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Home My WebLink AboutVLMDAC Minutes July Draft Final 1 Minutes Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Thursday, July 16, 2015, 8:30 AM – 11:30 AM The Antlers – Caribou/Pronghorn Room VLMDAC Members Present: Laurie Mullen, (West Vail Liquor Mart) Skip Thurnauer   Beth Slifer (Chair) Jenn Bruno (Vail Town Council Alternate) Mark Herron (Four Seasons Resort Vail) Michael Holton (Vail Valley Medical Center)   Jamie Gunion (Vail Recreation District) on phone Dale Bugby (Vail Town Council Alternate) John Dawsey (Colorado Mountain Express) Jim Kellen (Vail Resorts) Also Present: Kelli McDonald (Town of Vail) Jen Viditz-Ward (Vail Resorts) Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership) Jill Lammers (Vail Valley Partnership) Haley McNeill (Vail Valley Partnership) Kristin Yantis (Malen Yantis Public Relations)   Taylor Prather (Malen Yantis Public Relations) Laura Waniak (CSE Liaison) Jen Hartwick (Booyah) Susan McDonald (Booyah) Lara Carlson (Walking Mountains) Hannah Irwin (Walking Mountains) Kaitlyn Merriman (Walking Mountains) Duncan Horner (Vail Valley Foundation) Greg McGuire (Vail Resorts) Tom Boyd (Vail Valley Foundation) Lorena Melott (Vail Resorts) Ellie Bray (Vail Resorts) Kendyl Severino (Vail Resorts) Kim Langmaid (Walking Mountains) Meggen Kirkham (Site) Satchele Burns Jonathan Smith (Vail Resorts) 2 I. June 2015 Monthly Financial Report – Kelli McDonald – see packet for details May lodging tax collection was down 6% and it is likely weather related. Lodging numbers were flat and the ADR was up through May. Lodging numbers were up through the ski season by 7.5% and still pacing ahead. It was noted that for 2016 budget meetings there will be 4.5% revenue projected increase. Actual budget is $2.9 million. Fund balance is at $1.36 mil and at 50%. A recommendation was made to take funds out prior to establishing the 2016 budget.The recommendation for 2016 is to use $350,000 out of the fund balance. It was asked, what, if any strategy is currently in place for millennials in Denver. Booyah noted that a more targeted approach could be taken with Denver. Discussion ensued about current markets and what is working. II. Approval of February 19, 2015 Meeting Minutes Bugby/Thurnauer-passed unanimously. III. Update on Programming Vail Nature Center Lara Carlson and Hannah Irwin– See slides for details Lara Carlson and Hannah Irwin introduced themselves and roles with Walking Mountains. An overview and history of the Vail Nature Center and who runs it was reviewed. Building and land owned by TOV and it is run by Walking Mountains. The purpose of the plan was presented. Goal is to be a great resource for visitors and locals. The planning process was reviewed. Walking Mountains is working with stakeholders to find out what they would like to see. It was noted that exhibits haven’t been refreshed in a good amount of time. It was noted that they are working to include other facilities with programming that doesn’t compete with each other. The Interpretative Master Plan will include all recommendations for moving forward with facility. Next steps for the plan were presented. It was asked if there have been any major gaps identified and it was answered that the programming is really good but some areas of expansion include educational topics that appeal to locals. The most work will need to be on the overall experience of the center. They are unsure of how the Betty Ford Education Center will complement/compete when it is open (currently under construction). They did identify some overlap in what each center does and they plan to pursue a partnership. Discussion ensued about signage. It was asked what the volume of visitors was like and it was answered that it increases year-after-year. It was asked about exhibits and how they plan to improve it? It was answered that other companies or peer groups will need to be involved to make those improvements. Science Center staff wrote a lot of signage and the goal was to be different than National Park signage and easier to read and understand to contribute to a better overall experience. 3 Overview of summertime programming was presented. 2-3 programs on any day of the week through the summer. Programming is aimed for a broad range of demographics. It was asked what the ratios were like visitors to locals for kids programming, and it was answered it that is depends on the time of year. IV. Results to Date All – see slides for details High level, preliminary results were presented. It was noted that the numbers presented were small. It was also noted that Northwoods Condos are under construction and the Mexico City clientele that usually stay there have not come in the same numbers. It was also noted that Mexican schools have just finished and they are later than normal this year, the reason was unknown. Also noted, the Net Promoter Score evaluations were taken after the trip this summer and not in market, which is a new approach this summer and some results might look different as a result. Booyah Jen Hartwick & Susan McDonald – results to date were presented. Overall campaign cost per visit was up just slightly up from last year. Results by market were presented. The Mountain Games were a huge driver for in state hotel bookings. It was noted that tracking issues have happened and more could have come through the bookings that were not tracked. Report includes creative performance numbers. Discussion ensued about numbers and how they break down. It was asked how guest profiler will show data and it was answered that it would give more insight to booking behavior than direct booking information. Guest Profiler has many levels of data, 33,000 bookings have been collected. Dallas, Houston and Chicago spending ended in June. Traditional media campaigns are wrapping up now. Search based information will continue after digital campaign ends. Discussion ensued about KPI. It was asked if Booyah can identify/break out results for future planning and it was answered that it could be and booking origins can be broken down by market. On going