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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCH-OCVB minutes 111710Minutes Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Board November 17, 2010 Homestead Aquatic Center in Chapel Hill Board Members Present: Dave Gephart; Jim Ward; Rick Strunk; Laura Morgan; James Parker; Mike Gering; Lydia Lavelle; Jim Norton; Mark Sherburne; Robert Kintz Board Members Absent: Greg Overbeck; Lee Pavao; Dwight Bassett; James Harris; Anthony Carey: Mark Sherburne; Jim Norton; James Harris Commissioners Present: None Staff Present: Laurie Paolicelli; Linda Ekeland; Brad Broadwell; Yvonne Scarlett, Guests: Nathan Daniel Huening, DayTripps Bruce Wlach, Jennings & Company CALL TO ORDER Dave Gephart, Chair, called the meeting to order at 8:06 a.m. The October minutes were approved by a motion from Mike Gering and seconded by Jim Ward. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS Gephart thanked Robb English, Aquatics Supervisor (Homestead Aquatic Center) for hosting the meeting. English provided a brief description of services offered at the Center (swim lessons, fitness classes and specialty classes such as scuba instruction) and stated the facility was built in 2009 with town and county funds (approximately $6.1 million). FINANCE REPORT Paolicelli discussed the sensitive information provided in the financials and asks for suggestions in presenting. Mike Gering presented the report, pointing out that gross receipts were down slightly from last year and discussed delinquent receipts. Gering stated there was nothing remarkable in the Budget Report. Citing the source of receipts, Paolicelli asked Mark Sherburne his opinion of the trends. Sherburne stated that for the month of October occupancy was up approximately 10%, but ADR was down by 3% (according to his reports). Paolicelli continued by saying that October was the top month for tourism and those receipts would be reported in November. Dave Gephart requested a motion to approve the budget report, Greg Overbeck so moved with Rick Strunk seconding. With all members in favor the budget report was approved. MARKETING REPORT – Rick Strunk At the end of last months meeting, there was some discussion about advertising, etc and so what we’re going to see (later this morning) is some tweaks of some stuff that we have done. After conversations with Board Members and the Marketing Committee, I do want to say that I think it will be very helpful if we do solicit median input. It would be really helpful, if you ideas, to share with the Marketing Committee. I think is also important – our research has indicated that we’re pretty much on target in terms of what we are trying to do based on what the Board had established. I’ve seen so many times where people change course in mid-stream; change a logo – change their campaign before equity as been built up in the other and I think we have developed some equity in what we have done so far. What we are looking at today is not a major adjustment, it is just to tweak on some of the feedback that you had. The other thing that we have talked about in the Marketing Committee at some length is we can glen ideas from other places, but often times they have different attractions that they promote. I think we as the Visitor’s Bureau have to do a lot with a little, so sometimes it is hard to compare the impact of one campaign that may have a lot more money than what we’re trying to do. Again, it would really be helpful to us if some of your ideas are shared and we have time to discuss and present them to you. Paolicelli – I don’t think the logo is the issue; the issue is how we apply it. It is always important to remember our objectives and that’s why I passed out the mission statement. We are really targeting Chapel Hill and Orange County as a destination. We are looking at trying to let the traveling public know that there is a whole lot here. The problem is that Orange County brand name does not resonate with the traveling public. Chapel Hill has a lot of brand recognition based on who we are; who we are is heads and beds and who we are is bringing visiting public here and who we are is increasing hotel receipts. If we look at the state statutes, it really says that this tax should be regenerated to bring in more overnight visitors. It is very challenging to do that if you are not using the name “Chapel Hill”, but we realize who we are. We realize that we are Orange County so we very carefully consider Hillsborough and Carrboro. We’re very closely aligned to those towns; if not only through advertising, promotions or any other way that we can be there from a tourism standpoint. From where we stood, we did not just haphazardly say “alright, let’s just pull this out and use it and apply it when we can”. We listened to the visitor and we very carefully embarked on this. I completely understand the need to tweak and reconsider our messaging and with that we’ll turn it back to Rick and Bruce, to let the pros tell us how to do that. Bruce Wlach –Jennings As said previously, this is not changing directions. When we talked with some of the Board members, we talked about what we are looking for and the word “fun” came up and what does fun mean to different people. What we thought about was to spice the ad up a little visually. When you think about Chapel Hill, you should have that smile that people have when they come here and experience the destination. So what