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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08. VLMDAC November Meeting PresentationVLMDAC BOARD MEETING NOVEMBER 18, 2020 Agenda •Monthly Financial Report, Carlie Smith •Approval of October 15, 2020 Minutes, Board •2020 Metrics, Media & Website Results & Implications, Cactus •2021 Planning Process & Timeline, Cactus •Influencer Report, MYPR •International PR Report, MYPR •Data Systems Roadmap Update, Bob Brown & Jim Kellen •Lodge Liaison Update, Mark Herron •CSE Meeting Update, Jeremy Gross •Other Business MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORT HIGH-LEVEL ROLLING METRICS Occupancy Seasonal Lodging Occupancy 30.9% Destimetrics reported May through October2019 Average Seasonal Occupancy 44.76%YOY Seasonal Occupancy is down 45% Average Daily Rate Remains Strong May-Oct ADR $249 YOY ADRComparison +6% 2019 May-Oct average ADR = $236 Lodging & Sales Tax May -SeptemberLodging Tax $737,549 (-13.5% YOY) May –SeptemberSales Tax $7,469,402 (-14% YOY) 2020 MEDIA & WEBSITE RESULTS & IMPLICATIONS Overall Goals / KPIs INSPIRATION CONSIDERATION BOOKING PLANNING EXPERIENCING SHARING Media KPI’s: -Messages -Audiences -Tactics -Devices -Time + day -Seasonality -Impressions -Clicks -Video Completions Website Content engagement KPI’s: -Site Sessions -Site Users -Top Level Page Content Behavior Tracking: -Competitive set interest -Search (events, weather, dining, etc.) -Channel behavior Website Content engagement KPI’s: -Time on Site -Bounce Rate -Pages / Session -Page content -Newsletter sign-ups Understand and optimize: -RODAS -Adara (booking timeline, trip details: length of stay, spend, party size) -Other sources (lodging reports, Destimetrics, etc.) Website Booking Engagement -Website Lodging Clicks -Book Direct Searches -Book Direct Referrals Owned activity engagement: Website: planning conversion ideas: -Itineraries -Travel Guide -Content Download In-market data: restaurants Movement through Vail Points of Interest Social monitoring: Engagement Sentiment Sharing Shareable moments that can inform the journey Encourage re- visitation Return on Digital Ad Spend (RODAS) •For every $1 we spend in digital paid media, we are generating an estimated $7.85 in lodging revenue •This is up from $7.54 RODAS reported in October •Final summer RODAS will be reported in February following the close of the 90-day Adara attribution window = Adara Reported RODAS x 1.72 (weighted for 28% of market) Adara Adjusted $7.85 RODAS ADARA private & confidential Growing your DMO’s data co-op results in more effective DMO marketing Today all the media is optimizing toward properties being tracked in the ADARA ecosystem. We want to ensure our media is driving travel to your property: ●You directly benefit from our marketing dollars ●We optimize to your travelers driving room nights for your property as part of the destination The only way this is possible is if your property is participating in the Local Data Program YOUR DESTINATION Independent Independent Boutique Local chain Boutique Inspiration Paid media completed delivery in November Spend Impressions Clicks $746,730 50.9M 210.6K Completed Video Views 8.7M Front Range was best opportunity market •Front Range accounted for 75% of Adara reported revenue and 63% of digital spend •High level of awareness and proximity to Vail can be attributed to higher booking volume •RODAS strong across all months and in most cases, it was the highest RODAS by market each month •Front Range trip planning window averages 22-25 days as compared to an average of 35-45 days for all other markets •Colorado made up 49% of all web traffic and 15% of all booking engagement –specifically from Denver and Colorado Springs Implication: we will look to a similar budget allocation and media mix to support the Front Range, especially if COVID-19’s impact on travel continues in 2021 Consideration PPC was most effective tactic across all markets •Effectiveness of PPC is attributed to engaging consumers as they are actively looking for travel and/or Vail-specific information •Vail terms are best booking opportunity for Front Range due to higher awareness •Destination markets have the best opportunity on lodging and activity terms as they don’t yet know Vail is their destination •PPC accounted for 66% of all total website sessions and 62% of all booking engagement to Book Direct Implication: Focus on branded terms in Front Range to lean into high awareness and non-branded terms in destination markets to engage travelers earlier in their travel planning process; explore heavier budget and additional destination markets. Target consumers were looking for local Colorado travel •Per Adara reported data, our target travelers were also searching and booking hotels in other Colorado mountain resort towns •Top booking hotel destinations: •Breckenridge •Aspen/Snowmass •Beaver Creek •Steamboat Springs Implication: Explore competitive conquesting opportunities in digital channels to reach travelers searching for and engaging with content related to these towns. Booking Vaildaily.com was most cost-efficient booking tactic •Able to hit a highly qualified, Vail aware audience with a limited budget and a