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Home My WebLink AboutVLMDAC July Minutes DRAFT_1Minutes Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Thursday, July 17, 2014 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM The Antlers – Caribou/Pronghorn Room VLMDAC Members Present: Beth Slifer, Chair (Slifer Designs) Mia Vlaar, Vice Chair (East West Resorts) Michael Holton (VVMC) Jenn Bruno (Vail Town Council) Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District) Davy Ratchford (Vail Resorts) Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor Mart) Dale Bugby (Vail Town Council alternate) VLMDAC Members Absent Skip Thurnauer John Dawsey, Treasurer (CME) Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail) Sybill Navas (Town of Vail) Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership) Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership) Haley McNeill (Vail Valley Partnership) Laura Waniuk (Event Marketing Liaison) Jonathan Smith (Vail Resorts) Kari Moor (Vail Resorts) Satchele Burns Kristin Yantis (MYPR) Kendyl Severino (Vail Mountain digital) Kathleen Halloran (Town of Vail) Brooke Macke (Vail Resorts) Josh Culver (Booyah) Ben Waymire (Booyah) Lorena Melott (VBCR) Gabby Milhoan (Peak Wellness) Lauran Arnold (Peak Wellness) Jeff Morgan (Vail Vitality Center) Melanie Wong (Vail Daily) I. June 2014 Monthly Financial Report Kathleen Halloran Supplemental funding was passed Tuesday, thanked board for support. 2015 budget process is upcoming. Operating Plan and Budget due September 16, Resolution is Oct 21. June is not included in packet material but pacing is ahead, 5% above last year, $2.9 million to work with for 2015. Beth asked what percentage is in reserve and it was answered with 40% and might be higher by the end of the calendar year. II. Approval of May 15, 2014 Meeting Minutes  Motion to accept minutes as presented/Vlaar. Seconded/ Mullen. Passed unanimously III. Peak Wellness Retreat - Lauren Arnold & Gaby Milhoan - see slides for details Presented test group funded by the CSE results. Explained results of group. It was asked if there was a lodging partner established and Four Seasons and Vail Mountain Lodge are offering a whole seller rate for the program. Locals program does not have a lodging program. Local word of mouth is missing in current program. Behind in sales for July and August due to delay of website launch. Website was presented. It was asked if anyone had signed up yet and answer was 11 people have signed up for programs in August and September. It was asked if they had talked with Duncan Horner and Kate Peters with VVF and they have not, McDonald will make an introduction to attempt to include PWHher marketing materials in USPCC. It was asked if the logo could include the Vail bug logo and they said they could work with creative team. Holton pointed out that the program is evolving and a work in progress. VVMC is a partner with the program and pointed out that the Vitality Center makes a great partner with program as well. Marketing dollars are needed. CSE funds have already been given to them for marketing purposes. IV. Group Sales Update, VVP Chris Romer – see slides for details Monthly group sales report included in packet materials. Objectives for group sales were explained. Tracking of markets was explained. Sports tournaments down this summer due to field construction. McDonald pointed out that VVP has worked hard to get teams to stay in Vail and establish messaging around shuttles to rec fields. Repeat programs are not tracked due to being established recurring programs. VVP works as advocates for the town. There is a lot of behind the scenes coordinating the efforts to keep teams in Vail. Vlaar pointed out that Vail needs to work to make sure teams want to come back to Vail next year when the fields are done next summer. CSE funding should revolve around Vail centric efforts for keeping people in Vail. Navas pointed out that CSE worked hard to encourage the teams to stay in Vail lodging. Group team will work with town to push Vail lodging. Vail Rec is working hard to help push Vail lodging messaging. Attending TEAMS trade show in fall to push Vail sporting events/groups. Positive momentum in 2014, 2013 group sales experienced transition but 2014 numbers have increased. On the right track for 2014. Revenue on the books was higher in 2013 as they booked record numbers, difference was $100,000. Calendar year is what was represented in graph. It was pointed out that there is still plenty of time remaining in calendar year to make up difference. Hard to track groups like weddings, group sales team sends plenty of wedding leads but there is no way to track how people book for those groups. Affordable Care Act has a restricted Sunshine Act about doctors attending medical conferences. Very restrictive about what they can do – details in memo included in packet. Medical groups can’t stay in hotel with ‘resort’ in the name. Vertical market tracking based on who signed contract. Huge majority of groups have