Okaloosa County BOCC — May 29, 2014 — Minutes — reading text

CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Yes. 6 MR. SCHROEDER: On leisure travel, our 7 advertising's going to carry all heavy water to win that 8 customer. It's going to be 85, 90, 95% because of the 9 ads they see, and we see them over, and over, and over, 10 and we get it. 11 On the group side, it's a little different. Our -- 12 our advertising is not as impactful to move a group to 13 come down here. So we don't have as much advertising 14 paid just for the group business. 15 What we do have is a very robust sales schedule. 16 And if we are successful in getting groups here, it's 17 because that meeting planner has developed a relationship 18 with our salesperson, or with Rachel and her salesperson, 19 and they're buying that person as much as they are the 20 property or the destination. They're buying that 21 salesperson. They're putting all the eggs in that basket 22 that that salesperson can make the dream happen that they 23 claim they can. 24 So seeing that, our -- our emphasis is on the 25 direct sales being out there in the Southeast, being at Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com  59 1 the shows, going on trade missions, going on sales 2 missions, bringing those people here and developing those 3 relationships, you take those two together, I think we've 4 got a -- I think we have a strong group campaign. 5 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: See, this -- this goes back to 6 the mentality of staff directing these. You know, 7 because there's a bunch of condo people that also do 8 groups, you know, that have the facilities. You know 9 it's not just the hotels that look for groups. 10 MR. GUIDRY: Right. 11 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: You know, we have -- there's 12 restaurants onsite, a number of the hotels. It -- you 13 know, I think the -- I think it's a good plan, I think 14 everybody's covered. Can we tweak it? All our lives we 15 always will. You know, but I think, you know, good 16 points. But I think we're all in this together for the 17 county. 18 MS. JOYCE: Absolutely. 19 MR. GUIDRY: If I can just throw out one more thing 20 since we opened this up. 21 On Friday morning, last Friday morning, I was 22 sitting at 80% for the weekend, okay? And we sold out. 23 Three nights we sold out. Now, to pick up 20% of our 24 occupancy -- starting on Friday, the day of -- you know, 25 I mean, people would -- when we were talking about March Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com  60 1 earlier, what you didn't mention was we also had the 2 worst March weather that we've ever had. It was terrible 3 here. 4 You do any fishing in March this year? 5 MS. WINDES: Not much. 6 MR. GUIDRY: And it just becomes -- that booking 7 window just gets so narrow, and narrow, and narrow. And 8 the job is to get our message out there to where it is in 9 the people's mind to where they're going to make that 10 decision at the very last minute, oh, let's go to the 11 beach; where are they going to think of? Emerald Coast. 12 You know. That is just a daunting challenge, you 13 know. It's probably going to give me gray hair before 14 this I mean ... 15 (Laughter). 16 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Me too. 17 MR. GUIDRY: You too. 18 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: It's been very tough this year. 19 Very tough to figure. 20 MS. WINDES: Had to open that up. 21 MR. GUIDRY: I'm like that. 22 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Let's move along. 23 MS. CLARKE: Okay. 24 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Thank you. 25 MS. CLARKE: Thank you. We do value that feedback. Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com  61 1 And to everyone's point, this is absolutely correct. We 2 will tweak this as we go on, we continue to look at the 3 numbers, things need to shift. This is a fluid plan. 4 But to your point, it's a base plan for now to get us 5 going. 6 CHAIRMAN PETERSON: Yeah. 7 MS. CLARKE: So this is the overall first kind of 8 budget option. The second one that we'll go through in a 9 second is an incremental spending. And with that we kind 10 of mentioned earlier still, but incremental spending in 11 terms of digital items. 12 So if you want -- do you want to take -- 13 MS. DUNWORTH: Yeah. So this is our annual 14 consolidated marketing plan. We are at this time 15 anticipating to spend about $3.3 million for promotional 16 activities. These are expenses that are classified as 17 promotional activities in the chart of accounts. 18 And so if we see in the 1.9 million there towards 19 middle, the media campaign, that is what the agency just 20 went over, the slides that you saw with all of those 21 details. The sum of all of that is 1.9 million. 22 So some other aspects that are part of the 23 strategic marketing plan are promotional items and 24 collateral, which that includes items that are given away 25 at trade show, sales calls, sell of commission, and as a Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com  62 1 hand-out at the visitor's center, convention center, and 2 other types of activities of that nature. Then we have 3 some local events, promotional activities that may 4 include, like, the sock hop that we did this year, some 5 Snowbird welcome events, those types of local events that 6 we put on here. 7 Then we have the trade show fees, and this is what 8 Ed alluded to earlier. This is the cost of the hard 9 trade show registration fees and such associated with our 10 internal sales team, the destination marketing team and 11 the convention center marketing team going out there 12 marketing our convention center, and our location, our 13 destination. 14 Then we have the advertising agencies that are base 15 services and their travel fees; some agency time 16 associated with doing the media planning and purchasing. 17 We also have website development and maintenance. 18 We have fam tours and press visits. These are 19 items that both we put on, our TDD staff puts these on. 20 An example that occurred this year was the military fam 21 that Sherry did a fabulous job putting on. We have some 22 of those activities scheduled for next year as well, as 23 well as some press and journalist visits that the agency 24 will coordinate for us. 25 Then we have campaign production related expenses. Destin Reporting & Technology Group (850) 837-5078 scheduling@destinreporting.com  63 1 Special events. That includes both the application 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  64 1 somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 we approved for 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  65 1 come, and we'll try to weigh maybe don't do this, we'll 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