market agnostic approach •Minimal investment of $24K and driving a $57 RODAS –see appendix for RODAS breakouts and context by market, tactic, and audience. •Majority of bookings came from Denver, Dallas and New York City •Tactic had the longest trip planning window at ~50 days from first search to in-market arrival Implication: Look to refine messaging to focus on website (i.e., events, activities, up-to-date travel information, etc.) as opposed to destination; Front-weight delivery to reach travelers in all markets who are proactively planning summer travel and already aware of Vail. Families were most cost-efficient audience to book •Targeting families across markets allows for our dollars to further as it requires less investment to get them to book •For every $1 we invested in targeting Families in all markets, we are generating an estimated $14.75 in lodging revenue •Prospecting Families through display banners was 4x more effective than reaching them with video •Active Professionals were more likely to convert from video, which is a more expensive tactic Implication: Given audience conversion behaviors, we’ll look to weighted tactics by audience and market 2021 to focus display on Families and video on Active Professionals. 2021 Paid Media Opportunities Spend 1.Optimize to Front Range: with high awareness and booking volume coming from the Front Range, we will continue to focus our investments here should COVID-19’s impact on travel continue into 2021. 2.Refine tactics by audience: as we finalize the RODAS, our approach will be a balanced media mix of cost-efficient tactics and booking conversion-focused tactics by audience and market. 3.Explore market-agnostic opportunities: stemming from the success of display alignment on vaildaily.com, we’ll continue to explore channels that reach highly aware Vail travelers in markets across the U.S. WEBSITE REVIEW & OUTLOOK Website Goals / KPIs INSPIRATION CONSIDERATION BOOKING PLANNING EXPERIENCING SHARING Website Content engagement: -Site Sessions -Site Users -Top Level Page Content Website Content engagement: educate visitors about Vail while overcoming and motivating visitation -Time on Site -Bounce Rate -Pages / Session -Page content -Newsletter sign-ups Drive Lodging and Booking Engagement (Tax Revenue) -Website Lodging Clicks -Book Direct Searches -Book Direct Referrals Owned activity engagement: Website: planning conversion ideas: -Itineraries -Travel Guide -Content Download In-market data: restaurants Movement through Vail Points of Interest Social monitoring: Engagement Sentiment Sharing Shareable moments that can inform the journey Encourage re- visitation Inspiration Baseline for unfiltered web traffic June 1 –October 31, 2020 Site VisitorsSite Sessions 258k 209k Mobile | Desk | Tab 66% | 30% |4% Web traffic aligns with Paid Media June 1 –October 31, 2020 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 June July August September October Sessions Users Consideration Filtered website engagement baseline June 1 –October 31, 2020 Filtered, non-bounce traffic data Pages / SessionBounce Rate 21%3.1 Avg. Site Session 2:55 Benchmark Bounce Rate: Excellent: < 25% Good: 26% -49% Average: 50%-65% Benchmark P/S: Excellent: 3+ p/s Good: 2 p/s Average: 1 p/s Benchmark TOS: Excellent: 3+ min Good: 2+ min Average: 1+ minute While organic grows, paid and referral sources are vital Spend •With a recently launched website, with a new URL, and new content it will take time to index on search engines and grow consistent organic web traffic. Web traffic volume is important for driving data into our system. •Paid and referral sources are vital to our success, driving 81% of web traffic while our new website grows organically. •Paid traffic accounts for 62% of all booking engagement clicks •Referral traffic accounts for 30% of all booking engagement clicks •Vail.com –15% of referral traffic, 15% of all booking engagement •Vailgov.com –13% of referral traffic, 9% of booking engagement •All partners should be actively linking to DiscoverVail.com June 1 –October 31, 2020 Traffic Source Breakdown June 1 –October 31, 2020 3k Referral (15%) Paid (66%) Direct (13%) Organic (2%) Social (2%) Email (1%) Source Examples: Paid: PPC, display, video, Vail Daily, etc. Referral: Vail.com, VailGov.com, etc. Direct: users typing directly into browser Organic: users searching in Google, Bing, etc. Social:Facebook,Instagram, etc. Our users want timely, fresh content Spend •Our visitors are most engaged with current conditions and want to know what’s happening in-market and what’s available, especially given the current climate. •Vail Strong (7+min), Open Restaurants (5+ min), Dining (4+ min) are the most engaged content •Top content followed by booking engagement includes: Surround yourself with fall, on the Water in Vail, Scenic Gondola, and Gardens & Parks (not including top-level pages) June 1 –October 31, 2020 Booking Website Engagement KPI’s YTD June 1 –October 31, 2020 Website BookingConversions On-site Newsletter Sign-Ups 599 5,692 Book DirectLodging Searches 8,429 Book DirectLodging Referrals 5,254 User action on DiscoverVail User action on DiscoverVail going to Book Direct Page Users searching for Lodging on Book