece. We are adding another research study every two weeks, instead of just once a month. ii. Chris- This research will allow us to respond a lot quicker and target whatever is necessary. jj. Alex- For Booyah! and destination advertising, our biggest focus is getting an earlier start. If we can get started as soon as the snow season ends, it will be helpful. There is a slight increase when it comes to out-of-state funding. We think looking at Facebook is a great area for us to focus on. i. Mia- Why are the fees broken down into media fees and professional fees? ii. Meggen- It actually is a decrease in professional fees and increase in paid media. kk. Kelli- We need to print more of the hiking map. ll. Alex- For international, we would like the introduction of a display campaign. We would like to expand that in 2014. mm. Davy- Vail Resorts has chosen not to go with Brand USA. The issue we saw was that you can’t control the branding and where it is placed. nn. Meggen- For Front Range advertising, the fee has basically stayed the same. From a promotion standpoint, the fees are associated with the master calendar. There is a significant cut with the Front Range marketing. We have a smaller budget to deal with. oo. Chris – For groups and meetings, there is a slight increase to the professional fees. 2007 was the last time the group team had a collateral piece. We haven’t used ours for two years. pp. Kristin- Fees were kept flat this year with the idea that we are going to ask for more for the 2015 epic discovery. qq. Meggen- There really is a need for a summer helicopter shot and there is a need for Kristin’s B role. rr. Chris- For our research, we are partnering with Vail Mountain and Destimetrics. The increase is for the addition of the mid-month reports. We hope to be more tactical and responsive to the needs. ss. Kelli- The biggest challenge we have is to get content from event promoters. Administration costs are flat. There is $2,000 increase for Kathleen’s time and for my time as well. As the budget grows it just takes more time. tt. Chris- The VVP fees are similar. They are flat. uu. Meggen- We are constantly talking about ‘packaging’ and currently this is not included in any partners’ scope. vv. Kelli- We were told by Vail/Beaver Creek central reservations that there is a huge educational component to packaging, but not many people are actually buying it. It’s a sort of grey area. Where does our role come in? ww. Kristin- It’s really important from a PR/messaging standpoint. Maybe we need to have a smaller conversation on packaging? We need to identify what our assets are and how we want to put it together with a unique message. xx. Mia- I am struggling with this whole international thing. If we really want to make great strides, we need to rely heavily on wholesale. yy. Kristin- I agree with you. It comes down to putting together packages that they want to sell. zz. Meggen- It is so much more time. It’s the time to work with each individual wholesaler. aaa. Davy- Vail needs to be more present in these visits. bbb. Kristin- I think we all agree that we need to have a greater discussion on the tactics. ccc. Meggen- This past year we did not have the Vail Resorts team working with us. Leveraging with the VR team will be hugely different for next year. ddd. Kelli- Tactics will come in at the October 17th meeting. If you want to make a change, it should be made now. From a strategic standpoint, we need to look at these buckets. eee. Beth- Are we approaching this in the right way or should we be looking at another vehicle? fff. Kristin- The wholesaler side is something we do need to figure out. ggg. Davy- I think the big problem now is that the budget does not match up with our goals. I don’t think we are going to solve the whole international strategy right now. Maybe we were a bit too aspirational? Motion to modify the international goal to 3%, to modify the out-of-state to 50% and move the balance to in-state with the budget reflecting these proposed shifts/Mia Vlaar. Seconded/Skip Thurnauer. Passed Unanimously. hhh. Further Discussion. i. Skip- How do we translate our goals to our partners? ii. Amy- I have been working with the wholesalers and what they want is a package. Let’s give them a package and see what works. Let’s test it out. iii. Beth- I am concerned about the presentation, it should be politically adept and simple. iv. Kelli- We are going to ask Davy and John to present this to the Council. v. Laurie- At the executive meeting, are all the contracts being looked at? vi. Kelli- Yes, as many of the partners who can be there on Sept 17th is a good thing too. vii. Beth- It concerns me we don’t have the benefit of the Burke research annually. Should we spend the $50,000 each year? viii. Kelli- We’d like to see what the results are from this year. If there is a big drastic change, then maybe we should do it every year. ix. Beth- When do we present with the Economic Council? x. Kelli- The CSE is going in September, so maybe we present in November? xi. Beth- We just need to remember to get in front of them. IV. Adjournment a. Motion to adjourn/Laurie Mullen. Seconded/Mia Vlaar. Passed unanimously. V. Upcoming Meetings: a. VLMD Meeting, September 17, Time TBD, Council Chambers b. VLMD Meeting, October 1, Time TBD, Council Chambers c. VLMDAC Executive Session, October 10, 8:30-1:00, Location TBD d. VLMDAC Meeting, October 17, 8:30- 11:30, Antlers