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Home My WebLink About01. VLMDAC meeting minutes MAY 16 2019_DRAFT1 Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Monthly Meeting - Minutes Thursday, May 16, 8:30 am Grand View Room AGENDA: May Meeting Link In attendance: VLMDAC Members Jenn Bruno – TOV Jana Morgan – Sweet Basil/Mtn. Standard Amy Moser Harrison – Four Seasons Laurie Mullen – WVLM Jessie Klehfoth – VRD Also Present Mia Vlaar – TOV Carlie Smith – TOV Jess Sweetin – Vail Mountain Hannah Eflin – Vail Mountain Marrit Zoll – VVP Amanda McNally – MYPR Matt Miano – TOV Susan Proffitt – VVP Sandra Perrig-Holst – VVP Erica Cannava – Manor Vail Whitney Brofos – Vail Marketing Satchelee Burns – Deadline Motion Jack Affleck – Affleck Enterprises *PLEASE NOTE IMPORTANT DATES LISTED AT THE END OF THE MEETING/MINUTES* • Monthly Financial Report (5 minutes), Carlie Smith Please see SLIDE Carlie presented recap of financials. TOV has asked for a more conservative approach regarding the incremental fund request. • Discussion of Additional Incremental Request (15 minutes), Board 2 Discussion re: delaying the request at this time in order to continue to consider options, review additional ideas as these are brought forth, and make request at an appropriate, later time. New board members have been reviewing past meeting minutes for information. It was suggested that some of the ideas that have been presented in past meetings could be revisited for discussion. Specifically, ideas that were proposed at the meeting in February of 2018 were mentioned to potentially revisit. (Please see attached Appendix 1, copy of the minutes from February 2018, below, for reference.) Board will continue to watch revenues and financial reports for consideration, and delay implementation of items #1 and #3 from previously proposed ideas at this time. Discussion and suggestion to also reconsider recently proposed larger-scale (big) ideas, such as the “summer pop up,” and similar. Members are encouraged to please continue to bring ideas to the table for consideration. Motion to delay request for incremental $150,000 funding Motion: Jesse/ Second: Jana/ Approval: Unanimous • Approval of April 18, 2019 Minutes (5 minutes), Board Motion to approve April 2019 minutes Motion: Jenn/ Second: Jana/ Approval: Unanimous • Group Sales Updates/Destimetrics Please see SLIDE: “April 2019 Group Sales Dashboard” for updates (Chris Romer is out of town.) Destimetrics recap: please see SLIDES for detail. May and June have gained slightly. The good news is that bookings are gaining momentum, but unfortunately are still behind – soft pattern is an industry wide phenomenon. July is outperforming last year, especially the first week (July 4th 2018 fell on a Wednesday). August still underperforming. Not panicked yet but watching carefully. Rates are up, occupancy still down. Concern expressed that summer is still underperforming. After June 20th VLMD meeting, please save the date for a board mini-retreat and strategy session, immediately following the monthly meeting. Board: Please let Mia know asap if you cannot make this. • Contingency Plan Tactics (20 minutes), All Partners PLEASE SEE SLIDE $44,000 for contingency/crisis plan is already approved. This is not an incremental ask; this is a budget line item that is already approved for crisis/retail. Enough funds for approximately one month period set aside to a target lower- to mid-funnel, tightly focused spend. 3 Please SEE SLIDE for details/spend planning; ready to move on this quickly if needed. Question raised re: implementing this funding plan now, as opposed to waiting any longer. Discussion about going ahead with implementation, vs. waiting for additional reporting. Destimetrics report will be available June 10th. Mia has signed up for a webinar on May 23rd for the western U.S. which will add additional, helpful info. Additional discussion re: the best timing. Comments: momentum showing in this month’s reporting is better, but we are still behind. Occupancy behind in almost every month, rates up. Don’t want to miss out on timing or opportunity to put these funds to work. Question raised re: inviting hotel and lodging partners to participate in discussion. Comments added from Erika (in attendance from Manor Vail): she was also in meetings discussing these issues: bookings down, but there is also consensus that advance booking windows are