we have done is to develop a new campaign concept with two executions. The 1st was to focus on a select photo icon to symbolize that attraction. For example, one would be to talk about the historical elements that are common through all 3 towns; you could spend an entire day just reliving our past 258 years. This campaign could have a number of different applications; another approach could be to talk about the arts (26 performances – 11 styles of music (and that’s just on Tuesdays) and again use a musical icon and that could be an electric guitar. A photo icon adds a visual element and talks about the variety of music that we have in the arts throughout all 3 towns. We also took another look at it and came up with a photo montage approach. Same headline – this one within a picture frame uses photos from all three towns; a shot from Hillsborough, a shot from Carrboro and a shot from Chapel Hill. Those are two campaign executions that we thought would add a little bit of life to the campaign. It is easy to do this campaign in a full page ad. The problem is, if you don’t have the leisure of running a full page and to see how this ad would translate into a fractional ad. (Shows examples) So the ad does work in a fractional approach. We have to take a look at the media budget and the three publications that we run on a consistent basis that would handle the campaign; Our State, Southern Living and Charlotte Magazine. That would give us the ability to run the different campaigns; a third concept may be to talk about the dining and shopping. To do honest, the agency likes the icon approach and thinks of it as a little more flexible. Photography is always a little tricky issue, making sure that we get really good shots. Those are the two approaches that we have – the icon approach and the photo montage. Rick – One of our major challenges with our budget is will these translate well to the smaller that we talked about. Wlach – we will have to take a look at the media budget again – take a look at the publications that we are using to make sure that we use our dollars wisely. Mike Gering – so the two main targets that you showed were historical and cultural. Wlach – yes and those are just two that we selected. Lydia Lavelle – Do you need to go all icon or all photo? Liked some aspects of each (but not all). Wlach – the point of the icon campaign is just to draw your attention. The headline tells the story of the variety of things that we have to offer. Brad – given the budget constraints, how many sectors/markets can you focus on? Wlach – three Brad – from the previous campaign, did you do a focus group from that initial campaign? Laurie – yes Brad – So you’ve laid down markers from the previous campaign and now we’re moving into something else Laurie – I don’t think we are moving into something else Wlach – It is a different treatment of where we are going right now – 3 towns for the price of one is based – when the economy went down in 2008 – when we did research we found that travelers are looking for a valued proposition. We went back and developed a number of different concepts - we don’t want to say we are “on sale” – we don’t want to talk about “we’re cutting prices” – so we came up with the 3 towns for the price of one, so it would indicate the value that’s here in a variety of experiences throughout Orange County. The sector is starting to come back (we’ve seen it on the high end) and as the economy comes back, the idea is to move forward and tweak the message and get back to talking about things that we have to offer here. Rick: - 3 for the price of one (our message that we kept hitting on) Suggestion now (based on comments) is to put that 3 for the price of one aside and go this route Wlach – yes, but not walking away from the 3 towns concept; that’s the core of what we are talking about – that’s want makes up the experience here Mike Gering – I think that’s a good message – 3 for the price of one shows our diversity as well as the value. Wlach – it’s a different way to show that diversity by focusing on a string quartet to the Cat’s Cradle – that variety How does Jennings measure the success of a campaign – magazines provide leads, website tracker, “call to action” – look at activity in hotel sector Laurie – volumes have been written on this – everyone around the room invested in the marketing campaign would answer somewhat similar with a different - logo is 1/8 of the branding efforts – take what we’re doing here and apply it to a website (online marketing) through AAA, through Linda’s sales campaign efforts, through Patty’s public relations efforts, through merchandise, through what the Visitor’s Center receptionist is trained on telling guests and what we know from that is there is great and spiking interest in our area. There is great interest in our surrounding area (not just Chapel Hill). There are investors coming in saying “we want in”. There are meetings saying “we’ve heard about the Indian music scene. We’ve heard your call to Seattle and it’s a big branding effort that I think is long term. We have to build equity and we will see the results of what we’re doing years down the road. The worst thing we can do is pull out; the best thing we can do is stay true to what we are trying to accomplish with our various materials and merchandise and sales pitches. Why did every city at the Religious Focus Management Association have thirteen request and Linda had fifty? We see it