HomeMy WebLinkAbout01. VLMDAC August Meeting PresentationVLMDAC BOARD MEETING
AUGUST 18, 2022
Agenda
I. MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORT (5 minutes), Carlie Smith, Town of Vail
II. APPROVALS
●2022 Winter Marketing (20 minutes), Cactus and Town of Vail
III. INFORMATION & DISCUSSION UPDATES
●2023 Draft Strategic Operating Plan & Budget (60 minutes), All Partners
●2022 Asset Acquisition Plan (10 minutes), Cactus/SITE
●Town of Vail Updates (5 minutes), Mia Vlaar & Jeremy Gross, Town of Vail
●Other Business
●RFP Presentations (45 minutes)
●Adjournment
●Appendix
○2022 Campaign Performance Updates, Cactus
○Social Updates Whitney Brofos
VLMDAC Executive Session pursuant to: 1) C.R.S. §24-6-402(4) (e) - to determine positions, develop a
strategy and instruct negotiators, Re: 2022 VLMD Budget (30 minutes)
MONTHLY FINANCIAL REPORT
2022 WINTER MARKETING
Winter Goals
OWNED CHANNEL YEAR ROUND GOALS
-Provide robust, timely year-round content on owned channels including web, social and
CRM
-Ensure content on owned channels delivers to brand promise
-Complement Vail.com, do not compete with paid media, specifically in winter
NEW WINTER GOALS
-Enhance and create new winter lodging packages to support need time periods
-Budget paid media to promote lodging offers during need time periods
Current Winter Efforts
Item Detail Winter
Budget
% of line Item
Budget
Email/Web Content minimal winter content for a few winter emails and year round
sustainability columns
$8,600 33%
CRM Owned channel = year round support $155,598 44%
Website Owned channel = year round support, including lodging $73,950 27%
Social Owned channel = year round support
Small % because social influencer is such a large line item
compared to social management fee
$4,000 4%
Group Sales non-ski focus but some benefit to early/late winter $33,343 16%
Professional Fees lodging liaison $24,000 50%
TOTAL WINTER 7%
Early Winter Lodging Trigger Campaign
Detail
Board Approval
Needed Budget
Approach Creative
Media Planning
Aug. 18 $25,000
From
Contingency
Trigger Go/No-Go: Approval to make the call go to market plan if
occupancy between Early Nov – Early Dec is at or below
10% decrease in year-over-year occupancy trends OR Vail
occupancy is pacing at or below industry average.
Aug. 18 N/A
Media Spend and
Plan Execution
Anticipated Need Period - 11/11 to 12/19
Media Flight to Support Bookings - 10/17 - 11/30 (approx. 6
weeks)
Sept. 15 $111,588
from
Contingency
2022 Winter Media
Occupancy is down in early winter leading to a need to drive demand. Cactus is proposing the
following media tactics, primarily targeting Front Range High Net Worth skiers, to drive interest
and lodging reservations.
Display ads targeting
skiers & snowboards in
the Front Range
Efforts will also include
Retargeting to promote
lodging offers to those
showing interest in Vail
Search ads targeting
broad “vail” and “vail
lodging” searchers in
an effort to promote an
early/late season
lodging offer to drive
bookings
Paid Social ads
targeting those in the
Front Range with
ski-related interests,
such as Vail Mountain,
Epic Pass, etc.
Retargeting will also be
implemented here.
2022 Winter Media
●For all flights, budget would be spread across display, paid social, and paid search
●Display and Paid Social budgets are projected to achieve 9M to 15M impressions and between 10x to 15x frequency
across platforms. SEM was budgeted based on projected search volume.
●These are digital tactics, so all budget is fluid and can be scaled up or down pending data on # of room nights needed to
fill for each subseason.
2023 DRAFT OPERATING PLAN & BUDGET
Operating Plan Timeline & Discussion
-8/19: Board to give approval to move forward with 2023 operating plan with
in-meeting feedback on requested changes
-9/1: Board to receive updated operating plan for review via email
-9/8: Board provide final feedback and change requests to plan
-9/15 Board Meeting: Board to review Operating Plan as will be presented to
Town Council. Minor changes can be made.