shrinking. (Feedback from Booking.com, Expedia, destination hotel competitors in Aspen, etc.) Question re: slides of our commercials and how our messaging shifts, is it fluid? YES - the “book by June 1st” messaging will shift to “best available rate” message. Also have event-specific ad sides with dates. • Digital Report (10 minutes), Cactus Please see SLIDES for breakdown of these details: In 2nd month of campaign, and reporting shows continued growth and success overall. April digital video completion rate (VCR) is up +3% YOY; Mobile AI is exceeding benchmarks (event messages launched early May), and cross-device video efforts are delivering 81% VCR. Exceeding industry averages. Paid Social for April: “Rites of Passage” brand spot is strongest performer. “Early Season” spot most likely to generate click-through. Houston is the top performing and most engaged market across target audiences. Reporting two-times CTR performance YOY across all – attributed to the “book by June 1” messaging and push for urgency. • Email Update (15 minutes), Vail Mountain Marketing Please see SLIDES; “May Email Performance” Hannah re-introduced Jessica Sweetin, they reviewed May email performance, and previewed June. Please SEE SLIDE for exact visual images of email ads, categories targeted: “Destination,” “Families with Teens,” and “Colorado” audiences. Their emphasis has changed, based on feedback they have received to focus more on adventure, teens, lodging messages, and signature events. Creative has done well with outdoor adventure shots for winter, so the focus is on mountain biking for summer. Email performance is very strong, but the reporting does not have the ability to break out email performance by segment, so all three segments are reflected together on slide reporting. Overall, they increased recipients 56%. With this increase in number of recipients, the drop in CTR and CTC numbers was expected, so this slight dip they report is not concerning. Reporting strong revenue from these emails, and continued growth. These revenues include any lodging packages or offers booked through Vail.com. Epic Discovery products are not bookable yet. Numbers DO include any purchased winter products; so numbers could include bookings for next year. However, they do not generally see a lot of cross-seasonal product bookings, (i.e., sending summer 4 email does not typically generate winter bookings, but there can be some.) Renewing an Epic Pass IS included. Emails for June: See SLIDES. June 11th email blast focus: “Great Summer Break,” with “book by June 30” messaging, starting rates $135, directing guests to summer itinerary, and Epic Discovery opening information. Intention was to send out two June emails to entire database. Technical difficulties have resulted in the decision to send out the first two email blast(s) to the local (all Colorado) database, then send a supplemental email to database of destination guests. Creative for the next email not ready yet, but focus will be for destination guest. Sending a total of three emails for June. See SLIDES for visuals, details and dates. Thanks to the team for getting this together quickly! The technical limitations on sending the entire destination database were just realized. Homepage promotion updates: marketing team will be bringing these updates to the board. See SLIDES for messaging transition timeline and images. This homepage info is for Vail.com; no changes have been made to VailSummer.com since its launch, but it is featuring the “book by June 1” messaging. Working with analytics to see what works and what does not perform. Events are still updating on the site. Will bring July update and info to June meeting. They have also been working on a contingency plan for July emails in case of any unforeseen issues with June. They feel confident with one email send in July and are working on the second; the contingency plan is in case of possible problems such as timing issues and bandwidth issues they are keeping an eye on. • Social Video Update (15 minutes), Vail Mountain Marketing/Deadline Motion, Satchele Satchele presented the video content to the board for the ads shot outdoors with jazz musicians, and the avalanche dog long-format projects. Recapped the content, story line descriptions and visual descriptions for planned/upcoming video projects, and what elements they are still working on, I.e., “what do avalanche dogs do in the