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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVLMDAC November2013 FINALDRAFT Minutes Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Thursday, November 21, 2013 8:30 AM – 11:30 PM Vail Antlers Lodge - Caribou/Pronghorn Room VLMDAC Members Present: Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart) Mia Vlaar, Vice Chair (East West Resorts) Skip Thurnauer Davy Ratchford (Vail Resorts) Michael Holton (VVMC), Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District) John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME) Absent: Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs) Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail) Sybill Navas (CSE) Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership) Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing) Kristin Yantis (MYPR) Josh Culver (via phone)(Booyah!) Haley McNeill (Vail Valley Partnership) Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership) Katie Johnson (Vail Cascade) Duncan Horner (Vail Valley Foundation) Sarah Franke (Group 970) Jenn Bruno (Vail Town Council) Carly Winn (Bravo!) Rayla Kundolf (Masters Gallery) Bobby Bank (Vail Welcome Center) Barry Davis (Yellow Belly) Amy Cassidy (Say No More Productions) Jim Palermo (Bravo!) Jeanne Reid (Bravo!) Brandon Durgan Julie Norberg (Aspen/Vail Ice) Liz Campbell (Betty Ford Alpine Gardens) Tim Campbell October 2013 Monthly Financial Report – Kelli McDonald Kathleen Halloran is expecting $2.4 million in lodging sales tax revenue for 2013. Partners are asked to send any projected savings for 2014 to Kelli. All invoices are due by Dec 15. September was record sales month. Approval of September 17, 2013 Meeting Minutes Motion to accept minutes as presented/Skip Thurnauer. Seconded/Davy Ratchford. Passed unanimously. Presentation of Draft CSE 2014 Allocation Recommendations – Barry Davis - See slides for details Sonny Kerstiens (moved), Dave Chapin and Jenn Bruno (elected to Town Council) have left CSE board. Allocations, recaps and strategic plans will be presented to Town Council on Dec. 3. Many events revolve around Lionshead activation. Two new events will be presented to Council for funding. Vail Rocks has replaced Vail Soul Fest dates, as that event did not receive funding. Culinary demonstrations did not present a fully flushed out event but Group 970 will continue to work with CSE on the future of this event. Lionshead Fall Wine Festival is a new event and will kick off Vail Beaver Creek Restaurant Month. Vail HoliDaze funding will include tree lighting and AIPP lighting decoration with a small program, two nights of ice skating shows at Solaris, the torchlight ski down and fireworks. Allocations are final after December 4 and some event funding might have to be revisited after the budget is presented to Council. CSE instructed all event producers that the 2014 event budget was cut by 10%. Vail America Days has a larger budget because fireworks have to be purchased in 2014. Fireworks that were not utilized in 2012 (due to drought conditions) were used in 2013. Solaris has asked to program an event for the Fourth of July in the plaza with music, food and kids’ activities. The GOPro Mountain Games have asked for an additional $15,000 for the “Bad Ass Dash” in Lionshead. CSE worked hard to merge events that fell near each other on the calendar to provide better and more cohesive events. 2014 event calendars will be created after Council approves funding. VLMDAC should identify events that should be highlighted for marketing. Nov. 26 is due date for interested 5 open positions on the CSE and 4 open positions on VLMDAC. 2015 Brand USA Allocation and Warren Miller Video – Davy Ratchford (VR) Duncan Horner (VVF) - See slides for details VLMDAC allocated $2,300 reallocated from international marketing budget for inclusion in the Brand USA efforts. VVF is working to create memorable footage for Vail and Beaver Creek in the Warren Miller film. Price is really good for inclusion in film. Working with Warren Miller means extensive planning and crafting message, Davy will make sure Vail experience comes to life. The film crew will be staying in Vail and VVF is hoping to highlight après scene. 2015 activation will happen from 2015 budget. VVF will hire PR agency to handle 2015 international media efforts. VVF would like to present at January VLMDAC meeting to discuss 2015. VLMDAC would like to identify any additional specific efforts from their budget to promote year round for 2015 races. 2014 Group Sales Tactics VVP. Chris Romer - See slides for details Sales team update – Heather Kerstiens is moving and VVP is seeking a qualified candidate to replace her. Group strategies and tactics don’t change a lot every year, they are adjusted based on what the effective efforts were. The Colorado market is the biggest market driver for group sales. Denver based businesses like to come to Vail for meetings. Group meetings mostly take place mid-week. Working with lodging properties to promote more mid-week groups. VVP no longer brings in large groups for FAMs instead using FAM dollars to bring individual media planners to Vail for one-on-one visits and attending more customer events and tradeshows. VVP works to promote and increase awareness for EGE but does not coordinate and book air transportation, instead the VVP works with partners to book them. Groups use flights coming from Eagle. Cost difference for EGE flights, compared to DIA average $150 per flight. Messaging and awareness for flights is vital to support. VVP saw a 10% uptick in medical meetings and groups. Affordable Care Act (ACA) has presented challenge in limiting number of meetings medical companies can have. VVP working with Senators Bennet and Udall to see if anything can be done with the ACA limitations and looking to push an importance on business meetings. Romer will distribute memo regarding group business and the ACA. Vlaar explained that this shift in strategy for group sales is helpful. Dawsey pointed out that group numbers have dropped and Romer explained that the group sales teams is a new group using a new database which has presented some challenges in pulling that data. Numbers, room nights and leads are still strong and the VVP continues to work to better use and understand new database. Over all, the VVP saw a strong momentum in spring, summer and fall. Holton pointed out that many hospitals and clinical groups have cut budgets a lot. VVP looking to target northeast (NYC) for group sales after seeing an uptick and brand strength in that region. Travel schedule presented – see packet information for details. Relocation of Kim Brussow to FL has meant the VVP has seen in increase in the region, especially Atlanta. VVP will hold Front Range customer events and will include Northern Colorado meeting planners. Vail specific collateral will be created for 2014. Brand and location are the main pitch. Now moving to the subject of customer research, DestiMetrics – budgeted for mid-month reports to adjust approach, the goal is to be in the right place at right time when guest booking happens in different regions. Lodging properties were asked to rate what kind of information they’d feel comfortable releasing about their guest bookings. Partners excited for this tool for marketing to understand customer planning windows and create better strategies. Ratchford enforced the importance of using this data and having it to make marketing discussions. VLMDAC to see what lodging properties will be included in this study. This data is proprietary information and not available for competitors to see. This is an on-demand report and can be pulled whenever logged in – an interactive tool. Motion for approval Motion to approve the budget for new reports from DestiMetrics/Davy Ratchford. Seconded/Laurie Mullen. Passed unanimously. 