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.