May 21, 2013 BOD Minutes

Board of Directors Meeting May 21, 2013: 10: 30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Best Western Plus Hilltop

The regular quarterly meeting of the Redding Tourism Marketing Group was held on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 at Best Western Plus Hilltop Redding. The meeting was called to order at 10:05 a.m. by Chairman Chris Korologos with the following Board members and guests present: Chris Korologos – Chair - Red Lion Inn Dave Grabeal – Vice Chair – Hampton Inn & Suites Ryan Rydalch – Secretary - Oxford Inn & Suites Bert Meyer – Treasurer – Holiday Inn & Cnv Ctr Allan Patel – Officer at Large – Value Inn & Suites Janelle Pierson – Officer At Large - Bridge House B&B Dave Creager – Attendee – TownePlace Suites Ed Rullman – Attendee - Best Western Plus Hilltop Greg Clark – Deputy City Manager – City of Redding Charissa Gilmer – Attendee - Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau Chad New – Attendee - Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau Laurie Baker- Attendee - Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau Krista Buckel – Attendee - Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau Additional Agenda Items  No additional items added Approval of Minutes  Bert motions to approve the previous meeting minutes. o Janelle seconds. o Vote: All in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstained. Approved.

Redding Unrestricted  When talking with local event coordinators Chad realized there are a few things we can do to help. o Cross marketing o Coordination between events o Create a template, an umbrella event to connect events in a particular time, day or weekend. o Bring in events (like we did with Gnarly Neon 5k) to help make local events more enticing to visitors and to encourage visitors to stay in Redding longer. o Krista talks about how to market product, events, or combined events to promote outside the area.

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Laurie: We changed the website home page for events and created flyers for events which is a first time for this office. Impressions on facebook increased 500% over last year. o We can trace a third of the web traffic to radio ads. o Chad mentions that local organizations were thrilled.

Ed is very interested in having a group calendar to give people opportunities to coordinate events. He also mentioned that this pulling together of events could be the best thing this group has ever done and is very happy with the direction and work of the RCVB office.

Dave Grabeal says this concept is fantastic.

Dave and Chad: Discuss distribution of flyers throughout the city as a part of the combined marketing effort.

Ed to Greg: Can we distribute flyers through utility bill? Greg says this is possible.

Bert talks about local community fund raising organizations and how we can get them involved in the citywide event process. Go to other service organizations and get dates of their events and coordinate around local community events.

Dave: Build around events that work. Don’t want to put many big events on top of each other.

Laurie: This is how Chad brought idea for Redding Unrestricted, gives publicity to small events.

Ed: Regarding meeting at Angelo’s and Shasta Cascade Viticulture Association: o More people should know about these associations and events. o Need to market to broader audience. o The RCVB team is making a local impression and this is growing to include locals marketing the community.

Greg: o Need to market that we have the ‘master’ calendar so everyone uses the same calendar. o Train organizations to share events with us. o One calendar with all events.

Laurie: o Two calendars, one for public and one for those coordinating events and hoteliers. o Help to package event weekends and prepare for large crowds. o Include all annual events.

Bert: This calendar needs to be the task of this organization.

Bert prefers flyers over billboards or radio ads. o Krista mentions website traffic corresponding to radio ads. o Male market grew from radio ad. o Chad assured the board that this radio ad was very different than past ads with more energy and adventure. o Laurie says we have the product (adventure, outdoors) for this demographic (young men).

Allan suggests putting them in newspapers- local and outside the area.

Shasta Cascade Summit  Laurie: Need to share what Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association does for community and what they will continue to do. o Ed has found dozens of companies who will give $300 each to use for Summit. o Ask Shasta Cascade Viticulture Association to provide wine for mix and mingle to follow Summit. o Ed encourages everyone to be at this event. o Ed would like to see event moved to September or October. o If anyone wants to be a sponsor then let Ed know.  Ed motions that hotels provides $1,500 each from TMBID to Visit Redding to use for Shasta Cascade tourism summit. o Dave seconds motion.

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Vote: All in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstained. Approved.

San Francisco Website  Laurie: we should use international market budget to be on Visit San Francisco website. o Advertise what to do up north (Outside the Gate). o This is a huge international marketing machine and we should ride the skirt tails. o This will bring new exposure to Redding.  Laurie: Long term vision is to start process with funding from Visit Redding and shift to Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association funding. o Ed & Bert agree. o Last year’s international budget was $67,000. This project costs $30,000. o Laurie suggests what international budget line items to keep.  Bert: Expresses by personal example that visitors almost always go to the website of the place they travel, so we need to have all information on the website.  Laurie talks about having our own landing page on VisitSanFrancisco.com. Greg asks about page template and Laurie goes over this. It is their template and we tell them what to put on there. Chris asks if that is up now, no. Cost $30,000. Previous international budget is $67,000.  Dave likes out of the box thinking that doesn’t take time to travel which takes a lot out of a person.  Ed: We have a better chance of getting them here because they have already decided to come to the area. Laurie says we are re-investing the funds in a better idea.

