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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Lodging Tax Advisory Committee - 02/22/2016 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee February 22, 2016 Start Time 4:00 pm Centennial Center Conference Room North & South Committee Members Present: Josh Bang, Andrew Hutchison, Bill Boyce Others Present: Ryan Hart, Andrew Corona, Jim Donner, Michelle Wilmot, Mary Kae Repp, Colin Campbell, Jason Thompson, Andrea Keikkala, Ben Wolters, Julie Pulliam Chair Boyce called the meeting to order at 4:00 pm. Introductions were made. Chair Boyce asked for any additions to the agenda. Seeing none, he called for approval of the Minutes. 1. Approval of the January 14, 2016 Minutes. Josh Bang moved and Andrew Hutchison seconded a motion to approve the minutes of January 14, 2016. Motion passed. 2. Ask from Seattle Metro Jo Girls Fastpitch Tournaments — Jim Donner Jim Donner, with ASA softball requested funds to support state and national tournaments held in Kent. He stated he has worked with a number of hotels in the past who have provided lodging for softball teams from out of state and out of the country. These tournaments bring a lot of impact to the community and it is possible that open ceremonies could be held at Show Ware center. 136 teams have attended previously. Seattle Metro is non-profit and the funds would be used to off-set the cost of the tournament and also the rental fee for the fencing on the fields. The rental fee is $220 per complex. The national tournament brings about 40-50 teams and the other tournaments brings about 200 teams every year. They will work with a company to help set up hotels for tournaments. Committee would like for them to tell the company that they need to book hotels in Kent. Jim Donner explains the families for the tournaments are specific about rates, whether the hotel offers breakfast or not, and if the tournament is rained out that they let them out of their room obligation on the second night. Josh Bang stated he has had good experience with the RFP for rooms. Andrew Hutchison said he has had little experience with the RFP Company HBC and knows they want a $10 kick back from the hotels which Hutchison would not be supportive of. Donner stated the Kent games have grown and the majority of the teams stay in Kent and eat in the restaurants. Mr. Donner said he would like to have the tournament here each year. Hutchison asked how many tournaments Donner handles a year, Donner replies, 28. MOTION: Andrew Hutchison moved and Josh Bang seconded to move to approval an ask for $5,000 for the 2016 Seattle Metro Girls Fast Pitch Tournament. Motion Passed. Budget Re-Organization— Ben Wolters Lodging Tax Advisory Committee February 22, 2016 Lodging tax operating fund as of December 315t 2015 amended proposal. Discussed options for 2016 were based on past history and Wolters would like to change the budget allocation for the year to more closely reflect where revenues are more likely to be in 2016 as well as the committee's expenditures. Request to increase projected revenues to $275,000 keeping with 2015 estimated actuals. Expenditures under marketing and branding are the budget line item we have used to track our expenditure in developing visitkent.com and the work we funded Genesis has done including our TV ad campaign. Ben states that he has heard from many of the council members their desire to keep building on our work from last year's marketing plan. Increase the Marketing line item to $190,000 which will include $20,000 that used to be a separate line item for branding. Now marketing and branding are combined. Decreased the amount for projects and events to $15,000, we have always underspent in that category. Proposed Amended budget of $293,000 requires us to dip into the fund balance for about $18,500 leaving us a fund balance of $375,000. Looking for approval or suggested amendments from the committee to be carried forward. Wolters recommends the changes in budget go to the finance department to be wrapped up in their quarterly budget update to city council. 4. Expansion of Committee Membership City Council approved/reapproved expansion of the committee for 7 to 9. Reapproved because the staff discovered that in the original ordinance the terms were not specified and it needs to be in compliance with the RCWs that create the committee. The next steps are as follows: Andrea Keikkala, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, needs to have her nomination formally approved before the City Council as one of the newly created Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Members. There is still one position unfilled, per the RCW's the committee would need to recruit a representative from hotel community to fill this position. Geographically, we do not have any representation in the area that includes; Comfort Inn, Ramada Inn, Extended Stay, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, and a Holiday Inn Express. Andrew Corona will be touching base with some to f the hoteliers to see if there is interest. Once both positions have been recruited and filled they will be put on the Council agenda for the final approval of the Full Council. S. Review Genesis Marketing Campaign options & Next Steps 2 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee February 22, 2016 Taking the feedback gathered from the conversation held in January, Wolters asked Mary Kae Repp of Genesis Marketing to put together 3 different proposals at the $70,000, $100,000 and $150,000 levels. The $70,000 is very basic what we should do to keep VisitKent website up to date with maintenance and operations, and to build onto social media. $100,000 is stepping it up even further and $150,000 is where we get back into doing things such as TV ads. In reference to a recommendation Barbara Smith sent in her absence, Ben voiced Smith's believes it would be difficult to have a staff member, along with all the other needs of the program be able to keep the site current. Would the $70,000 be able to pay for a staff person to do just the website? Wolters doesn't see a positon being put in place in 2016, if a position would be considered it will have to be put into 2017-18 City Council Bi-Annual Budget. Mary Kae would like the