-9/20 Council Meeting: Present Operating Plan for approval from VLMD
2023 Goals
Final Goals being added in and republished by Aug. 16
2023 Proposed Budget
2023 Revenue Projection $ 4,700,000
●2023 Lodging Tax collections projected conservatively
●$4.7M is a 10% increase from 2021 Actuals and a 6% decrease from
2022 Forecast
●Revenue forecast will continue to be monitored and adjusted through
budget process
Total VLMD Budget for 2023 $6,100,000
●Annual Marketing Budget: $4,450,000
●Contingency: $250,000
●$1.4M use of Reserves. Funds not managed by the VLMDAC
○~$1.2M One-time transfer for event funding
○~$200K contribution for Steward Vail outcomes
2023 Proposed Budget
35%57%
2023 Budget proposes to
utilize reserves of $1.4M
towards events ($1.2M) and
Steward Vail ($200K)
BUDGET BREAKOUT BY CONSUMER JOURNEY
Other
Guest
Trad
Media Digital /
Social
PR /
Influencer
Website
Intl
Assets /
Content
Hotel
Booking
Book
Direct
Hotel
Booking
Direct
Group
SalesWelcome
Center
Events
Town-ow
ned Exp
Lodging
Retail /
Rest.
Mt / VR
WOM
Social
Survey
Email
Database
Loyalty
BookingIn-Market
Dreaming / Considering
Traditional Media
Digital / Social
Website
PR / Influencer
International
Assets / Content
Hotel – BookDirect
Hotel – Direct with property
Group Sales
Welcome Center
Events
Town-owned Experience
Lodging
Retail / Restaurants
Mountain / VR
1:1 Direct Marketing
Database
Loyalty
Email
Post Trip / Sharing
Survey
Social
Word of Mouth
Consumer Journey
2022 vs. 2023 Budget Breakout
by Consumer Journey
2022 2023
2023 Total % Budget
By Guest Journey
Destination: 100%
Front Range: 19%
Destination: 81%
Dreaming/
Considering
63%
Booking
8%
In-Market
3%
Post Trip/
Sharing
4%
1:1 Direct
11%
Other
10%
Traditional Media
Digital / Social
Website
PR / Influencer
International
Assets / Content
Welcome Center
Events
Town-owned
Experience
Lodging
Group Sales
Survey
Social
Database
Loyalty
Email
Admin
Contingency
SHIFTS IN CONSUMER JOURNEY INITIATIVES
Discontinued
Item Description Action
Research Cactus in depth consumer interviews
SMARI Stewardship and International surveys
One time projects
Travel
Classics
In-market support and hosting of Travel Classics Removed due to one time
opportunity
Test and
Learn
Budget set aside to dedicate test and learn. Media is constantly
iterating and adjusting and separate budget is not needed
Removed
Brand
Campaign
Community Brand Kick-off, Education and Incentivization to embrace
New campaign
Campaign launched and
repurposing for 2023
In Resort
Installation
AIPP have long lead plans for funded efforts. A non-permanent
solution was put in place in 2022.
Removed 2023 funding to allow
for other more concrete tactics
The following 2022 initiatives will be discontinued with funding shifted to new initiatives
New Initiatives: Winter Need Period
Item KPI Metric / Goal Budget
Winter asset (photo/video) acquisition
Winter web/social film
production/distribution
Ensure content on owned channels delivers to
brand promise $100,000
Winter website enhanced content and SEO Ramp-up SEO to support winter. Adding
net-new SEO baseline.
$10,750
Late season (April) and early season
(Nov-Dec) paid media and creative
Benchmark performance or above. Increased
paid media to promote lodging offers during
need time periods.
$221,000
2023 winter initiatives for winter need time period support lodging.