Direct page User action on Book Direct to go to Lodging properties Website drives booking action Spend •Over 5,000 website lodging engagement conversions and over 5,000 Book Direct lodging property referrals •For non-bounce traffic, our booking engagement conversion rate per user is 9.68%. This is the measurement we’ll use moving forward for improvement. For a brand new site with a shortened COVID-19 season, this is a good start. •Not surprisingly, Home > Things to Do > Lodging is our most common user journey for engagement conversion, but this still indicates there’s a significant portion of traffic landing on our site with lingering questions and needs before making a decision June 1 –October 31, 2020 Booking Breakdown by Traffic Source 3k Referral (30%)Paid (62%) Direct (5%) Organic (2%) Social (2%) Email (1%) June 1 –October 31, 2020 Source Examples: Paid: PPC, display, video, Vail Daily, etc. Referral: Vail.com, VailGov.com, etc. Direct: users typing directly into browser Organic: users searching in Google, Bing, etc. Social: Facebook,Instagram, etc. 2021 Website Opportunities Spend 1.Growing our content: adding relevant, strategic content is needed to improve digital visibility, organic growth, referral growth and increase user volume. Our upcoming UX and Content audits will support organic, social, and referral traffic sources. 2.Continue to optimize for mobile-first experience: mobile device traffic makes up a majority of our traffic (70%). Optimizing the mobile web experience will improve our booking engagement, website vitals, and enhance our ability to educate and convert potential visitors. This includes mobile-friendly content optimizations and site speed optimizations for cellular data load time. 3.Conversion & value points: strategic content layers and links that provide value to users at each step of their journey –planners, maps, itineraries, etc. June 1 –October 31, 2020 2021 Additional Opportunities Spend 1.Short-term Rentals: validate consumer shift to short-term rental market in order to identify opportunities for the board and partner groups. 2.Extending the user journey: planning, in-market, sharing –how do we grow data collection at the planning and in-market stages? How do we collect data from partner groups? 3.Data Maturity model: integration with work being done by Brown Analytics and Open Space. 2021 PLANNING PROCESS & TIMELINE 2021 Planning Timeline Dec 16 Strategy + Comms Approach Develop Creative + Comms Briefs Jan 21 Final Tactical + Creative Presentation Existing Assets Prep + Launch Feb 18 Mar 18 Nov 18 INFLUENCER REPORT 2020 Influencer Strategy •Due to COVID-19, shift focus to Front Range influencers •Where possible, identify cross-over media/influencers •One targeted destination influencer, focus on teen family travel Posts with Most Engagement Posts with Most Engagement Results •171,200 users reached •77% women •55% between ages of 25-35 •Top Skill –Adventure •823,000 impressions •$103,400 earned media (5:1 ROI) INTERNATIONAL PR REPORT Overall Results •No. of Clips –26, Tier 1 media outlets. •Circulation/Reach –21M •Key Messages •Traveling to a place with outdoor activities during the pandemic. •What to do in Vail during the summer. •Safety protocols. •Cultural offerings –dining/art. •Inspiration location, post confinement. •Mexican celebrities and personalities in Vail during the summer. Sample Coverage Sample Coverage Social Media Media Changes/Closures Market Intelligence •Most moved to beach and leisure houses during quarantine. •Three main destination visited this summer –NYC, Vail and Miami. •Most Mexicans who spent the summer in Vail stayed at owned and rented houses/condos. •Most travelers were between 23 and 38 y/o. •“Workations,” longer stays. •Many staying until schools go back to in-person learning. •Economy and security in Mexico worries citizens. •According to Forbes, “Mexican tourists are the first to travel abroad from all Latin American markets after the pandemic shut down and 61% of Mexicans had the US as first choice of international destinations.” Market Intelligence •54% of Mexicans plan to take a trip during the last quarter of 2020. •It was hard letting press companies in Mexico know we were not doing a formal marketing activity nor buying media. Everyone forecasted Mexicans would travel to outdoor destinations like Vail. DATA SYSTEMS ROADMAP UPDATE Objectives (-25% YOY)(-24% YOY) 1.Understand who our customers are: enable targeting and personalization by growing acquisition of customer data 2.Drive visitation growth (tax revenue) through increased marketing personalization and improved targeting 3.Obtaining customer data at each point in the customer journey 4.Take an iterative approach to leverage small investments to show ROI and inform larger investments Status (-25% YOY)(-24% YOY) Step 1: Current State Maturity Model •Evaluate current capabilities along the 5 building blocks •Target: 11/20 Step 2: Roadmap Summary Development •Develop key themes by time period and develop 3-year roadmap plan with tasks •Target: 12/11 Step 3: Roadmap Detail Development •Define additional detail around each roadmap task with costs/effort required •Target: 12/23 •Conducted 5 workshops with TOV and