Impact TV  Laurie discusses moving the TV budget to a new project and goes over what it entails including our options. o We can use their films on Website, YouTube channel, and other social media. o $26,000 for one year. o Janelle likes this idea. o Ed would like to get film interviews of people who have been to our area.  Janelle heard about Redding being represented at AMGEN (by Chad).

Budget Discussion  Laurie shows how the budget format has changed: Both budgets (CVB and TMBID) in one, no longer with a separate marketing section.  Explains two month lag in payment from tax to when RCVB receives payment.  Budget is based on last year’s spending and we expect to hit same percent of growth each month.  We have budgeted to do more marketing than city is asking.  Bert asks about contingency fund. o Laurie: we do have a contingency set aside. o Chris asks why so much higher than last year, Laurie explains:  Last year we did not take into effect the 2 month payment lag and other possible reasons.  Ryan suggests another reason is that we did not collect tax on firemen during fire season.  Janelle: This is our first attempt at a clear budget.  Ed: TMBID will become funding mechanism for events that need assistance. Start looking at spreading that out for next year.  Allan: We should get banners up for the next big event (Fourth of July?). o Laurie: This should be in the budget.  Bert asks about Catalyst, what are they doing? o Laurie: Research. Surveys and personal interviews.

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o Complete in June. o Will need to adjust budget depending on research results.

Change labeling in budget: Billboards now outside signage. o Catalyst believes in billboards. o Janelle mentions that because people coming to Redding are driving, billboards are good to have spread out further from Redding so people have Redding in mind sooner.

Bert asks about Turtle Bay budget. o Numbers are up since last year. Instead of only asking for directions, visitors are asking for things to do when going to Turtle Bay. o Laurie believes that Turtle Bay is effective because they are already open and tourists are already planning to go there. o Janelle says people can find Turtle Bay easily. o This is more cost effective. o Laurie asks if there is a better place. o Bert asks if they are worth $50,000. o Greg says it is important that the Sundial Bridge is a huge attraction. o Greg says the coffee bar has been terrific for visitor business.

Bert to Greg, are you satisfied with the direction we are going? Is City satisfied? Greg says that City is watching how we are changing things and the TOT going up makes City happy. The City is hoping it continues like this. CSAC representative Judy Salter is also watching. o Bert asks Greg about state of the City?  Greg says we are still doing furloughs.  Final budget approval is June 20th.

Laurie wants to talk about big parts of the budget. o Choosing to go on with an ad agency. o Chad is making a booklet for groups. o Update to website for event planners. o Groups budget: We still have event sponsorship, didn’t use last year so going toward ad agency.  When big events come to Redding they say we expect you to offer this to staff free.  When this comes the money needs to come from some place.

Ryan asks if money is in group sponsorship budget. Laurie says we have the money for that, yes. o Will see internet under brochures and distribution periodically. o Video production, finished with 22 minute video. Needing to update a few things. o Big YouTube push this year. Lots of one minute filming of area. o Filming line item gets more than last year.  Need to advertise Film Shasta. Get filming industry to know us. o Ed talks about importance of videography and should we take money from contingency and put it into this budget. Chad tells what needs to be done and this is properly in the budget for this year. o Chad talks about filming in our area. o There are many very inexpensive promotion options such as…a web platform where location managers go to www.FilmCalifornia.com and say ‘I need a barn’ and this comes directly to us, also a free booth at the California Locations Conference all for only $300 per year. o Time consuming because we have to respond within 24 hours. o Chad mentions Stelera commercial and how quickly we got things ready for them. o Chad mentions other negotiations with film makers and travel writers. They will talk all about us and we get their footage and or content. We offer them tickets and rooms. o Yearly events: Target marketing. Line item to do itineraries for target markets and interactive maps.

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I love Redding products: Student came to us with school project to advertise Redding and get the community to love their area. o Give to businesses for free and they can sell and return production cost. o Ed likes this idea. o Chad mentions importance of having an official Redding product.

Ed moves that we approve the budget. o Ryan seconds this motion. o Vote: All in favor. 0 opposed. 0 abstained. Approved.

Bert is happy with the increase from 1% to 2%. It allows us the budget to do more.

Questions/ Comments  Put page numbers in meeting paperwork.  Put RCVB on all pages. Consistency.

Adjournment  Ryan moves to adjourn. o Allan seconds. o Motion to adjourn at 11:49 a.m.