Okaloosa County BOCC — June 26, 2014 — reading text

agency 24 will coordinate for us. 25 Then we have campaign production related expenses. Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com Packet Pg. 68  1.a 63 1 Special events. That includes both the application Minutes Acceptance: Minutes of May 29, 2014 2:00 PM (Consider Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council Meeting Minutes (Dale 2 funding that goes through that process where an event can 3 receive up to $20,000 in funding, as well as some of the 4 direct advertising that we anticipate doing in support of 5 local events that does not necessarily go through the 6 application process that we fund directly, and partner 7 with them on. 8 And then we have some actual advertising at 9 airports, welcome centers, and various publications. And 10 then the promotional reserve account. 11 And so, anyhow, so this is the consolidated plan 12 for next year. We've combined everything. We're not 13 really, within the marketing plan, going to identify 14 whether it's the ad agency, or inhouse staff doing it. 15 We found that if we did that this year we had pigeonholed 16 ourselves in many cases where we tied our hands so 17 tightly we can't really respond when we categorize things 18 to that level. 19 So here we just have broad agency and staff, 20 everyone we're going to work together for this $3.3 21 million plan. And then I do want to make sure -- 22 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Did you have a question? 23 MR. DIXON: This website maintenance, and 24 development and maintenance. We had paid a large sum 25 last year to develop a website, and I want to think Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com Packet Pg. 69  1.a 64 1 somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 we approved for Minutes Acceptance: Minutes of May 29, 2014 2:00 PM (Consider Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council Meeting Minutes (Dale 2 that. And here's another 82,500. Are we talking about 3 the same thing here, or are we talking about -- 4 MR. SCHROEDER: Well -- 5 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Ed'd like to address this. 6 MR. SCHROEDER: I'd like to tell you this, because 7 I put that money in there for that. 8 MR. DIXON: Uh-huh. 9 MR. SCHROEDER: Our website will never stand still, 10 no matter how good or bad it was, how great it was in one 11 year. By the time next year gets here, if you haven't 12 changed the look continually, nobody's interested in 13 going there. 14 When a customer comes to your website, they have to 15 feel that it's fresh, that it's new, and that it's 16 incorporating the technologies that are variable. There 17 is quite a bit on our website that is needed that wasn't 18 asked to be included in the original website development. 19 An example is a blog. One of the greatest communications 20 there are out there right now is a blog. Those aren't 21 cheap, but we got to have it, and we're going to put it 22 in this year. 23 There are a whole series of technologies that need 24 to be put into the website that -- and honestly, during 25 the year, there's going to be more technologies that Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com Packet Pg. 70  1.a 65 1 come, and we'll try to weigh maybe don't do this, we'll Minutes Acceptance: Minutes of May 29, 2014 2:00 PM (Consider Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council Meeting Minutes (Dale 2 do that instead. But that -- that is a -- that is not a 3 large number to keep your website at the top of the heap 4 of competing travel websites. 5 MR. DIXON: Okay. Well, I just remember the 6 largest expenditure last year. 7 MR. SCHROEDER: Yes, sir. 8 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Yeah. 9 MR. DIXON: And this is not small, I just want to 10 make sure we ... 11 MR. SCHROEDER: Do it right. 12 MR. DIXON: Do it right. 13 MR. SCHROEDER: It is very much needed. Honestly, 14 when you consider the whole budget, the very purpose of 15 this budget is to make an impression, get people to come 16 to our website. It behooves us to have enough of a 17 website when they do come there, capture them, motivate 18 them to approach us. 19 MR. DIXON: That'd be nice. 20 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Okay, Charlotte. 