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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/20/1999, C13 - USE OF PROMOTIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE ENHANCED PROMOTIONAL FUNDS council agenba CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO CITY HALL, 990 PALM STREET Tuesday, July 20, 1999 ADDED ITEM: 7:00 P.M. CONSENT ITEM Council Chamber 990 Palm Street C13. USE OF PROMOTIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE (PCC) ENHANCED PROMOTIONAL FUNDS. (HAMPIAN/GEORGE) RECOMMENDATION: 1) Allocate $2,500 of Enhanced Promotional funds to pay the cost of direct expenses for a visitor profile survey. 2) Allocate $2,000 of Enhanced Promotional funds to the Chamber of Commerce for the creation of a photo compact disk (CD)to be used for City tourism promotion. 3) Allocate $1,800 of Enhanced Promotional funds to pay the cost of "virtual reality" on the Chamber of Commerce website. council M"enjD"'- acEnaa nEpont Ci Nh CITY OF .SAN LUIS OBISPO FROM: Ken Hampian,Assistant City Administrative Officer Prepared By: Wendy George,Assistant to the City Administrative Officer t�7 SUBJECT: USE OF PROMOTIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE (PCC) ENHANCED PROMOTIONAL FUNDS CAO RECOMMENDATION Approve the Promotional Coordinating Committee's recommendations to: 1. Allocate $2,500 of Enhanced Promotional funds to pay the cost of direct expenses for a visitor profile survey. 2. Allocate $2,000 of Enhanced Promotional funds to the Chamber of Commerce for the creation of a photo compact disk(CD)to be used for City tourism promotion. 3. Allocate $1,800 of Enhanced Promotional funds to pay the cost of"virtual reality" on the Chamber of Commerce website. DISCUSSION Background Several years ago, in conjunction with an increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) from 9% to 10%, the City created an Enhanced Promotional fund to be used to finance innovative promotional ideas and provide seed money for new special events. Annually, the PCC makes recommendations to the City Council on how this fund should be spent. At its last meeting, three proposals originated from the PCC requesting expenditures of Enhanced Promotional funds. The first is to pay the direct costs of a visitor profile survey. The second is to provide funding for the development of a Photo CD to be used by the Chamber of Commerce when promoting City tourism. The third is to pay half the cost of adding "virtual reality" to the Chamber's website. Visitor Survey The City has three members on its tourism promotion team: the Chamber of Commerce, the Visitors and Conference Bureau and our advertising firm, Barnett Cox and Associates. In the process of awarding contracts to the team for the next two fiscal years, it became apparent to the PCC that there was a great need for the City to develop a comprehensive, written marketing plan which establishes promotional priorities, target audiences and marketing strategies. To date, the City promotional team has worked in an extremely collaborative manner, but without a formal plan in place. Promotion and advertising success has been measured by increases in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) and an intuitive sense that "things are going well". Council Agenda Report-Enhance Promotional Fund Recommendations Page 2 Earlier in the spring, the PCC recognized the need for an advertising conversion study which would provide insight into the effectiveness of the various components of our paid advertising program. With this recognition,the PCC requested and received funding for such a study, as part of the 1999-01 Financial Plan. However, the PCC also realizes that, while a conversion study will provide the City with good feedback on whether or not tourists are actually visiting as a result of our advertising, and a profile of those who do respond to it, it will not provide feedback from visitors who are attracted to San Luis Obispo through other means than paid advertising. (It should be noted that a conversion study only contacts those individuals who call and request material in response to our paid advertising, which is only a part of our whole promotional program.) As a result, at its last meeting, the PCC spent considerable time discussing ways, in addition to the conversion study, to gather the information needed before developing a formal marketing plan. Four years ago, the VCB contracted with the UCSB Economic Forecast Project to perform a county-wide visitor survey. While the data provided to us is very useful in confirming the profile and interests of visitors coming to the City, the survey did not address the specific question of how visitors were initially prompted to make such a visit. Additionally, the PCC has some concern that a high number of the survey instruments were distributed at Hearst Castle and might not be truly representative of all visitors to the City. Finally, the data from the survey is already becoming somewhat dated. As a result, the PCC looked for a simple and inexpensive way to acquire the additional data it needs. After discussing several possibilities, the PCC is recommending the use of Enhanced Promotional Funds to pay the anticipated $2,500 in direct costs for our own visitor's survey. The survey would be performed by unpaid student interns under the administrative oversight of the Chamber of Commerce. Funding would be for postage,printed material and some travel. The survey would be done in two parts. First, self-addressed, stamped survey forms would be provided to local hotels/motels to be completed and mailed back by their guests. Questions would focus on how people became interested in visiting the City, along with some simple profile and spending questions. The same survey forms would be distributed at the Chamber's Visitors Center. Local restaurants could also be included in this part of the survey. Second, student interns would be asked to travel to several of our major visitor markets, like Los Angeles, to perform random surveys of individuals in such gathering areas as shopping malls. This second survey would allow us to determine whether people are seeing our ads and what information they know about San Luis Obispo as a tourist destination. The PCC believes that by adding the information gathered by these two surveys to the direct feedback that will come through the conversion study, the PCC will have a good start on acquiring