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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil Reading File SLO Wine 2018-19 TBID Annual Partnership Proposal Overview of Annual Marketing Partnership July 2018-2019 SLO Wine Country Association About SLO Wine Country Association SLO Wine Country is a non-profit 501 C6 organization representing 34 wineries throughout the Edna Valley AVA, Arroyo Grande AVA, and surrounding growing areas including Pismo, Avila, and Cambria. Our growing region extends from the Monterey County line down to the south coast of the county at the Santa Barbara County line, less than 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Our focus is to promote and market our wine region to regional and national consumers, trade and media contacts, and travel industry partners. We have a board of 7 directors, with one full time staffer (Executive Director) and one part-time staffer (Membership & Marketing Coordinator). San Luis Obispo Wine Country channels wine enthusiasts from all over the world. Our key demographic and geographic targets for visitation include Los Angeles, Bay Area/San Jose, and San Diego. Additional out of CA markets include Arizona, Washington and Colorado. Past Support SLO Wine Country has maintained a dynamic partnership with the City of SLO and its lodging group since 2014. Over the past four years, we have delivered a myriad of public relations, media, marketing and referral opportunities through SLO Wine Country including: -Membership referrals, online promotion through website, e-newsletter and social media marketing -Marketing/advertising through SLO Wine County brochure, website and events -Public Relations/Media/Wine Writer hosting in San Luis Obispo City -Roadshow opportunities San Luis Obispo City has benefitted as a major partner with SLO Wine with brochure placement and promotion at all SLO Wine Country co-op events and roadshows. SLO Wine Country was recently named one of the Top 10 Wine Getaway Destinations in the world by Wine Enthusiast Magazine (February 2018), with the City of SLO and two lodging properties being mentioned in the article. SLO Wine Country has provided mid-year and annual reports detailing measurable impacts of the partnership, along with a complete media and press report at the end of each fiscal year. Membership, Advertising & Social Media Marketing As a partner of SLO Wine Country Association, SLO City TBID and lodging constituents continue to receive value as associate members of SLO Wine Country. The SLOwine.com has grown to reach over 250,000 unique visitors, along with over 4 million page hits and 675K page views. The “Visit/Stay” page has also had over 8,000 unique views, with over 3000 direct referrals to the sanluisobispovacations.com website. San Luis Obispo Vacations web ads have been viewed by over 30,000 unique visitors on SLOWine.com webpages. SLO Wine has also emailed 67 e-newsletters including the SLO TBID logo and additional editorial information, videos, events and news stories to over 12,000 consumers each month, with 1 -2 master list newsletters (over 10K) e-mailed each month. Our e-newsletter open rate is about 20% on average for our consumer list, and 37% for all lists, along with a 3% click through ratio. SLO TBID lodging partners have saved 10% on advertising in the SLO Wine Country map and brochure, and as part of this partnership. In addition, SLO City has received a full page advertisement in our brochure, with distribution to over 55,000 maps to local, regional, national and international markets. SLO Wine Country mailed over 1000 maps last year 36 states and 16 countries including Germany, China, Switzerland, Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Austria, England, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, and Mexico. As part of our continued social media outreach and marketing efforts, SLOWCA has featured several SLO City events, blog posts, media posts and additional stay information on multiple social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube. San Luis Obispo vacation brochures have been distributed to all tasting rooms in SLO Wine Country. SLO Wine garners over 15,000 Facebook & Instagram followers with a high level of engagement with unique and insightful postings each week. We are continuing this promotion with an annual branding campaign, and have invested additional marketing dollars to promote SLO Wine Country through digital and social media marketing, spending funds monthly to build brand awareness in key drive markets of Los Angeles, Bay Area, San Diego as well as flight markets in Washington, Colorado and Arizona. Through our roadshow participation, SLO Wine and SLO City hosted an integrated marketing experience at LA Magazine’s The Food Event for the past two years, where we captured new followers and hosted an “Art Bar” and “Virtual Reality” tour at our San Luis Obispo Experience booth. As we continue to co-brand the City of San Luis Obispo with SLO Wine Country, we continue to research new opportunities to drive destination marketing awareness. As the largest partnering entity for SLO Wine Country, we will continue to offer benefits for all SLO City Lodging partners to take advantage of. Media and Press In 2017, San Luis Obispo Wine Country, in partnership with the City of SLO and SLO Chamber of Commerce hosted six journalists from national and regional magazines, newspapers and blogs that featured the winemakers, wineries and local attractions and lodging in San Luis Obispo city. Editorial published in the fall/winter/spring of 2017/2018 included: Seattle Magazine, Tasting Panel Magazine, Wine Enthusiast, Phoenix Magazine, Dallas Morning News, Outside Magazine, Horizon (Alaska Airlines), Jerusalem Post, Napa Valley Register, NBC LA, San