2014 Public Relations Tactics – Kristin Yantis (MYPR) - See slides for details Media market is changing and many large publications such as Conde Nast have changed staffing. Looking for opportunities to better recruit freelance writers. Yantis referred to the current media market as schizophrenic. Thurnauer pointed out that all PR messaging presented could include family messaging as a sub-category. Still a challenge to collect lodging packages from properties in January to promote to media. VLMDAC to help create package for destination that can be presented to media. Needs to be promoted as a PR tactic. Yantis and Ratchford to meet off line to discuss package challenges. Liz Biebl, McDonald and Yantis to travel to NY for media visits in January. MYPR to integrate with agency that VVF will hire for 2015 international media. Looking to work with lodging properties for GoPro Mountain Games kick off to host more media/Rocky Mountain Adventure Writers Conference. Not doing a cultural FAM trip in 2014, instead promoting cultural offerings throughout Vail. Media on this specific FAM trip not the caliber MYPR is looking for. Second NY trip in the spring on hold, based on budget after in market travel. The Board would like to see media outreach trip to Chicago versus Los Angeles this spring. International travel plans to be adjusted. Working with lodging partners saved $40,000 this summer. 2015 to be a year round group effort from PR standpoint. MYPR will work with VVF on 2015 efforts. Health and Wellbeing - Davy Ratchford VR - See slides for details. Ratchford worried that a lot of time was spent on one pillar. In 2008, a study created a focus on health and wellness. It is not a driver for visitation and we need to be clear on that. This marketing group is responsible to market something that already exists, not create it. Time has been spent meeting with various groups to help flush out health and wellness. McDonald suggested that the group needs to revisit why visitors come to Vail. Health and wellness message should be integrated into marketing messaging but not the sole message to promote the Vail brand. Mullen pointed out that it’s good to have fresh eyes on the marketing efforts and after Burke research data was presented, we need to look at what the key drivers are. Holton pointed out that we miss a category within health and wellness, orthopedic medicine in Vail as it draws a very affluent and influential demographic. Discussion about orthopedic message has not happened and it’s a real driver, we should look at that especially as a PR opportunity. Vail brand continues to support that Vail is a good place to be healthy. Dawsey pointed out there is an opportunity to capitalize on the underlying tone that Vail is a healthy place to be. Many ideas have been discussed to better promote the concept, such as bringing a social influencer to Vail for a summer to create buzz about health and wellness in Vail, via social media. Marketing and PR concept to market health and wellness, but is that the right thing to do? It might be time to realign. Vlaar would like present this idea to Town Council to better understand what emphasis should be placed and determine the overall infrastructure of this concept and to seek out a new point of view. Need to define a plan and present a town initiative. Discussion ensued about having a social influencer in Vail for a summer to promote Vail messaging via social media. Plan to revisit this idea. If there is a need for additional administration support the board would like to allocate funding for that possibility. Vail Winter Branding – Davy Ratchford VR - See slides for details Presented brand vitality that supports Vail brand. VR works with many agencies, including Goodness mfg out of California that handles some projects for Keystone, Vail and Tahoe. Worked with this agency to bridge seasonal needs for ski season. The agency looked at what makes the brand uniquely Vail in four categories: place, experience, promise and perception. They determined that Vail’s strongest asset was industry leadership/iconic nature. They also decided that tagline is still relevant and used existing materials and built branding materials off of it. Nothing different but really defined to showcase Vail as an iconic leader. Logo-wear sales were reviewed and determined that guests have a connection to Vail and want to take it with them. Confident, playful and somewhat cocky ad copy used in combination of photos with graphics for test ads. Test ads were displayed – see presentation for details. Looking to spend money in Chicago and other top destinations where there has been a lapse in skier visits. VR looking to spend money on outdoor advertising with new brand focus in specific zip codes that relate to skier visit numbers. RFQ for Banding Agency. Davy Ratchford - See slides for details Scope of work has been determined and presented for VLMDAC approval. Agency would work with SITE Marketing and VR. Dawsey pointed out that the approach has historically revolved around what VR has done. The agency VR uses (Goodness) has indicated that they would participate in an RFQ. Discussion ensued about the process of seeking out an agency. Health and wellness messaging should be evaluated by agency selected not called out in RFQ, reference removed from RFQ. A maximum of three agencies will be selected to present to the VLMDAC at the December 19 meeting. Motion for RFQ approval: Motion to approve RFQ as revised/Davy Ratchford. Seconded/Laurie Mullen. Passed unanimously. Other Business Letter to the USFS regarding summer mountain activities included in packet material to be signed. Susie Tjossem thanked publicly for her work with the VLMDAC. Adjournment Motion to adjourn/Laurie Mullen. Seconded/John Dawsey. Passed unanimously. Upcoming Meetings: VLMDAC Meeting, December 19, 8:30 – 11:30, Antlers