summer?” Question re: where these appear? Ans. Instagram, Facebook, you tube posts See SLIDES for details. Question re: what areas are they concentrating on for content and footage? Satchele explained that they are mostly using on-mountain video shoots, maximizing wildflower photography opportunities, and on the river. Question/discussion re: what these winter-trained rescue dogs do in the summer, and will there be rescue aspects for the summer shoot? Some of the more active shoots are using new, high tech drone aerial photography. Shooting some mountain bike segments in June, and hiking with wildflower window in July. Wrap up in Fall, to then review with board. Also gave a status report and time line for the short-format video advertising projects. Much of content has already been shot and will be used for this summer’s advertising. Multiple 1-minute-or-less short format videos. Discussion re: other locations being used for these videos, such as Piney Lake, Kids Adventure Games, high alpine hiking piece; concepts for these and how each is shot. See SLIDE for timeline and status. 5 Discussion re: shooting with musicians; what is the additional opportunity to showcase musicians other than just jazz - such as bluegrass, etc., the willingness of artists to stay to complete these, shooting with some of the Bravo! groups (Dallas, Philadelphia, New York, etc. – licensing issues discussed), Tuesday night concerts, and especially WhistlePig. Side note that this summer Bravo! will host “Bravo! Afterdark” at Shakedown Bar. Discussion re: using additional assets for imaging such as the skate park, appealing to tweens/teens. Highest performing video of all time was a skate video a few years ago, 1.7 million views. Question re: short format videos: suggest inclusion of locations in-town, restaurants, tennis, golf, swimming, pickleball. Question re: retweeting, sharing, reposting the social media videos. Event producers are encouraged to tag Vail locations, share and retweet. Suggestion to reach out additionally to event people with the request to tag Vail Mountain. #VailMountain and #VailSummer are actively monitored. Suggest revisiting these creative discussions to discuss ideas in the Fall, to prepare for next summer. • Traditional Media Update (10 minutes), SITE Marketing Recap of destination traditional media efforts, focused on Dallas and Chicago markets, spots run during various events, sports, and TV ads. Coordinated with direct flight ads from these markets. Please see SLIDES for ad visuals, overview and impressions/results. Recap of ads targeted to active professionals, super boomers, and dynamic family audiences. One of the Dallas ads running will have a real-time updating temperature reference, showing the weather in Vail, running when it is warmer than 80 degrees in Texas. Also recapped Front Range audience traditional media efforts and results, and event overview for entire summer season. See SLIDES for details. • Research Update (30 minutes), Cactus Presented recap of research efforts focused on gathering info from 15 parents and 15 teens with specific qualifiers. Recapped results and key takeaways, raking of priorities and responses from the participants. Great responses and information to form strategies going forward to pursue this target audience. Overall emphasis on a balance of outdoor excitement and what people can reasonably do and plan to do while here. • Creative Updates (30 minutes), Cactus Reviewed three summer concepts in detail; looking for feedback/approval to move forward on one of these ideas today. Read scripts and gave detailed description of video concept for each: #1) Now or Never #2) Last Time, First Time #3) Find What Moves You 6 Questions and discussion re: what is the target audience, how will these be distributed. These are mostly targeted for parents, but with appeal for teens, disseminated on TV and social media. Discussion re: #3. What will capture attention, music or voice over, will people look away with music-only ad? General agreement that #3 concept is most appealing, freshest idea, and most aligned with the research that was presented. Can continue to look into music options in coming months. Ex: “Alive” by Empire of the Sun. Motion to approve concept #3 presented: “Find What Moves You” Motion: Jana/ Second: Jenn/ Approval: unanimous • Other Business Re: previously discussed contingency plan: booking momentum is better but Vail is