Jose Newsgroup, Food & Wine Magazine. A complete media report has been included in handouts. SLO Wine Country has also partnered with SLO City to host one-off media visits throughout the year. SLO Wine will utilize media funds available through SLO City partnership dollars to continue to host journalists. SLOWCA, working in collaboration with Mooncatcher PR will be focusing on bringing additional media to stay in San Luis Obispo through December 2018. In addition, SLO Wine will be hosting several wine journalists through regional tasting panels and have selected to host these experiences to be held within the City of SLO. Looking Forward As part of SLOWCA’s application for CDFA Specialty Crop Grant funding, SLO TBID was included as an ‘in-kind” partner in our efforts to promote the SLO Wine region. In October of 2017, SLO Wine was chosen as a CDFA Specialty Crop Grant recipient and will receive over $196,000 over the next two years to promote the SLO Wine region to multiple drive markets and flight markets over the next 2 years. SLO Wine has established benchmarks for wine sales and traffic and will monitor efforts as part of grant deliverables. SLO Wine Country has created a comprehensive marketing plan to educate media, wine buyers/distributors, and consumers about SLO Wine Country and destination experience. As an in-kind supporter, SLO City will be included in marketing aspects of the CDFA. SLO WINE COUNTRY ANNUAL MARKETING PARTNERSHIP 1. Membership Benefits: All SLO City lodging partners will continue as Associate Members to SLO Wine Country at discounted rate (less than $200 annually per lodging partner). Benefits include: a. Invitation to SLO Wine Country’s Annual Associate Member BBQ (July) and industry events b. Referrals to SLO City Lodging from consumers interested in staying in SLO c. 10% off of ad space in SLO Wine’s popular “San Luis Obispo Wine Country Guide” for all individual properties d. NEW: Integrated story placement in Quarterly Media Surf Report, Social Media Content, and SLO Wine blog: i. Develop concepts/organic stories for articles, blog posts, and social media content by tying together City of SLO and SLO Wine Country destination experience. ii. Work with SLO City/PR team to develop organic stories/unique experiences featuring SLO Wine Country in tandem with the Stay in SLO experience. Develop content around tasting/tours, restaurants, shopping while tying in the “SLO Life” mantra of living in SLO. e. Website branding: i. Listing under associate members & “Stay” Section ii. Website banner advertising (annually)—3 banner ads and placement on 5 pages each month iii. Prominent logo placement online f. Event Tickets – 30 complimentary tickets to: i. Roll Out the Barrels & Harvest On the Coast (15 each) g. E-Newsletter: i. Logo placement in newsletter throughout the year ii. Featured editorial, story and event placement annually in all e-newsletters (consumer, winery, associate members) iii. Additional member placement for deals/offerings into e-newsletters Funding Requested: $7500/annually 2. Visitor Guide/Rack Card Map a. Free full page advertisement in SLO Wine Country Visitors Guide b. Free listing in Visitors Guide c. Free full page advertisement in Harvest on the Coast Auction program d. 75,000 Maps printed with distribution in Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo County Funding Requested: $2500/annually 3. Public Relations and Media SLO TBID to cover hotel costs for media and wine journalists including: a. Stays and additional hosting expenses for wine media/travel journalists who would be covering SLO Wine Country and the City of San Luis Obispo. We have had continued success in acquiring journalists from large publications and have had past coverage in the Chicago Tribune (syndicated in over 20 additional markets), USA Today, and San Diego Union Tribune. Earned/organic media has had the highest impact on building brand awareness for both San Luis Obispo City and SLO Wine Country. SLO City and will have a dedicated feature in each quarterly “SLO Wine Surf Report”, which covers all things new and exciting in SLO Wine Country, along with new and interesting features in SLO County . Past coverage has included: Vegetable Butcher, Butler Hotel, SLO Marathon, and Foremost Restaurant. Funding Requested: $3000 (Funding to be drawn on as needed throughout the year and would be directly paid to hotels hosting journalists) 4. Targeted Roadshow Marketing: SLO TBID and SLO Wine Country to host “roadshows” to targeted regional CA cities to build brand awareness of wine country and SLO City destination. Partnership would include a sweepstakes giveaway to secure emails/lists and social media promotion during event. This was a new addition to last year’s partnership and SLO Wine/SLO City hosted a unique experience at LA Magazine’s “The Food Event”. Sponsor dollars covered some costs for the booth space. Other potential roadshows options include: LA Food & Wine Festival, Aspen Food & Wine (w/new Denver direct flight). Funding Requested: $8000 Annually TOTAL FUNDING REQUESTED: $21,000 TOTAL FUNDING TO SLO WINE: $18,000 We believe a partnership at this level will leverage both SLO Wine and the City’s efforts to brand SLO as the place to see, stay, eat/taste and explore when traveling to the Central Coast. Looking long-term, this partnership will create top of mind awareness for wine enthusiasts when booking their stay in SLO County. While cross promoting SLO City lodging partners, SLO Wine is the perfect platform for creating symbiotic relationships as wine tasting becomes more of an integral part of our traveler’s SLO County experience. By continuing this partnership, SLO City will be included in all aspects of marketing within the scope of SLO Wine Country’s promotional efforts.