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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Lodging Tax Advisory Committee - 02/25/2015 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Meeting February 25, 2015 Start Time 4:00 pm Centennial North & South Conference Rooms Committee Members Present: Chair Bill Boyce, John Casey, David Kwok, Tim Higgins, Josh Bang, Barbara Smith, Andrew Hutchison Others present: Ben Wolters, Julie Pulliam, Ryan Hart, Mary Kae Repp Chair Boyce called the meeting to order at 4:02 pm. Introductions were made. The Chair asked for any additions to the agenda. None were added. Approval of Minutes John Casey moved to approve the January 22, 2015 minutes and David Kwok seconded the motion. There was no discussion. Motion passed. Future meetings will be held on the 4th Monday of every other month. The next meeting will be held on April 27, 2015 at 4 pm. Budget Update - Ben Wolters Wolters just wanted to make sure the committee understands the budget availability for what Mary Kae will propose. Lodging Tax has around $30,000 under marketing and the committee has the ability to move money from anywhere within the 2015 Lodging Tax approved budget. Tourism Website & Maintenance Proposal - Mary Kae Repp Chair Boyce asked the committee if they have had the chance to look at the website. Boyce said it looks pretty good, questioning if the hits are being tracked? Mary Kae stated that the website is still new, is being tracked with google analytics, and is receiving a few hits. Wolters briefly introduced the marketing proposals, stating that related materials were handed out at an earlier meeting. The committee wanted to move forward with a meeting a month later to give Mary Kae and Genesis the opportunity to verbally present to the Committee the element and material that had been made available in advance to the Committee to review by Ryan Hart, Ben Wolters and Michelle Wilmot - to allow them to ask questions and get them answered in terms of some of the details provided from the Q & A and to allow Mary Kae to address some feedback that came from the Committee at the last meeting. The goal coming from this is to get direction and approval for some or all of the elements Mary Kae proposes to the Committee in whatever fashion the Committee feels are acceptable. Wolters stated that the site is up and running and it is now time to market it. Marketing this site is a layer that will build into other marketing opportunities that will be considered later this year; the next logical steps now that the website is up and launched, to meet the desire for many on the board to more formally expand our marketing of Kent. Mary Kae Repp presented the materials, stating that at the last meeting, the Committee asked what a one month glimpse would look like with what is being done with the campaign; how is tracking going to work? How are the results going to be tracked? and how do we make sure the $1,500 is going to be put to good use? Using April as an example, Mary Kae used an assumption that even if it was approved today, it would take a while before things were finalized and we would most likely not move forward until April. The campaign would be set up as a brand new website. It will need some exposure. It will be set up as, here is the attractions in Kent, set up for keywords and the budget would be divided up as in the proposal; between Facebook, Bing, Google Ad Words, U Tube, and retargeting. The Committee questioned what was going to happen with those campaigns? For Facebook, the $425 would be used for separate campaigns in the Portland Metro area, Northern Idaho, Central Washington, Eastern Washington, and a separate Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of February 25, 2015 Page: 2 campaign in the Seattle Tacoma metro area. What would be said for each area would be different. To invite people from Spokane will be different then Portland as well as the local area of Seattle and Tacoma. This advertising will be tracked. Everything (Facebook, Bing, and Google Ad Words, to U Tube) comes with reporting that will show how many exposures and clicks happen. It can be crossed-referenced with Google Analytics. For example, it takes a look at the report for Facebook and says there were 25 clicks, then goes to Google Analytics and sees if it matches up, to see if they actually made it all the way to the website; did they check on the website or just Facebook? The same scenario can happen with Bing, Google Ad Words, etc. They all are able to be cross-referenced; rather than just seeing if it was a robot clicking or if it was someone pushing all the way through and spending time on the website. Reports will be completed on a weekly basis and distributed to Ben, Michelle, and Ryan. Genesis will be analyzing it on a Monday-Friday basis every single day. Until the program is set up and tried, it is not really know what will work. Perhaps we will get no hits in Northern Idaho