in a lot of different ways; the demand is up. We can look at the 40% increase in supply 8 miles within out border and we can look at some product issues. What do we do to engage our customer and activate the sale? But for who we are (in marketing standpoint), I say we stay the course and continue to put the ads out there. I think the logo itself has little to do with the overall branding efforts. We’ll always come back and revisit and we’ll always tweak; not unlike Google when you log on and they apply their messaging for the day. Jennings will look at publications and view web-bound to click-throughs of the web campaign and look at on-line activity and THE Generation and activity in the Visitor Center, 800 number calls. Dave Gephart – have we done any measurement or response from the Charlotte campaign? Laurie – we have a lot of inquiries from the Charlotte campaign from the daily demand, from the Live Help Quick on our site and from the click-through it was very strong. We don’t know yet how our hotels are performing from the Charlotte standpoint and we don’t know yet how our day trips were impacted with receipts from Hillsborough (a big part of our push). We know that inquires went up and we know that the demand was there – how it was activated, we don’t know yet. Gephart – how about the radio stations website? Laurie – all positive Laurie – Google analytical report (from last month) – the words that lead them to our website were Chapel Hill (#1), Elizabeth Edwards (#2). Rick – this is an early process, but since this came up at our last meeting – we don’t want to miss any feedback from you. Which one do you prefer? The Agency said they prefer the icon. Wlach – there is another option to do neither and stay with what we were doing. It is up to Rick and Laurie to gauge whether we are past that decision and based on the response we had at the last meeting, it is not clear to me whether the Board has decided to say “whatever they come up with is better then what we’re doing”. Gerhart – I don’t know that the design meets the definition of fun, but I like it a lot. Laurie – I like it – I’d like to see us move in that direction and take a stab and see where our responses come in. We’re not doing a big page ad campaign right now – we’re in Our State, Southern Living – so what I would like to see them do is apply it to the various mediums that we’re in and really bring back an overview of how much impact that would make and how that would look in it’s fractionalized format. I don’t think we’re done yet. Wlach – at the last board meeting – it was a motion and we had discussion about that and I made phone calls to the Board members to get some more feedback. This is an initial rough concept Laurie – Let’ try it and if you’re comfortable with it, then we’ll take it and apply it to various different applications. Brad – what indicators will we have initially and then if you change programs – comparison whether you go back to something or not. What are your markers? Before you change a program to know if you’ve moved away from something that is more successful. Laurie – we will do some focus groups on it – which is what we did in the past. Rick – we’re not changing programs – we’re evolving what we have – I think it is a little bit different. If we were changing logo and changing slogans, etc Brad – I understand, but just for measurement capacities to get in here and instead of keep going around a circle – over a year’s period – what the markers were from a previous campaign As an antidotal comment, I’ve subscribed to Our State for years and as of late, I’ve taken a recent interest in examine the advertisement. I just think folks who subscribe to these books will recognize the general appearance and they will see some changes and they’ll say “oh, they’ve changed it up a little and this is even more interesting”. I think when I see someone who repeatedly uses the same over and over. Wlach – It still feels like us, I think this looks exactly like what we’ve been doing. I would see a change and as soon as I saw the ad because of the coloring in the background, I would go “oh, that’s Chapel Hill Visitor’s Bureau”, but it would draw me in because it is something a little different. Craig – I find it interesting that we’re talking about this whole advertising thing, which is an age old problem which is, when you throw the money out there, how you figure out if its working and the only way you can is looking at your bottom line. If that rises, then we know that the advertising is working. One thing that I would ask is, how much do we spend with these magazines. Wlach - $200,000 Craig: What I try to do when I do ads is parlay that into “if I spend a good deal of money with a magazine, I want to talk with their advertising people and tell them I want to talk to editorial. If we’re going to spend $10,000 to $15,000 with you, how about throwing me a bone and do an article on Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Carrboro. Because their editor is always looking for things to write about. We’ve done that with the Independent, with Metro Magazine and anyone that we’ve spent money with. When I read a magazine, I tend to ignore the ads, but I read the copy and if I see an article telling me about all the things that you can do in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough (if you come to Orange County). So I think that would be an interesting thing to pursue; to talk to these people