the data it needs to create its marketing plan. Photo CD Under its contract with the City, the Chamber of Commerce is responsible for providing the media with press releases and working in other ways to achieve no-cost promotion of the City. Council Agenda Report-Enhance Promotional Fund Recommendations Page 3 As part of the proposed scope of services for its 1999-01 promotional contract, the Chamber suggested creating a Photo CD to be sent to various publications to help induce as much free editorial coverage as possible. In the past, the City has provided members of the print media with sets of slides. More and more publications now prefer to receive photos on CD's. One CD can hold up to 100 images, giving photo editors more pictures from which to choose. Duplication is cost-effective and the CD itself is easily stored by the various publications for use at any time. The PCC originally recommended that the $2,000 required to produce the Photo CD be added to the budget for the Chamber's 1999-01 contract. However, staff suggested that Enhanced Promotional funds were more appropriate for this type of expense. The Council agreed with staff, and did not approve adding the additional funding to the Chamber's contract. The PCC is now recommending that the funding be taken from Enhanced Promotional funds. Virtual Reality on the Website Visuals are key for potential visitors "scouting" possible vacation destinations. An increasing number of destinations are including virtual reality on their websites so that visitors can get a more tangible feel for their communities when they are involved in making travel decisions. One of San Luis Obispo's most distinctive qualities is its scenery. Making it available in "virtual reality" will make the fullest use of this sales tool. Accordingly, the Chamber proposed adding "virtual reality" to the website as part of its 1999-01 promotional contract. The PCC was very supportive of this suggestion, and recommended that the cost of "virtual reality" be added to the budget for the 1999-01 contract. Staff agreed that the concept was excellent, but felt that the cost should more appropriately come from Enhanced Promotional funds, rather than the City's reserves. The Council agreed with staff and did not include the funding in the budget for the Chamber's 1999-01 promotional contract. The PCC now concurs with the staff suggestion that the funding should come from Enhanced Promotional funds, and is making that recommendation to the Council. FISCAL BIPACT There is currently $50,000 of Enhanced Promotional funds available to be spent over the next two fiscal years. The proposed PCC recommendations for expenditure of these funds at this time is as follows: Visitor survey $2,500 _ Photo CD 2,000 Virtual reality 1.800 Total $6,300 Attachment PCC minutes of July 14, 1999 PROMOTIONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE DRAFT REGULAR MEETING MINUTES July 14, 1999 Council Hearing Room, City Hall San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 5:36 p.m. by Vice Chairperson Wilda Rosene with the following members present: Mitch Massey, George Newland, Bill Pyper, Denis Rizzo, and Diane Hunt Roberts. Sandy Baer arrived at 5:40 p.m. Wendy George served as staff. Also present were: Maggie Cox,Jonni Biaggini, Anja Schlotman, Dave Garth and Alex LaChapelle. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT There was no public comment. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the regular meeting of June 9, 1999,were approved as submitted. 4. REPORT ON COUNCIL ACTION ON GRANTS-IN-AID Wilda Rosene reported that everything went smoothly at the Council Meeting of July 6, 1999. The Council approved the PCC's recommendation for Grants-In-Aid. A representative from Gilbert Reed Ballet asked for additional funding to support the use of live music at one of their performances. Ms. Rosene recommended against funding anything in addition to original grant request since we have penalized other organizations for late submittals. The Council did not support the request for additional funding. 5. ACTION ON CHANGES TO WORKSCOPES FOR CONTRACTORS Sandy Baer reported on the Council action regarding the approval of funding for the PCC's Promotional Contracts. Ms. Baer stated that she is concerned the Council may be placing too much importance on the conversion study. It will be important as the PCC goes forward this year to educate the Council on what a conversion study can or cannot do. As far as action on the promotional contracts, Council approved the funding and awarding of the contract to Barnett, Cox&Associates. However,they did not support the PCC's recommendation for increasing funding for the Visitors Conference Bureau (VCB). Instead the Council supported the staff recommended level of funding for the VCB. However, the Council did approve leaving $5,500 in the Chamber of Commerce contract to support the additional workload created by the website. Council did not approve funding for the Photo CD or Virtual Reality on the website as part of the regular contract for the Chamber of Commerce. Instead,they suggested that it should come from Enhanced Promotional Funds. On a motion by Bill Pyper, seconded by Sandy Baer,the PCC unanimously recommended that$2,000 for a Photo CD and $1,800 for Virtually Reality on the website be taken from Enhanced Promotional Funds. Bill Pyper reiterated that the Council may be placing too much stock on the conversion study. He indicated that at the Marketing Subcommittee meeting of July 12, the Chamber of Commerce said that it could help supplement the study by using student intems to gather additional survey information. This would help put the conversion study into perspective. Dave Garth stated that the Chamber would oversee a survey to be distributed to local businesses and mailed back in to the Chamber. It would also send interns out of the area to talk to people who do not normally come to San Luis Obispo. These face-to-face surveys would take place in Los Angeles and perhaps the Central Valley at a locations such as shopping malls. Alex LaChapelle distributed a draft survey instrument. She asked the PCC to return comments on the survey to her by the end of the week. On a motion by Wilda Rosene, seconded by Bill Pyper,the PCC unanimously approved recommending that $2,500 of Enhanced Promotional Funds be spent for a Visitors Survey under the supervision of the Chamber of Commerce.