still behind. Continued discussion re: where to focus the 44K; in what time frame? Considerations such as when school is out, focus needed on mid-June. Motion to approve the $44,000 contingency plan to start ASAP, focusing on mid-June and going forward 3-4 weeks. Motion: Jenn/ Second: Amy/ approval: unanimous Note to check out last council meeting, streaming on channel 5, to see the feedback presentation from the Vail Mountain School kids. Jenn went to Mexico City with Jenny and Sylvia. Successful visit; shared insights and suggests revisiting the appropriation of funds for these areas. Sylvia and Jenny do a fantastic job, have a lot of contacts and a key takeaway is the “bang for the buck” that is achieved in these areas with these partners; high income families interested in visiting Vail, and the extent to which Mexico investment does connect and translate to other South American cities; direct flights from Panama. Suggest adding these ideas for discussion to the upcoming retreat. (June 20). Question re: considering opportunity for a peer city visit with new board members. IMPORTANT DATES: May 21st: Civic Area Plan presented in session, please try to attend or stream June 7th: Gondola opens. June 11th: Please save the date for a possible collaborative meeting with VEAC, CSE, and VLMDAC, focusing on civic area feedback. June 20th: please save the date for a mini-board-retreat immediately following the VLMDAC meeting. Possibly start the June meeting at 8:00 am for more time? Town Manager search is ongoing. Please give feedback and suggestions to Council Members. June 23rd: Gondola 1 opens. 7 Next ski season dates announced: November 15th, 2019 to April 19th, 2020. Upcoming focus on Thanksgiving Day activation; comments welcomed. SITE produced master event calendar has gone out to partners. Maggie will represent SITE at June meeting. Comment from CSE re: keeping “fun” alive in messaging! Keep it in mind 😉😉 Mark would like to share research takeaways on families with teens group with CSE partners. Next attendee signed up for June CSE meeting? (Esmarie?) Matt can send reminder if necessary. • Adjournment Motion to adjourn Motion: Jessie/ Second: Amy/ approval: unanimous Next VLMDAC Monthly Meeting, Thursday, June 20, 2019 July meeting will NOT be in the Grand View Room – location TBD! APPENDIX 1: (attached, below) February 15, 2018 meeting minutes, for VLMD Board member reference 8 APPENDIX 1: Vail Local Marketing District Advisory Council Thursday, February 15, 2018 8:30-11:00am Packet Link: http://bit.ly/2GvxuRf VLMDAC Members Present: Phil Metz (Vail Resorts) Laurie Mullen (West Vail Liquor) Jenn Bruno (Vail Town Council) Jessie Klehfoth (VRD) Beth Slifer (Slifer Designs) John Dawsey (CME) Cindy Krieg (Doubletree) Skip Thurnauer Also Present: Mia Vlaar (Town of Vail) Carlie Smith (Town of Vail) Hannah Eflin (Vail Resorts) Jess Sweetin (Vail Resorts) Kristin Yantis (MYPR) Chris Romer (VVP) Laura Waniuk (TOV) Meggen Kirkham (SITE) Nell Davis (VRD) Ariel Rosenberg (Vail Bluegrass) Sarah Berkheimer (Cactus) Hannah Green (Cactus) Mike Lee (Cactus) Ainslie Fortune (Cactus) Jeff Strahl (Cactus) Henry Hougen (Deadline MotionWorks) Satchelee Burns (Deadline MotionWorks) Jack Affleck (Affleck Photo) 9 Sandra Perrig-Holst (VVP) Chris Cremer (Bridge Street Ski Haus) Carlie West (Bravo Vail) Sarah Franke (Vail Valley Foundation) AGENDA • January 2018 Monthly Financial Report, Carlie Smith Carlie Smith (ToV) gave brief overview of budget; final 2017 lodging tax collections of $3.27m (slightly less than budget but 2.5% above 2016). Fund balance of $1.2m (36%) at year end. Supplemental budget planned for March and expected to dip slightly below the 25% fund balance target. • Approval of January 18, 2017 Meeting Minutes Motion/second/unanimous (Thurnauer/Krieg/all). • 2018 Strategy & Tactics (120 minutes), Cactus Ainslie Fortune (Cactus) reviewed where we are today: overview of brand, strategies, go to market approach, feedback from board. Objectives (see presentation for details) were reviewed and discussed. Mike Lee (Cactus) reviewed background research, personas, product, comp set, and brand to help identify best prospects for Vail. All this led to “Destination Dynamic Families with kids 13-17” as an opportunity area, leveraged by Destination & Front Range Super Boomers, and Front Range events across all personas. See slides and details in presentation deck. Discussion ensued with advisory council re: likelihood to return? How to measure by working with RRC on data collection? Katie (Cactus) presented media cadence (overview), media allocations by target persona, and tactical breakdown (social, video, traditional, etc). Kirkham shared that we do not plan on out of home, and will focus on live sporting events vs standard television. Discussion ensued re: timing of being in market with live sports to impact summer 2018 business, and how to best leverage data resources through Destimetrics and others. 