and say, “we’re spending a lot of money with you guys, can you give me a feature”. Wlach: We’re not a tremendously large advertiser in any of these publications, but we do get editor coverage. Laurie – we get tremendous editor coverage. To your point, what I would like to do is have Patty come in at the next meeting and have her talk about how she is using the media. I am stunned at the editors we have, so it is a full time job handling the media request (and there are a lot of media request). We tend to see a lot more credibility and response to stories written about us and it’s an area that we have a staff member almost devoted to it. One thing that I will say is that in my previous life in Palm Springs; Palm Springs is seven different cities and everyone of those cities did not want to be known as Palm Springs. It was a huge battle there – they all wanted their own identity. Palm Springs has very little golf courses; Palm Desert has all the golf courses and they want to be known as the golf capital of the world and what we realized with that experience is that’s fine. I think when cities within an area develop their own identify I think that is a brilliant thing. It is absolutely encouraged, but there has to be an agency out there who really represents and fulfills information on the entire area because even though you might go out to golf in Palm Desert, you’re going to call it Palm Springs. What we’ve learned is that we take the unique identities of the towns; we package under this umbrella and we do it consistently while tweaking our messaging and highlighting various activities that attract more visitors in. I think we are doing it well; I think there will always be room for critique and I think there will always be room for somebody feeling a little shortchanged and I’d like to think that; as an office, that we’re very sensitive to that. I would like to see the Agency take a look at this slightly new direction, show us various different applications at the next meeting. Have Patty come in and talk about how she is using the media to enhance the brand messaging and leverage it for free and continue. The approach that we took when we hired Jennings is that we leverage the Chapel Hill name, that we did sub-branding for Hillsborough. I think that it is working for us, but I don’t know any other way around it. I think we are a marketing agency that’s set against a background of political reality and beyond politics; it’s smart I think for us not to ignore the great assets of Hillsborough and Carrboro. I lean on this Board to see how we’re going to take it, how we’re going to apply it. To my knowledge, it’s working although some people think we went out a little too far in promoting Carrboro and Hillsborough under the Visitor’s Bureau heads and beds mission. I don’t know that I agree with that, I think it is smart. I like to see Carrboro and Hillsborough swamped and if we can help out and not break the bank and continue on a branding campaign that people can identify with and respond to, I think so far, so good. Wlach – I think the process that we go through when we present to the Board and give everyone an idea of what’s going on, but now we go back to the Marketing Committee and they use that Committee to then talk to the Board Member to make sure everyone’s got a voice and then go from there. Rick: before we leave this, when I see this ad, what do I do? Where do I go? Do we have a website on the ad? Wlach: This is the initial conversation just to show you what direction we are going. ONLINE VIDEO ADVERTISING – Laurie Paolicelli stated that one thing missing as a market agency (in all three of our towns) is a digital application. More and more consumers are looking for the video, are looking for movie images and we have not gone there yet. So, Joe and Bruce, I would like to you grab some breakfast and hear a five minute presentation on a company that is doing some great things with technology and they have created a Downtown Chapel Hill prototype (working with Jim Norton) and have asked me how to reach Carrboro and Hillsborough. So I told them they could have ten minutes this morning to come in and talk to you and show you what they have done for Charles House and Sugarland and even Jim. Mills and Huening with Daytrip presented their “digital application”; a two-minute “documercials” (DayTripp.com). They have been contacting downtown Chapel Hill locally owned businesses to produce a two-minute “documercial”; a documentary film highlighting an experience only found in Chapel Hill (with plans to expand to Carrboro and Hillsborough). Their goal is to get every locally owned business to do a video; collect all the videos in one spot on the internet (“by town and interest” filtering capability) so that a visitor could see the story of each individual town. They have also discussed with Paolicelli about expanding into opportunities outside the downtown area (ie, Agra-tourism in the county) with hopes the Board could provide some strategic advice. Television has been really effective in getting people interested in businesses Half is a documentary about who these people are; what it is they sale; why it is they are in businesses and the other half is a commercial. You are getting sold this product, these people, this business and the people that work with them. It has been incredible effective, so much so that in the New York Times, Bloomberg (you name it) everybody’s mentioned the