Not inclusive of ongoing initiatives (owned channels and year-round support)
New Initiatives
Item KPI Metric / Goal Budget
New York in-market media
visit
Stories generated and quality of placement, bringing back a
successful pre-COVID strategy
$15,000
Mexico Spring in-market
event/activation
Stories generated and quality of placement, bringing back a
successful pre-COVID strategy
$25,000
Group Travel/Trade show
attendance
Increase top of funnel awareness of Vail as a group marketing
during non-ski season.National presence for Vail brand at key
industry shows & travel trade events
$30,000
Social Audit Deliverable of plan and implementation with social is the next
owned channel area of focus.
$40,000
Purpose: A social audit will showcase the biggest opportunity on social channels and
help uncover the types of content that our audience loves and is most likely to engage
with – leading to a stronger brand relationship.
Deliverables:
-Social Situation Audit - Analysis of current social media channels including
competitive + category audit.
-Audience Profiles and “Right Space” - Provides analysis of existing audiences
and outlines recommendations for future social media audiences, and defines the
role our brand should play for consumers and culture in social.
-Integrated Social Strategy - Social media playbook including editorial authority,
channel plan and measurement frameworks.
Social Audit + Strategy
Improve/Enhance
Item Description Action
Mexico Press trips Stories generated
No. and quality of attendees
$10,500
CVENT and
Group Marketing
Efforts
Develop Village Wide messaging and generate group leads
for Vail with focus on non-ski months and winter shoulder
seasons via industry marketing tools, video retargeting, and
increased consideration. Increase group market share and
push mid-week and spring/fall occupancy
$30,000
2024 Campaign In preparation of 2024, increase creative and production costs
for the evolution of LIBAD.
$218,000
Operating Plan Discussion
-8/19: Board to give approval to move forward with 2023 operating plan with
in-meeting feedback on requested changes
-9/1: Board to receive updated operating plan for review via email
-9/8: Board provide final feedback and change requests to plan
-9/15 Board Meeting: Board to review Operating Plan as will be presented to
Town Council. Minor changes can be made.
-9/20 Council Meeting: Present Operating Plan for approval from VLMD
TIER 2-3 ASSET ACQUISITION PLAN
Photo Asset Priorities
Shot List/Production Details/Timeline
*will update early next week before Thursday.
TOWN OF VAIL UPDATES
OTHER BUSINESS
MINUTES APPROVAL
RFP PRESENTATIONS
RFP Presentations
Lodging Liaison
-Vail Valley Partnership (15 min Q&A with Board)
In-Resort Project Manager
-Site Marketing (15 min Q&A with Board)
-HyFyve (15 min Q&A with Board)
* Reference packet materials for submitted RFPs
Executive Session
VLMDAC Executive Session pursuant to: 1) C.R.S. §24-6-402(4) (e) - to
determine positions, develop a strategy and instruct negotiators, Re: 2022
VLMD Budget
APPENDIX
CAMPAIGN PERFORMANCE UPDATES
Paid Media Summary (4/1-7/31)
Net Digital Spend Impressions Clicks Cost-Per-Click
$524K 38M 351K $1.33
+64% YOY +43% YOY 148% YOY -42% YOY
While budget has decreased YOY, shifts in our strategic approach continue
to yield increases in clicks, driven primarily by paid search & social
68% of Total Budget Spent (Digital & Traditional)
$1,010,000 Budget
Channel Breakdown
Clicks by Channel
Cost-Per-Click YOY
Click-Through-Rate YOY
●SEM and Paid Social continue to drive the highest
volume of clicks to DiscoverVail.com.
●Video performance has increased month-over-month,
now representing 7% of total clicks (up from 4% in June)
●Overall, CPC continues to be significantly lower YOY
across channels, while CTR continues to increase
Epsilon Test Performance
In late June, we launched display tests with 3 travel data partners, using their proprietary
data to drive interest in visiting Vail. Those partners are Epsilon, Trip Advisor, and Adara.