10 Hannah Eflin (Vail Resorts) reviewed the progress of the Vail brand evolution; many mountain resorts (Aspen, Jackson Hole, others) are pushing new advanced messaging. Recognition that Vail brand needs to focus on core “Like nothing on earth”; brand pillars and brand characters reviewed in detail – see slides for complete details. Creative to point back to this brand positioning and will continue to evolve; ideas and concepts to be season agnostic so all ideas and vision point back to the brand experience. Sarah & Jeff (Cactus creative directors) reviewed creative goals and executions. Details and bullet points in presentation deck. Reviewed Colorado Tourism Office “Come to Life” campaign as an example of good creative execution. Sample campaign scripts & execution shared with group including messaging, visuals, social. “Coming of Age” concept shared for year one and two (see deck for details). Discussion around event execution and expansion and activation opportunities with existing or future events and CSE. “Connection through Nature” concept shared for year one and two (see deck for details). Discussion around visuals and ensuring that they support the Vail experience (i.e., swimming doesn’t resonate). Discussion ensued around how to engage event producers and Commission on Special Events; local groups such as Bravo, Vail Valley Foundation, Walking Mountains, Vail Recreation District; on how to leverage and partner moving forward. Much of this will take funding efforts (while CSE funding is flat). Expressed desire by group to ensure that summer efforts align with future winter efforts to maintain brand consistency; group also recommends creative testing with teen audience. Discussion continued around the opportunity to build on platforms in an experiential manner, with limited aspirational components that might not resonate with the desired audience. Data is necessary to move this effort forward, and need to message to both teens and adults – because adults want to experience with their children. Advertisements and content need to support the other (authentic stories exist through event producers and partners). Advisory Council members shared thoughts on both campaigns; consensus is that the campaigns are not mutually exclusive (tactics from 11 one can be utilized in the other), and “Coming of Age” is a better platform as it better resonates emotionally, and is more engaging. Desire to engage entire community in the effort (public session, invitations, etc.). Supplemental tactics (Super Boomer and Front Range events) reviewed with tactical shift toward three “hero video” themes for all events (culinary, action-adventure, cultural) with :15 video montage. Scripts and concepts to be presented in March, but will be brand level inspirational videos rather than individual event videos. These will be used primarily in front range television. Super Boomer videos will also be :15 montage theme. Additional ideas (see presentation deck) reviewed including seasonal cross-promotion, emotional engagement, product/merchandise partnerships, mobile video gondola, etc. How do we measure? Data components are point in time (lodging occupancy, intercept studies), and how do we shift to performance data? See slides for “data vision” concept, which would require lodging property participation. This would be a Town of Vail/VLMD ‘owned’ space, data will not be ‘owned’ by Vail Resorts. Discussion ensued on how to best engage the lodging properties; plan is to reach out one-on-one to understand opportunities and risks. Board encouraged continued risk-taking to move the effort forward. • Other Business (5 minutes) Reminder of March meeting from 2pm-4pm on March 22. Note date and time change. • Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 11:11am Upcoming Meetings Note date, time and location: VLMDAC Meeting, March 22, 2018 – 2-4pm, Antlers Lodge