fact that on-line videos are the way of the future as far as getting new advertisement in the laps of people who are interested in that kind of thing. One of the things that we like, most people go right past the commercials, but people will watch the History Channel, the FoodNetwork for hours because the documentary style format is much more appealing and so we film only documentary style, unscripted, we just ask them questions and whatever comes out naturally, we craft a narrative from that. The documercial is only two minutes because at two minutes the attention starts to wander; we’ve tried to perfect this format where it’s this Trojan advertising because they think they are watching a documentary but it really is a commercial. We’ve gotten 12 businesses signing up and we have some success stories we are excited to talk about (such as Sugarland). They have surveyed by going out to the streets of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough videoing/interviewing people - where they’re from, where they are going, why they are going there, and how they found out about where they are thinking about going (most have visited TrippAdvisor). Cost - $999 to product video $ 99/month - Hosting (Chamber members) Includes a 2-minute documercial; high-definition video; detailed Web traffic report; printable coupons $149/month – Hosting (Non-chamber member) Paolicelli proposed that the Visitor’s Bureau fund a general Hillsborough, Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County documentary to aid Mills and Huening as they approach the various businesses. Citing time issues, Paolicelli asked that this be brought back to the next Board meeting. SALES UPDATE/RECAP OF RELIGIOUS MARKET - Linda Ekeland Ekeland reported on the Rejuvenate Conference which is a new religious trade show. Ekeland said this was a speed dating type promotion where you have set appointments. You are allowed 40 appointments during the day and Ekeland had 37 (organizers of Rejuvenate said this was the most appointments anyone had ever had). Ekeland received 6 to 7 RFPs (request for proposals); some go through 2016, with the average being 2012, 2 leads for possible programs (2012), a site tour with 2 people from Campus Crusade (waiting for the request for proposal in March 2011, with the possibility of signing a contract for 2012 as well). Ekeland stated by attending this event, she had learned a lot about the religious market. Some of the key items they are looking for included the airport (which airport get us there), free parking, rates (they are rate conscious, but not necessarily as low as an athletic rate), community support, tend to book during the off-peak periods (very interested in July, August and part of September, January, February and March) and during the week. Ekeland said she thought this was a very strong market and will continue to explore by sending out RFPs and leads to the hotels. Ekeland thought it was a very strong show with a great format and stated this market should be considered for the next year’s budget. Ekeland informed members that she will attend the local AENC (Association Executives of North Carolina) held in Raleigh on December 9th. The theme of the tradeshow is Celebrate, but the Visitor’s Bureau will be taking the theme a little further with “Celebrate the Spirit of Giving”. The Visitor’s Bureau will be representing four different charities within Orange County, allowing attendees to vote on which of those charities to make a donation. Participants will be allowed to make a beaded bracelet and for each bracelet they make, we are going to ring a bell and $1 will go to that charity. The charities that are represented are UNC Children’s Hospital, Ronald McDonald House, Eyes, Ears, Nose and Paws (animals that work with the disabled) and Family Violence. Ekeland continued by reporting the she was in the process of planning a Road Show in late January in Charlotte with plans to invite 250-275 Key Planners. She indicated she would provide more information at the next meeting. NEW BUSINESS Jim Ward asked about the value of promoting B&Bs in Chapel Hill and expressed his willingness to address again with the Board of (if the Board sees it as a value issue to beds and heads). Laurie Paolicelli said she had recently compiled background information for a B&B in Hillsborough (background into what kind of people would use it, traffic patterns, market, etc.) and she and Linda Ekeland would tweak the information for the Town of Chapel Hill to provide a formal presentation. Dave Gephart reported that the Orange County Board of Commissioners would be meeting on November 18th and will make a decision whether to lease the old Library (Whitted Bldg) to the Town of Hillsborough, who may then lease it to the Orange County Cultural Center Group. The Cultural Center Group would use the old Library as a cultural center for plays, author readings, performing arts classes as well as after school activities. ADJOURNMENT With all business of the Board completed, Gephart asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Mr. Ward made the motion to adjourn and seconded by Mr. Strunk. With all Board Members in agreement, the meeting was adjourned at 9:43 a.m. ________________________________ _________________________________ Minutes Drafted by: Minutes Accepted by: Laurie Paolicelli, Executive Director Dave Gephart, Chair ________________________________ _________________________________ Date Date