To-date, Adara has been the strongest performer in all key metrics
●To-date, Adara data has been the most successful in driving efficient clicks and hotel bookings. Adara’s top performing
segments include Competitive Searchers (those looking for travel to other summer mountain destinations) and Mid-Week
Travelers (those who have shown the propensity to travel Mid-Week). Media has been optimized to serve more to these
segments
●Trip Advisor has seen low engagement rates, but has reached a quality audience with a CPA of $34. Trip Advisor is using its
data to reach Luxury Travelers and those in-market for travel to Colorado
●Epsilon has seen strong engagement rates, particularly across display (0.15% CTR), but CPA has been high ($136), as this
data comes at a premium CPM. Epsilon’s top performing segment has been past Vail Visitors
Adara Impact Reporting (April-July)
Through July, digital media has driven over 148K hotel searches & $3.2M in hotel revenue, resulting in an ROI of
$11 for every $1 spent
Retargeting website visitors has been the most efficient tactic in driving hotel bookings, followed by video. While
Native has not been as efficient of a driver of bookings, it has been impactful in generating interest/hotel searches
*Digital media spend used to calculate ROI includes the channels that Adara Impact is able to track back to hotel searches and bookings (Display, Video, Native, SEM)
Cost-Per-Hotel Booking Cost-Per-Hotel Search
Adara Impact Reporting (April-July)
Bookings reported in Adara are primarily coming from those between ages 40-49, and those with an income from
$125K - $200K. However, those with a HHI of under $100K have accounted for 20% of bookings
The top 6 markets that bookings are originating from are those we are targeting with high funnel media,
demonstrating the impact of VLMD’s messaging: Denver, Dallas, NYC, Chicago, Houston and Washington D.C.
Age Distribution HHI Distribution
What’s New?
●Fall creative launched on 8/15!
●Optimizations made to drive mid-funnel:
○Budget added to non-brand SEM
○Budget added to Adara display
○Epsilon optimized to focus on past Vail
Visitor segment
●Events added to Paid Social to optimize
towards higher quality visits and decrease
bounce rates
SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATES
Performance Overview
YOY
JANUARY 1, 2022 - JUNE 30, 2022
Impressions
6,405,000
+ 11%
Engagements
156,873
+ 2.2%
Post Link Clicks
79,178
75.8%
Instagram | Organic Social
Impressions
289,771
-68.3%
Engagements
6,394
-9%
Followers
9,772
+18.6%
Engagement Rate
2.2%
+29.1%
YOY
JANUARY 1, 2022 - JUNE 30, 2022
Instagram | Reels
JAN 13
VIEWS- 19,908
LIKES- 533
COMMENTS- 33
SHARES- 357
SAVES- 76
MARCH 30
VIEWS- 7,142
LIKES- 203
COMMENTS- 9
SHARES- 80
SAVES- 23
Talk about a unique dining experience!
Have you heard of the private Fondue
Raclett Gondola experience at
@alpenrose_vail?
Save this post and don’t forget to book an
intimate dinner during your next stay!
Some things truly can only be
experienced in Vail, like this world
famous signature haut chocolat by
the @fsvail Flame restaurant ☕
Instagram | Reels
JULY 2
VIEWS- 7,183
LIKES- 372
COMMENTS- 13
SHARES- 74
SAVES- 38
MAY 18
VIEWS- 7,002
LIKES- 129
COMMENTS- 5
SHARES- 60
SAVES- 30
Welcome to Piney Lake, one of the Vail
Valley’s most beautiful places for several
outdoor activities.
Reel by @siegtheworld
Mark your calendar for Vail's lineup of
summer events!
With incredible live music concerts,
internationally recognized art and
cultural events, unique culinary
experiences and more, there’s
always something happening in the
Valley!