incentive groups sign contract. Tracking based on that. Growth in the Midwest market. Corporate business is up and association business is down. Leads are sent out to all relevant properties for the requirements of groups and help properties close contract. Hard to track how many nights booked. Contracted groups are easy to track. Mullen pointed out that VVP should receive commissions for social groups efforts that result in nights booked. Gunion pointed out that lodging efforts could be used for the Sportsmanship Tournament in September. V. Discussion of General Manager Survey, VLMDAC Info included in packet. It was asked if old survey is relevant to be used again. Bugby pointed out that the interaction with the lodging community is worthwhile. Original survey is from 2002. Vlaar pointed out that a lot of the questions are for things the board does not have control over. It was suggested to get the GM’s in a room for a discussion twice a year to get feedback. Occupancy information can currently be tracked. Lodging GM’s gave Romer significant feedback for discussion about current trends and sharing branding information. It was suggested that all Dir. of Sales and Marketing should be invited to meeting with GM’s. VR meetings are well attended by Dir. of Sales and Marketing. Romer pointed out that personal outreach to properties was vital to the success of May meeting with properties. Lunch seemed like an appropriate time for this meeting after the October 16 regularly scheduled VLMDAC meeting. VI. Public Relations Update, MYPR Kristin Yantis – see slides for details Currently a FAM is in town participating in hiking trip and Taylor is absent since she’s on the trip. Mullen attended a hike with group and pointed out that it was great to talk to journalists and understand what kinds of topics they are interested in writing about. America’s best summer status update. Ratchford pointed out that the success of this campaign has been largely due to a team effort and it has pushed VR to be more creative. 10 weeks of lodging has been comp’d. $5000 has been put aside for him to do other things due to the savings from not paying for lodging. Vlaar suggested Trip Advisor should be pitched for use of Vail Ben content. Packaging final product (all content generated by Ben) will be a challenge but valuable for use with GM’s. Discussion ensued about uses for collected content and bringing Ben into media trips to NYC. VII. Digital Update, Booyah! – Ben Waymire & Josh Culver - see slides for details Analytics were presented for summer efforts. Email database is gaining momentum. August 12 is the last deployment of an email blast. Ratchford pointed out that total visits are up significantly. Year after year the visits are increasing. A bot was interrupting visitor numbers and making it look like traffic and the problem has been corrected. VIII. Video Update, (30 minutes), Satchele Burns – see slides for details Equipment upgrade and advancement information was presented. Raw video is the current trend. Ratchford pointed out that Satchele has done an incredible equipment upgrade and now shooting Vail videos with the best equipment available. New equipment captures video to better work with in post-production. Showed video that captured the ‘enchanted’ imaging direction from goodness mfg. A video about a vendor that participates in the Vail Farmers Market was shown and discussion ensued about adding a shot of the expansive Vail Famers Market to the video. IX. Other Business Kelli – Vail hosted a “Texas radio celebrity” and reported back that he had a great time and to date, according to the ‘radio celebrity’ Vail has received upwards of $30,000 worth of publicity from his efforts. This is an ongoing relationship, he is from Houston and could help generate momentum for the Houston market. Davy – use of type face on creative. There are branding and reproduction issues with use of current type face. Recommendation to shift type face for creative, using same type face as winter brand – sans serif. It was pointed out that goodness mfg. did everything the board asked to them do but it was decided that shifting the design look of creative would better convey the message. Davy and Kelli will follow up goodness. Big issue is more related to digital. Type face of font is the only issue. Jamie - 18th hole cup cutting happening at Vail GC at 9am on Tuesday, July 22. Beth – RRC Associates, presented and the Vail Town Council has concluded to do more research on the millennial market. More incorporation of research for 2015 planning to result. Davy pointed out the research seemed very valid and more work will be done to interpret it. Discussion ensued about research opportunities. X. Adjournment  Motion to adjourn/ Ratchford. Seconded/Mullen. Passed unanimously. Upcoming Meeting: VLMDAC Meeting, August 21, 8:30 – 11:30, Antlers CSE Meeting, September 3, 8:30 – 11:00, Council Chambers VLMD Operating Plan & Budget, September 16, Time TBD, Council Chambers VLMD Budget Resolution, October 21, Time TBD, Council Chambers