efforts to better segment information will continue. Guest profiler info for June, July, August will be ready by 2016 budget planning. Conversion rate is at industry averages. Discussion ensued about optimization of data. Site Meggen Kirkham – Front Range media recap was presented. Discussion ensued about groups that did not return to Vail and how it affected occupancy levels. Discussion ensued about holding Vail Film Fest in summer. It was suggested that August or September might be a great time to hold that event. Discussion ensued about need times for bookings and how to incentivize those offers. Destination traditional media results were presented. Overall media impressions were presented. VVP Group Sales Chris Romer– numbers on a more granular level are included in monthly reports. Two groups planning to come in 2015 are now coming in 2016. Working with Colorado Tourism Office to bring a large German soccer team. Will result in a 10-day youth, coaching training and some games. Memo in packet introducing new Group Sales Representative, Susan Proffitt will join VVP team in August. It was asked what 2013 numbers looked like and it was noted that info 4 could be collected. It was asked if group numbers would have been impacted by 2015 World Ski Championships and it was answered no because group sales efforts are focused on spring summer and fall not winter. Vail email results Kendyl Severino - list size was presented. Email list size and open rate by monthly send was presented. May and June results were presented. It was encouraged for VLMDAC board members and partners to subscribe to email newsletter to better understand current content. Users who receive the email are clicking most on events like GoPro Mountain Games and “best hikes in Vail,” blog content has also been clicked on largely. It was noted to differentiate content from leading with lodging offers. More engagement comes with better content. High-level Vail.com results were presented. It was asked what a unit vs. an order is? It was answered that an order was what they clicked to buy and unit is components of what was purchased. Only included lodging purchased on Vail.com. More insights to come to better understand unit vs. order. Summer preference opt-in users were targets for Vail summer email. It was noted that the unsubscribe list was low considering duration of time those users were on the list. It was asked if Epic Pass summer benefits were included in email messaging and it was answered that is was but not as much as a winter. Epic Pass messaging ramps up in August for VR list of emails. It was encouraged to use that product promotion more. PR Kristin Yantis – comp set was presented for Breckenridge, Lake Tahoe, Aspen/Steamboat/Park City and Vail. Supplemental spend social media plan was presented. Results were presented. Results compared to comp set were presented. Qualitative analysis was presented by comp set. Discussion ensued about how helpful comp set analysis was. Coverage so far this summer was presented. Key messages were presented. Share of voice results were presented. Added value social media coverage was presented. It was acknowledged that Vail is getting coverage in Q1 and that it achieves the goal to maintain a year round effort along with staying ahead of competitors. V. Video Plan Update – Satchele Burns – see slides for details Video objectives and strategy were presented. Vail brand “enchanted” look videos were presented. Specific events were targeted for videos. Shot list was included in packet material. Raw format video footage change was explained as being the current trend in video and consisted of a more labor-intensive process with a better outcome in quality of video. It is the future of capturing motion pictures. Discussion ensued about use of VO on video that was shown and opportunity for brand type video. VI. Mid-July Front Range Push Site – see slides for details Skipped because it was covered earlier. VII. International Update VR Jen Viditz-Ward – see slides for details Results will be emailed. Second “influencer” FAM tour had just concluded. 5 Millennials were targeted. Influencers social media posting results were presented. Team collaboration on Mexican efforts has been great. More FAM trips to come in September. Oktoberfest focus due to popularity of micro brews in Mexico. It was noted there are some ideas for 2016 being developed. VIII. SEO Update Vail Resorts Kendy Severino and Greg McGuire – see slides for details Background on SEO was presented. Search engine visibility was presented. Year- over-year results were presented. Summer related content pages that present opportunity were presented. Competitive analysis was presented for Aspen, Whistler and Vail. Current traffic is targeting Vail specific but there is an opportunity to capture non-branded searches. It was noted that Whistler captured large audience from publishing extensive mountain biking content that was not directly selling Whistler. Recommendations were presented. Discussion ensued about how valuable recommendation was and how much opportunity there is for content. It was recommended to come up with specific SEO goals. Video was shown from Stachele. It was noted that Kendyl will be contact for SEO. IX. CSE Meeting Recap Kelli McDonald – see slides for details Joint meeting happened last month and strategies that came out of meeting were presented. Event spend of VLMD was also presented. X. OSVG 2016 Site – See slides for details Official State Vacation Guide contract is up for 2016. Last year’s efforts were presented along with 2016 proposal. It was asked what kind of artwork it was in 2015 publication and it was answered that last year’s ad was an older brand version. New branding was used in summer ALIVE publication. Suggested to repurpose 2015 existing ad with option to update for summer ALIVE publication.  Motion to includeOfficial Sate Vacation Guide in 2016 budget, as presented Thurnauer /Gunion - Passed unanimously. XI. Other Business   XII. Adjournment  - for executive session. Upcoming Meetings:   VLMDAC Meeting, August 20, 2015, 8:30 – 11:30 AM, Antlers