and the hits will come from Portland so that will show that maybe we should pull out of Northern Idaho and put more into Portland. This is just an example of how it will be monitored. Adjustments will be made on the information and performance. The same procedure will be used for each of the applications, Bing, etc. We will make a recommendation on where we should put the money for the best use of it. It won't be static. We will look at it on a daily basis not just at the end of every month. Genesis will monitor each site every day to see how they are tracking and trending and move to where it will be the most valuable. Most of the time there are at least 6-8 Facebook Ads and 50 to 60 key words. Depending on the results, keywords or the ads could be changed. For retargeting, if the Ad that chases you around on the website is not getting results its look could be changed. People who get on the website will be followed around and hopefully they will click on the website. The intention is to change it by season, by events, and line up with the posts on social media, the thing the website is being updated with, so the online campaign is relevant and matches what will be found on Facebook etc. Andrew Hutchison asked that a campaign' be defined. Mary Kae explained that a campaign is no different than television; where years ago we would have taken the $1,500 and run commercials on TV, now it is online. What we will watch is the clicks that actually spend time pushing through on the website. That is when we will start moving the money to match up with the activity. Until then we will have to monitor it to see what works. Ryan Hart said with the click through, it is nice to see how long anyone is on a page which will also show which pages are engaging people more. Mary Kae stated that activity will be monitored daily. David Kwok asked if Genesis will be able to provide a screen cap at the end of the month. Chair Boyce stated either Ben or Julie will monitor daily activity and once a month the Committee will be provided with a summary of what happened each month. Mary Kae said that is something that can easily be done for Ben. The report will show how many hits occurred on Facebook, on the website, etc. The general 30,000 view will come on a monthly basis. Ben can be provided with weekly reports. Chair Boyce stated that the committee meets every other month. If something is not working, we will not want to wait 2 months to make changes. Ben Wolters stated that he will work with Michelle Wilmot, Ryan Hart and Mary Kae on a monthly basis to collectively analyze and make the changes where we would benefit and report back to the Committee on what was done in response to the data. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of February 25, 2015 Page: 3 Chair Boyce said the budget can be moved around but not go beyond the $1,500. Wolters clarified that no further money will be spent unless approved by the LTAC. David Kwok asked if the LTAC will meet in August, as it is a busy vacation month. Chair Boyce stated that regular meetings are set up but adjustments will be made where necessary. Wolters stated that he hopes for a pretty engaged year. Boyce added that additional meetings can be held if needed. Tim Higgins and Ryan Hart are working on ideas for the ShoWare Marketing budget that is set aside for ShoWare and collectively blends well with what the Committee is doing here. There will be more decisions for this committee to make as we continue to become more active in Marketing Kent. Chair Boyce stated that Kent is having a 125th birthday and that information should be captured through this marketing website, Wolters concurred. The Mayor has said that some kind of 6 month celebration will be rolled out pretty soon. Barbara Smith mentioned that the Mayor will be unveiling the Logo next week and we will be able to start using it. Mary Kae stated this would be a good thing for us to feed off of for Social Media and blogs. Barbara Smith stated that KDP is starting to develop a lot more events in downtown. With the Pet Walk in April, the Wine Walk in May, the third Thursday of every month will be an Art Walk. March will be the first one. Wolters clarified that the annual cost for the online marketing proposal would be $20,700. The component parts include; Facebook, Bing, Google Ad Words, etc., and would cost $350 per month, with Mary Kae concurring. Mary Kae clarified that the proposal is for a one month look. Chair Boyce stated that the Committee is being asked to sign a contract, questioning if we are looking at a 6 month contract or do we want to get locked in for a longer term. Wolters replied that we could do a 6-month contract but that this conversation has not been held with Mary Kae. Wolters stated that a 6-month contract would be one way to go, and the other way is an annual contract with a 30-day written notice of termination to dissolve the contract if we are not satisfied or if Genesis was