Instagram | Reels
JUNE 21
VIEWS- 6,987
LIKES- 150
COMMENTS- 0
SHARES- 8
SAVES- 4
APRIL 15
VIEWS- 4,202
LIKES- 71
COMMENTS- 3
SHARES- 20
SAVES- 4
Summer scenes from atop
@vailmtn 🏔
If you’re not feeling the summer itch
yet? Let this inspire you to begin
dreaming of all the fun things you can
do during your visit to Vail this
summer ☀
Instagram | Top Posts
JANUARY 1, 2022 - JUNE 30, 2022
Instagram | Demos
Facebook | Organic Social
Impressions
6,115,229
+26%
Engagements
150,479
9.1%
Post Link Clicks
79,178
75.8%
Page Likes
1,623
+11.4%
Video Performance
454,600
Engagement Rate
2.5%
YOY
JANUARY 1, 2022 - JUNE 30, 2022
Facebook | Top Posts
JANUARY 1, 2022 - JUNE 30, 2022
Facebook | Demos
Organic Social | Insights
●More frequent posting, audience engagement, curating engaging captions and using strategic
hashtags lead to improved engagement
○Will continue to research and use relevant hashtags
○Reshare Discover Vail posts as Social Posts (Articles Meg rights)
○Will continue to use engaging captions
○Continually posting to FB, want to explore with posting the optimized photo ratios
separately
○Incorporate brand campaign more frequently
●HIGH PERFORMERS
○Reel content
○Informative posts (i.e. “The top ____”, “Best hike/bike trails” etc)
○Will continue to balance scenic, event and town content with a slight increase in scenic
‘dreamy’ content
●REELS
○Reels have gained traction through IG and is believed to have helped with growth
○Will prioritize posting Reels 1-2 times per week
○Using ‘trending’ audio + knowledge sharing helps boost visibility
DATA-DRIVEN ROADMAP UPDATE
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
Building Blocks for Data-Driven Marketing
Data-Driven Marketing Roadmap
Marketing Goals
circa 11/2022
Data-Driven Progress to Date
Marketing/Partner Group Collaboration
-Using insightful and accurate data to inform our decisions is now the standard of all of our marketing work: across all
touchpoints, disciplines, and partners
-Steering committee guides and counsels, and teams work through common processes together
-Where gaps in existing roles/experience were restricting our path, they have been filled and operationalized
Marketing Data
-The transition to cleaning, expanding, and deepening the data capture of our prospects and guests began with 20,790 unkempt
guest data records across disparate databases (circa 9/2020)
-Our current centralized marketing database hub contains over 149k well mannered guest records - 110k of which contain home
geography and 70k of which contain deep demographic and psychographic data
-We effectively capture all inbound and outbound engagements with known and unknown prospects across all of our owned and
paid digital channels
Analytics / Insights
-Dedicated analytics to drive and measure targeted marketing
-Dashboard stuff
-SEO and content improvement
-CRM needs
-
Data-Driven Progress to Date
Marketing Strategy
-CRM
-SEO
-Segmentation
Automation / Execution
-Seamless wifi
-scale/volume
-CRM journeys
Data-Driven Marketing Roadmap
Roadmap Goals as of Q4 2020 Future Focus
2023 Focus
-Increase segmentation and analytics to drive
personalization (Lifecycle, Lifetime Value, etc.)
-Implement manual journeys to test effectiveness of
cross-channel communication
-Evolve everything we do today in CRM/Analytics and
automate where it makes sense
-Update roadmap for next 3 years.
DASHBOARD
Dashboard
Dashboard
Dashboard
Dashboard
Dashboard
Dreaming / Consideration
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
Ongoing SEO Services Organic traffic increase
Improvement in rankings of identified
keywords
Above the fold organic placement for top
keywords
$39,000 Initial increase
over 500% in
organic traffic
#1 or #2 in
many critical
keywords,
improvement
across the
board
4 blogs per
month
Ongoing Web Content Engagement and asset quantity $30,000
Dreaming / Consideration
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric Budget Justification
Paid Media hard costs Various. Meet or exceed 2022 benchmarks $1,019,000 Paid media to drive
new prospects into
funnel
Dream Campaign Execution - FY23
assets (OOH, digital, native, social,
print, production hard costs)
Completion of deliverable, media
performance
$185,000 Build on the brand
expression in
concepts and
assets
Dream Campaign Concepting - for use
in FY24 (concepting, execution,
production hard costs)
Completion of deliverable, media
performance
$255,000 Build on the brand
expression in
concepts and
assets
Dream Campaign Seasonal Guidelines Completion of deliverable $10,000 Provide tools for the
community to help
deliver on the
“Dream” campaign
Website (strategy, UX, development,
maintenance, reporting)
Time on site >2:00; Pages visited >2 $137,000 Website will
continue to evolve
Dreaming / Consideration -
Domestic Public Relations
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
New York in-market media tour No. of appointments w/target outlets
Stories generated
$15,000 Cornerstone
of PR
program.