committee's approval to participate on phone or Skype meeting instead of traveling so the $3,000 spent on traveling in the proposal could be allocated to other things such as hiring a local Kent photographer to take some much needed photos. Ben states that Julie and he will work with the IT department to see if Skype can be arranged. Mary Kae explains the difference in the 3 different proposed levels: In $70,000 we gave up blogs and would continue with the website maintenance. In the $100,000 proposal it allows for social media and blogs as well as keeping up the website maintenance and on-line advertising. Moving on to the $150,000 proposal, this will allow for allocated funds to opposing cities the T-birds will be playing. We would be advertising our lodging and promoting the team's fans to come to Kent. We will want to continue with the sport minded people campaign and focus on advertising in areas like Portland, Canada and Tri Cities to convince them to stay the night and spend money in Kent when visiting for T-Birds, Mariners, Seahawks and Sounders games. The $150,000 gives us more opportunity to get a higher frequency of online marketing in other cities and the contest part of it gives us an opportunity to show how fun it is to stay shop and eat in Kent. Ryan Hart stated that he believes the online marketing numbers are higher than they need to be. He believes a similar amount of work can be done with less money. Andrea Keikkala asks if the marketing agreement has ever gone through the RFP process. She stated concerns regarding an out of state company leading the way on these projects rather than having a local company that better understands our 3 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee February 22, 2016 market. She brings up the point of the 2009 Kent City Ordinance to shop local. Wolters asked if there is a local firm that shows as much expertise. The Committee discusses the possibility of reopening the bid to other companies for continued work on this project. Mary Kae Repp suggests considering doing 6 months at the $150, 000 level minus the 22 for the purpose of the possibility of Genesis not getting the bid. If a new marketing company were to be selected they may want to go in a completely different direction. Wolters states that he believes Genesis is one of the lower cost firms in this market and that it we took time to look at other firms. We wanted to move forward in a timely and cost effective matter and Genesis has done this for us. Hutchison stated he felt starting over with a new marking firm at this point would not be a Wolters agrees with committee member Andrea that it is a lot of money and we are in a place where we have something more established with a point of reference, it may be the right time to open the RFP process so we can compare our options in the market place. To do an RFP process would give the committee a broader understanding of what the options are and how we may want to guide the marketing of Kent. Wolters only concern is in continuity and not losing the value of what has been created over the last year or so. So Wolters suggestion is going with the 6 month amended version of the $150,000 proposal keeps the momentum going and gives the Committee time to start the RFP process if that's what the committee choses to do. Chair Boyce stated he felt the 6 month agreement with Genesis while the RFP process is underway would be appropriate. Josh Bang stated the key component is the contests and agreed on the 6 month term with Genesis. Chair Boyce stated going through this process will show we have a proven process moving forward. Hart stated we have a point of reference now and an RFP process will confirm we are going in the right direction. MOTION: Ryan Hart moved and Josh Bang seconded to move to approve a six month term for Genesis marketing for $70,000. Motion Passed. 6. Other Marketing Options/Proposals/Next Steps Jason Thomson gave a revision to the last proposal from the T-Birds. From the feedback from the last meeting the T-Birds brought forth additional options and feedback. 4 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee February 22, 2016 Colin spoke on how the T-Bird have relationships regarding marketing and promotion among hockey fans, creating long term partnerships with companies such as Les Schwab, Fred Meyer to state a few. Jason stated last year we booked almost a thousand nights of rooms between teams and fans while coming for hockey games. One thing he believes is a big marketing tool is having the VistitKent.com on the back of the bus so when they go into Tri-Cities, Spokane, and Portland and all over Western Canada people will see VisitKent.com and will be curious to look it up. There will be on the bottom corner of the print at home tickets, it says "for more information on what can be done or where to stay go to VisitKent.com". Since 40% of our tickets are print at home, this is a strong message that allows us to get info into the hands of people who are now on their way to the event. T-Birds stream their games on Video Bug live, on the bottom of the streaming it will also have the VisitKent.com promoting coming to Kent when their team travels here for a games. Other items offered are radio spots will happen over the hockey season, presence on the Thunderbird website, E News on twitter feeds, and in house TV. Wolters asked about tracking, how will heads in beds be measured? Measurable will be come up with for tracking stays. Chair Boyce stated this is hard to track but it is part of how we need to measure per the State requirements. The presentation of this revised proposal will cost $49,400 Ryan Hart stated this proposal has a lot of value to get the brand and VisitKent.com more visual. Keikkala loves this proposal and especially since the Thunderbirds are our home town team. Colin Campbell suggested the agreement starts in March 2016 and ends in April 2017. Wolters stated he likes how this proposal supports the branding element. MOTION: Andrew Hutchison moved and Josh Bang seconded to move to approve an agreement with the Seattle Thunderbirds in the amount of $49,400 to begin March 2016 through April 2017. Motion Passed. A Znment - T ting was adjourned by Chair Bill Boyce, at 6:40 pm. Su itted lie Pulliam, LTAC Secretary 5