Cactus teams •Sharing maturity model output today •Have kicked off roadmap summary development step Organizational Collaboration Defining ownership of CRM and ensuring staffing and defined responsibilities to deliver on goals Marketing Data Evolving information on customers to leverage as a foundation for all data-driven efforts Analytics / Insights Understanding and leveraging performance and motivations at a customer level Marketing Strategy Align with VLMD goals and provide north star for all data-driven investments Automation / Execution Develop capabilities to execute on the vision across all marketing channels Maturity Assessment •Green = Solid capability •Yellow = Room for improvement •Red = Capability gap •5 workshops with both TOV/Cactus •Discussion of current state for each item •Alignment on color assessment Organizational Collaboration The fundamentals of the partnership model work well in the current state. But as the role of VLMD evolves, there will be an increasing burden on alignment and coordination. Marketing Data We have solid management of our existing data sources, but the amount of data is limited. These gaps in data capture across all guest touchpoints will hinder analysis, segmentation, and targeted marketing efforts across channels as we move forward. Analytics / Insights Within each silo of data we have this capability, but no capability exists to tie together information across guest touchpoints to really understand what our visitors are doing, what their value to the town is, and how to target them in marketing efforts Marketing Strategy Plans are developed collaboratively at the beginning of each year, and then the drift begins where each silo manages their efforts independently Automation / Execution Due to the lack of coordination across silos and the top-of -funnel positioning of the VLMD, there is limited coordinated cross-channel design, execution, analysis, and continuous improvement of marketing campaigns Maturity Assessment Next Steps (-25% YOY)(-24% YOY) 1.Address any follow-ups or questions from this meeting 2.Develop and share Roadmap Summary 3.Develop and share Roadmap Details LODGE LIAISON UPDATE Lodging Liaison Report •Invitation sent to 200 lodging professionals •Presenters:Vail Resorts, Vail Valley Partnership, Vail Local Marketing District and Vail Chamber and Business Association •Topics:Destimetrics -industry and local view, lodging trends, air & flight trends into Vail Valley, updated covid-19 operating guidelines, Vail Resorts central reservations and upcoming lodging sales, Vail mountain update, Epic Mountain Express Transportation, Town of Vail events, presenters Q&A Vail Lodging Winter Roundtable November 18, 3PM Tool Kit •Lodging tab to include: Lodging Promotions, Special Events, COVID-19 Guidelines, Lodging Community Forum, Announcement/Awards Lodging Liaison Report (-25% YOY)(-24% YOY) •Questions to be created with the VLMD •Survey to be sent to every lodging partner •Results will be tabulated and shared •Create short term road map for Winter Season •Create two-year roadmap that outlines specific KPI’s and deliverables based upon the outcome of the SOAR analysis review SOAR Analysis (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results) CSE MEETING UPDATE BOARD OPENINGS Commission on Special Events (-25% YOY)(-24% YOY) •4 vacancies exist on the commission https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdKaCMJIZ_3yTJC_qU3V7lk- UcJM7Y_DrVF52gLhzpb8EswHw/viewform Contact Jeremy Gross jgrosss@vailgov.com for more information. VLMDAC (-25% YOY)(-24% YOY) •The Town of Vail is seeking qualified applicants to fill four openings; all are two-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2021 and expiring Dec. 31, 2022. •To apply, email lgladitsch@vailgov.com with your resume and any qualifications and questions.Applications due 5 p.m. December 4 •The 9-member Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 8:30am. •This volunteer board is responsible for making recommendations to the Vail Town Council, which serves as the Vail Local Marketing District Board, for summer and shoulder season marketing programs funded by a 1.4 percent Vail lodging tax. •Anyone interested in serving on the Advisory Council must be an owner of real property or taxable personal property in Vail. Corporations or entities that own property within the Town of Vail may forward a designee from their corporation or entity to be considered on the Ad isor Co ncil Thank you! Upcoming Meetings: VLMDAC Monthly Meeting, December 16, 2020; Vail Town Council Chambers APPENDIX RODAS by MarketStaggered rollout of paid media throughout June to Front Range and Dallas Shifted destination focus to PPC only to capture those actively looking for travel informationFamilies drove majority of Chicago + KC bookings; family targeting tapered off in Aug. RODAS by Tactic Vail Daily driving booking efficiency Display, video + PPC are driving booking volume Shifted remaining spend to Front Range markets RODAS by Audience Initial paid media rollout focused primarily on display to Front Range families Increase stemming from focus to Front Range families and active professionals Book Direct Referrals June 1 –October 31, 2020