21 MS. DUNWORTH: Okay. And I do want to one thing 22 mention about promotional reserve, that is not in the 23 slides but it is on page 148 of your bound version of the 24 strategic marketing plan. 25 The language proposed for next year with regard to Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com Packet Pg. 71  1.a 66 1 the promotional reserve is that "promotional reserve Minutes Acceptance: Minutes of May 29, 2014 2:00 PM (Consider Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council Meeting Minutes (Dale 2 funds may be prorated in accordance with county approval 3 authority, and with concurrence of the TDC chairman. A 4 monthly reconciliation of the use of the promotional 5 reserve funds will be provided to the TDC and the BCC for 6 informational purposes." 7 So those are the parameters for that category for 8 next year. 9 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Okay, thank you. 10 MS. DUNWORTH: Thank you. 11 MS. CLARKE: And very quickly we'll take you 12 through. We were asked, if you had $600,000 more, what 13 would you spend it -- how would you spend this? How 14 would you get the most bang for your buck? So we'll take 15 you quickly through what -- 16 MR. SCHROEDER: Michelle, can I ask a favor? 17 MS. CLARKE: Sure. 18 MR. SCHROEDER: Could we ask the chairman for a 19 vote on the base marketing plan, and then we'll introduce 20 the incremental budget. 21 MS. CLARKE: Absolutely. 22 MR. SCHROEDER: Would that be all right? 23 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: As I think it was under new 24 business, but if we want to -- 25 MR. SCHROEDER: Oh, you're right. You're right, Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com Packet Pg. 72  1.a 67 1 yeah. Minutes Acceptance: Minutes of May 29, 2014 2:00 PM (Consider Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council Meeting Minutes (Dale 2 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: But, I mean -- 3 MR. SCHROEDER: You're absolutely right. 4 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: -- I felt the same way whenever 5 Charlotte gave us a synopsis, I felt the same way. But I 6 looked, and we'll get to it. 7 MR. SCHROEDER: My mistake. Fire away. 8 MS. CLARKE: Oh, okay, you want to. Perfect. 9 Well, with that, Sonya can give you a brief overview. 10 MS. LANDRY: As mentioned, for the incremental plan 11 at $600,000, the largest percentage of this, our 12 recommendation is to spend it in search media; Google and 13 Bing specifically. There's a second page that shows that 14 there would be Facebook expenditures. 15 When you glance down at the bottom, the costs are 16 for baseline plus incremental. But one of the things to 17 note about Google and Bing search is that that is one of 18 your most qualified potential conversions. You know, 19 they have the highest likelihood of converting. 20 In fact, what this is from our particular plan is a 21 very low cost-per-site per visitor. One of the questions 22 that Rachel asked, the $2.38 cost per visitor, which is, 23 again, why we're kind of building the incremental to this 24 most efficient tactic. 25 But in talking with our Google reps, studying what Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com Packet Pg. 73  1.a 68 1 we're doing, we know that there's room to grow our share, Minutes Acceptance: Minutes of May 29, 2014 2:00 PM (Consider Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council Meeting Minutes (Dale 2 our share of voice in this particular area. So that is 3 another reason. And because, once again, if someone is 4 specifically sitting down and searching for terms, you 5 know, "Fort Walton travel", "Destin vacation", it's 6 competitive searches, competitive terms. And then 7 general travel terms "family travel", that kind of thing. 8 So our recommendation is to bolster those 9 particular areas, and that's ultimately what this slide 10 is saying. And it would increase our baseline in terms 11 of almost 400% as far as site visits, and also impression 12 volume. 13 And then the next slide is really just a synopsis 14 on Facebook. Facebook, too, is another very specific 15 labor-targeted opportunity. You know, we can target by 16 enthusiasts. Right now we have a 12 frequency in 17 Facebook against our campaigns; that might sound a little 18 high, but when you consider the number of times that 19 people are on their phones, multiple times a day, 20 checking Facebook, those news feeds, even on desktops, 21 you know, taking this up to a 17 frequency is not 22 outrageous. 23 You know, it's an increase certainly, but there to, 24 that's where we've seen the conversions. It's a very low 25 cost, and we feel comfortable with recommending that Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com Packet Pg. 74