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Home My WebLink AboutVLMDAC December2013 FINALMinutes Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Thursday, December 19, 2013 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM 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) Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs) Jenn Bruno (Vail Town Council) Dale Bugby (Vail Town Council Alternate) Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail) Sybill Navas (Town of Vail) Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership) Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing) Kristin Yantis (via phone) (MYPR) Alex Rawal (Booyah!) Haley McNeill (Vail Valley Partnership) Rayla Kundolf (CSE) Bobby Bank (CSE) Barry Davis (CSE) Amy Cassidy (CSE) Laura Waniuk (Event Marketing Liaison) I. November 2013 Monthly Financial Report – Kathleen Halloran Thanked vendors for sending remaining invoices for the end of the year. All 2013 services must be billed from 2013 budget. December numbers will be ready in February. Contact Kathleen with any inquires about line items. II. Approval of November 21, 2013 Meeting Minutes  Motion to accept minutes as presented/John Dawsey. Seconded/Michael Holton. Passed unanimously. III. 2014 Special Events Calendar – Meggen Kirkham (SITE) - See slides for details Calendar was handed out and presented, see packet for details. Discussion ensued regarding the CSE’s aim to create a balanced schedule of events through the summer. In 2014, the Town of Vail and the Vail Local Marketing District will spend over five million dollars in event and marketing funding. Laura Waniuk was introduced as the new Event Marketing Liaison. She introduced herself and talked about her work experience in the entertainment product development industry. Her job officially starts January 7. IV. Summer PR/Marketing Concept – Davy Ratchford (VR) & Kristin Yantis (MYPR) (via phone) - See slides for details Explained more about the “America’s Best Summer Job” concept presented at the last VLMDAC meeting. Reviewed scope of work for this “job” and broke down expected social media efforts/deliverables. Budget includes expected time commitment for agency fees and budget re-allocation. Reviewed job description. Less than a 5% change in original 2014 budget. Supplemental funding would have to go through the VLMD and would cause delayed approval. Two options were reviewed. Discussion ensued about moving this program to 2015 to better allocate budget and plan. Ratchford pointed out that this is a change in strategy and not necessarily taking away from deliverables. Looking to give Vail a new voice in summer and bring to life the health and wellness concept. This idea will be a good experiment to see what works and should be explored to better understand how the Vail brand could be better presented. Social identity of person who takes this position is important and deliverables should be focused on individual’s social media strengths. Ratchford said that this plan should be put in place immediately for best results. Thurnauer pointed out that this is a big idea and has a lot of potential. The candidate would be selected via video interviews so that the VLMDAC can weigh during selection process. Ratchford pointed out that this is like hiring a full time employee and advocate for various opportunities to be promoted. Intangibles that are unseen but needed for business, events and the brand. A combination of things in marketing is important. Slifer asked who this person would report to and MYPR would manage the process. Proactive outreach to plan and create a timeline would start ASAP. Dawsey asked what success would look like in September, answered by Ratchford who pointed out a lot is dependent on schedule, feedback from town and community, direct social media centered ROI. Vblog is currently the largest traffic driver for Vail.com and ROI can be tracked from that blog. Discussion about controlling the content ensued. Vlaar pointed out that lodging must be planned out a head of time because the Burke research indicated that guests do not see Vail as having world-class facilities and this would be an opportunity to show a better side of the lodging community and stressed importance of planning out lodging and making sure the lodging set up is easy on participant.  Motion to allocate funds based on option A as presented/Skip Thurnauer. Seconded/Davy Ratchford. Passed unanimously. V. Health & Wellness Opportunities Davy Ratchford (VR) & Kelli McDonald (TOV) - See slides for details New Council Tier – “Life Long Learning” was presented for funding options. $90,000 was allocated for this tier by Town Council. Slifer discussed that Vail Town Council would like VLMDAC to reconnect with James Chung to identify opportunities to help make a decision if health and well being should be part of VLMDAC messaging. Chung was asked to present a proposal and he came back with a 3 tier proposal to review the data that he has and then present his findings to explain what the data currently means and what the trends are. Since Health and Wellbeing was identified the economy has changed and many places like Canyon Ranch have suffered as a result. James Chung would need $15,000- 20,000 to present this data and potential plan. Chung provides data and data interpretations with options for using the data. Reallocation of VLMD budget for funding for Chung input is necessary based on the three options proposed by Chung. Bruno pointed out that there was no complete consensus on this idea by Council. Follow up with Chung is necessary. Holton pointed out that Chung has been working with VVMC to determine how they can better understand health and wellness last summer and the results have not been shared publicly yet. Discussion about Chung’s options and current industry state ensued. It was decided that Kelli will get this topic on an upcoming Council agenda to bring this idea to economic development and have Ratchford present marketing ideas, not engage Chung and not reallocate funds at this time. VI. Branding RFQ Presentations – See attached presentation Pilgrim - Ratchford asked what restrictions are in place for client conflicts and confidential information, answer - nothing. Ratchford said that’s a problem and he’d want to put restrictions in place and they said they are open to that. They believe that there are no current clients that present conflict. Thurnauer asked what the results of the case presented were, answer - the data is included in the proposal. Slifer asked what greatest opportunity is, answer is Epic Discovery but there is concern that it is at all other VR resorts as well. They feel like current marketing approach has taken away from unique European village feel. Goodess mfg – (via phone) Slifer asked to review date range and it was stated that the given timeline in presentation could be shifted to reach May. Thurnauer asked what the issue is regarding why summer is not on the radar as a summer destination, answer - it’s a combination of talking to the right people at the right time, identifying the low hanging fruit and look to factors that would lead to conversion. Holton asked what the most important factor in working with Vail has been so far, answer- strong iconic brand and we need to lean into current iconic status. Looking at where we are culturally, there is a resurgence of heritage brands. Silfer asked if Goodness see’s this as strength, answer - absolutely. Thurnauer asked current status of relationship wit Keystone in terms of ability to separate the two brands, answer - it’s an on going relationship. They are very different brands based on strategic point of view. The advantage is that they are already able to distinguish the two brands because they are so familiar with Keystone. Some senior team management would be working on the account but overall a different day-to-day team. Ratchford pointed out that Keystone and Vail have different brand objectives. VII. Other Business Alex from Booyha gave an update on the CRM database. Things are looking good and the back-end code has been implemented. Two iPad will be installed at the Welcome Center to better integrate with this back end. Holding off on email design till next year to better use new branding materials, etc. The goal is to have something ready by early March to engage audience for summer season. Town of Vail logo will be used to distinguish sign ups from VR email list. This year they will grow on last year’s foundation. Event promoters will be encouraged to push out information for events and will work with Laura. VIII. Adjournment  Motion to adjourn/Laurie Mullen. Seconded/John Dawsey. Passed unanimously. IX. Executive Session Upcoming Meetings: VLMDAC Meeting, January 16, 8:30 – 11:30, Antlers