Cancelled
since COVID
Development of Dream Experiences No. of partners who develop Dream
Experiences
No. of placements
??Message
extension of
Dream
campaign
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
Enhance targeting and measurement of PR
effort - media outreach, press trips
Exploring linkage KPI with 20North Direct
measuremen
t & supports
SEO
Influencer Program Strategy TBD based on outcome of
Mega vs. Macro. $??
Dreaming / Consideration -
Influencer Program
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
Influencer Program Strategy TBD based on outcome of
Mega vs. Macro. $??
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
Hotel co-op program No one took advantage of this, I don’t
know if we should do this again. Not
sure how to improve other than
leverage the hotel liaison more.
TOTAL $73,000 Flat to 2022
Booking / Pre Arrival
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
Group Travel/Tradeshow attendance Increase top of funnel awareness of Vail as a group
marketing during non-ski season.
$30,000 National presence
for Vail brand at
key industry
shows & travel
trade events
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
Loyalty Strategy Support Generate Behavior+Incentive ideas to drive visitation
and engagement. Execute test ideas with clear,
quantifiable results of effectiveness.
$25,000 Tests will be
executed in late
2022, no results
yet.
CVENT and Group Marketing Efforts Develop Village Wide messaging and generate group
leads for Vail with focus on non-ski months and
winter shoulder seasons via industry marketing tools,
video retargeting, and increased consideration
$30,000 Increase group
market share and
push mid-week
and spring/fall
occupancy
Book Direct, Add other Booking
Contracts
Lodging presence
needed on
DV.com
Lodging Liaison Increase relationships between lodging community
and lodging offers
$49,000
In-Market 2022 Content
Partner Group to Update
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
2022 results
or why we
recommend
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
Post Trip / Sharing 2022 Content
Partner Group to Update
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
Social Audit Deliverable of plan and
implementation
40,000 Social is the next
area of focus as
we build our
owned channels
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
TOTAL
1:1 Direct Marketing 2022 Content
Partner Group to Update
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
2022 results
or why we
recommend
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
CRM Strategy and Email Marketing Execution ●Reduced opt-out rate
●Increased open-to-click rate
●Increase # of email campaigns and
segments executed
$140,000 Newsletter
opt-out rate:
1.36 -> .72%
Open to click
rate: 13 -> 46%
CRM email
campaigns: 24
-> 86
Content: 1 -> 3
newsletters /
month
Ongoing Newsletter Content Creation Engagement and asset quantity $27,000
1:1 Direct Marketing
Start / New KPI Metric / Goal Budget Justification
2022 results
or why we
recommend
Improve / Enhance KPI Metric
Continuation of Data-Driven Roadmap Delivery
(Increase segmentation, analytics and direct marketing
capabilities to continue improving engagement.)
Updated multi-year plan in place to continue
evolving data-driven marketing capabilities and
support the evolution of our marketing strategy.
Deliver continued value by driving growth
against plan.
$129,000 See Roadmap
slide in
appendix (e.g.
progress and
value made
since inception)
Third Party Data Appends (applied to guests new to
CRM database and ongoing refresh of existing CRM
database guests)
Depth of database (records with
demographic/additional data attached) to enable
demographic and psychographic segmentation
at the individual level
$17,250 56k records
matched with
Epsilon data
(over ⅓ of DB)
Segmentation
testing is
ongoing
Customer and Database Analytics Support ●Dashboards available to understand
effectiveness of ongoing marketing efforts
●Analytics-driven segmentation for marketing
to improve engagement
$92,000 Understand and
act on the
effectiveness of
all of our
outbound digital
marketing
campaigns