The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About03. VLMDAC March Meeting Minutes Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Monthly Meeting March 17, 2022, 8:30 am In person Grand View & Virtual Zoom VLMDAC member attendees: Esmarie Faessler (Sonnenalp), Erica Cannava (Manor Vail Lodge), Liana Moore (Antlers), Barry Davis (TOV council), Scott Gubrud (Four Seasons), Kam Bozich (Slifer, Smith & Frampton), Lauren Barotz (Vail Resorts), Jana Morgan (Mountain Standard/Sweet Basil) Additional attendees: Kristin Yantis (MYPR), Ainslie Fortune (Cactus), Jeremy Gross (Town of Vail), Liz Gladitsch (Town of Vail), Carlie Smith (Town of Vail), Bob Brown (BAAG), Jeremy Coleman (BAAG), Chris Romer (Vail Valley Partnership), Kim Brussow (Vail Valley Partnership), Kay Schneider (Vail Valley Partnership), Mark Herron (Lodging Liaison), Meggen Kirkham (SITE Marketing), Brad Ficek (Cactus), Katie Kukar (Vail Chamber), Jenna Duncan (BAAG), Maggie Meek, Parker Owens (Bravo! Vail), Shun-Luoi Fong (Cactus), Steven Chester (Vail Resorts), William Schmick (Walking Mountains), Ronda Helton (Bravo! Vail) Call to Order Esmarie called meeting to order 8:38AM INFORMATION & DISCUSSION UPDATES • Monthly Financial Report January lodging tax is great! $743,000 43% up from 2020 28.4% up from 2019 which was a record year -Presented slide on Marketing District Annual Revenues/Expenditures • DestiMetrics Update We are ahead of the industry for every month of the winter and at industry for summer Six months ahead is up 50% Summer we are up 65% over last summer and we have a larger lead time Biggest takeaway for this group, is midweek is up. Big increase on midweek year over year There is plenty of opportunity with growth in Spring, Fall and midweek BOARD DECISIONS/APPROVALS • Supplemental Budget Recommendation Request Use Epsilon to append name and address to existing database (50% match base) Use Epsilon to append Demographic and psychographic data to database (20-90% match rate by field) Additional Analytics and CRM support from BAAG to use new data -Enables 1:1 marketing and grows the depth of our database -Grow # of records with demographic info, leading to higher rates in email Budget Requested- $60,000 This is an enhancement to what we have done in the past Existing media efforts run by Cactus and leveraging Adara for measurement of associated hotel spend Identify an additional data partner to reach past and likely visitors to Vail Measurement of campaign success Pilot this concept with one campaign in order to measure success Budget requested- $50,000 (this is all media spend) All emails sent to our own database, comprised of WIFI users and newsletter signups Purchase two email acquisition lists from Epsilon (June and October) with 100k contacts each Contacts are based on look-alike modeling from our existing database Enables 1:1 marketing with broader reach than our current database allows Budget Requested- $19,000 Acquisition of new customer records in-village is limited to WIFI signups and event attendance Create in-village marketing efforts to drive newsletter signups and website visitation through targeted collateral Enables 1:1 marketing by growing the # of records in our database Drives website visitation and engagement Budget Requested- $12,500 Current support for content strategy, frequency, implementation, and focus on SEO is insufficient to drive the organic search results for keywords that we should be owning and we are significantly underperforming in our competitive set. Partner: Bring in existing Brown partner, 20North- Kelly Ladyga- Content: Create keyword strategy, an editorial calendar, 4 long-form blog posts per month Newsletters SEO: constant monitoring and optimization of our keyword strategy Budget Requested- $149,350 Jeremy encouraged everyone to look at the appendix for more info Ultimately, we don’t have to approve all of these today- please see the Appendix for the timeline Contingency- With reallocation of funds, contingency budget has decreased to $32,760 Supplemental/Mexico Priority- Create a Mexico specific survey working with Silvia and Samari Budget Requested- $16,000 Supplemental/Mexico Priority: Santander Promotion Partner with one property in Vail, purchase 20+ mid-week September/October vacation packages Budget Requested- $3,000 Supplemental/Content Priority: Photo Management Dependent on VR brand portal for asset storage This would give us the ability to manage ourselves All town photos uploaded and accessible in one location Budget Requested- $25,000 (at highest based on 3 tools being considered) Supplemental/Mexico: Social Campaign Currently we do not have a system for monitoring Mexico business in Vail Social Media campaign to track Mexico visitors through a photo contest with specific hashtag Focus on categories Budget Requested- $10,000 Supplemental/Mexico: Late Season Media Buy Currently only purchasing a media buy late spring/early summer Retail media buy Budget Requested- $15,000 Supplemental/Influencer: Hotel Co-Op Program Micro/macro influencer program Pilot program- develop a co-op program to offset influencer hosting expenses at hotels Number of Hotels that participate Engagement of @DiscoverVail mentions in posts Budget Requested- $20,000 ($1,500 fees/$18,500 expenses) Supplemental/ In Resort Priority: Event Activation Current budget covers event staff and $20,000 towards something if it is specific to Sustainability Sustainability Quiz, Welcome Center sustainability push Budget Requested- NA- would like approval to move forward with the use of these already allocated funds Is the Board ok with moving forward with Sustainability Supplemental/Considered not recommended Contact a Mega Influencer $420,000 for one influencer Not recommended but the board asked for the Info Supplemental/Summary All The Board went through each of the above “asks” and discussed what they liked/wanted to move forward with or needed more info Will get more info on a few and get board updated numbers and info in a week via email to choose what to move forward with. Fund Balance Distribution Planning Board discussion- -Data and Content Infrastructure -Implementation of Destination Stewardship Plan -Others to be discussed INFORMATION & DISCUSSION UPDATES • Campaign Production Updates Shun-Luoi Fong just joined Cactus and will be working on all things digital Working on updating the website with the campaign, we will continue to make enhancements • Travel Classics Updates Sold out in the first 24 hours Media + Editor Attendees We are hosting- Taste of Vail Dinner- September 23 -Vail Golf course (they would not be going through Vail Village -Four Seasons (would go through Village, go through Ski Museum) Sponsorship Update- Aspen, Four Seasons, Whistler, many more • Town of Vail Updates- Jeremy reported that the council pulled the funds from the end of season employee party. Jeremy asked for input on dates since the mountain closure has changed TOV has been doing a study on short term rentals, look in the appendix for more info • Other Business lII. MINUTES • VLMDAC January 20, 2022 Minutes and February 17, 2022 minutes Approval by Liana/ second by Jana / unanimous Adjournment Motion to adjourn by Erica / second by Liana / unanimous 11:07am Upcoming Meetings: VLMDAC Monthly Meeting Thursday, April 28, 2022 Grand View Room