dissatisfied with us. Wolters stated that he would like to propose a contract to the end of this calendar year with the terms as presented, which shows a certain level of commitment on everyone to try to see this through, and recognizing we will be making adjustments. The Committee and Mary Kae voiced concurrence with Wolters proposal. Andrew Hutchison asked that if we are proposing $1,500 a month, what happens if the money runs out on the loth. Mary Kae stated that we will monitor the sites on a daily basis and be able to see if there is a lot of activity in one place over another. That is when we will report back to Ben, Michelle, and Ryan, that specific sites are very active and recommend retaining those active sites and appropriating the money to maintain those sites. $20,000 is a lot of money but you will see this can disappear very quickly over the course of a month. We are going way out in the first part of the campaign. The reality is that in 90 days it is likely that we will narrow it down to two areas and you will be able to see that in the reports. Hutchison said you will be moving money from one to the other? Either the Committee will fund more Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of February 25, 2015 Page: 4 dollars or stay within this budget and continue to move the money around. The moves can be stopped instantaneously and change to make something else happen within an hour. David Kwok asked who owns the pictures and website, and Facebook. Mary Kae stated that would be Ben Wolters office. Genesis will be running the back end but Ben will have all the passwords. Wolters stated that Michelle Wilmot and Mary Kae have had this conversation and the City owns the website. Josh Bang asked if it was possible to drill down with the Google Ad keywords. He stated that for example the U.S. Open is happening in June and questioned if will it be tied to keywords such as 'Golf' or 'Kent' and questioned if it could be tied into restaurants to keep people eating in Kent. Mary Kae said that is exactly what Genesis will do, but if there are things that you know is coming to the area or that we should know about to keep people in the area, just send Genesis an email or let Ben know and we can tailor the keywords for it. Wolters suggested to the committee that they interact with the website, testing it from their own perspective. He asked the Committee to direct any ideas to Mary Kae and 'cc' Ben so that he is informed of what is going forward. Wolters suggested a more collaborative approach for the website with the Committee's active involvement. He stated that he and Mary Kae will be very interested to get the Committee's feedback on the building activity and interest in the website, then the next steps of how it is translating for your business. That will be the ultimate test. Barbara Smith asked that if she sends a notice for an event, such as a pet walk in April, is there a form we could fill out and send to you to make sure we give you all the information you might need? Mary Kae said no problem. Ryan Hart explained that there are limited characters for Ad words. Social Media Proposal Request The $450 dollars will be spent towards research time, time watching sites for feedback and responding to public comment, posting on the 4 mediums two times a week, and for social media fees. Writer Proposal Request Mary Kae asked the Committee if they had any questions about Dana Neuts being the writer. Wolters stated he believes there was a question about frequency, every other month. Mary Kae stated she felt the writer is needed every month for this year. Moving forward don't know if we would need more than maybe a blog or two per month, because she is so connected to what is happening in Kent. This year, we need the seasonal updates, with spring approaching we need more featured stories on all the things that happen in Kent. The proposal that has been created is for writing the seasonal text for each of the main pages on the website, writing a couple of blogs each month and doing an additional story. That is what the fee is fo r. In response to Chair Boyce, Mary Kae stated that the fee amount is $526.50 per month, of which $450.00 is for Dana's writing fee. The annual expenditure for 12 months would be just over $6,300. Dana will create the 6 main pages on a quarterly basis to line up with the seasons, doing one additional experience story per quarter, making minimal text updates to all pages, plus conducting 8 blogs per month. Mary Kae stated that she feels this is necessary for the first year to help it evolve and all the seasonal writings can be saved and modified as needed to quickly move forward. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of February 25, 2015 Page: 5 John Case stated that although the last minutes said we could hold off on the written contents and the photography piece. However, Genesis is saying it can't be held off. Mary Kae stated Michelle Wilmot is going to be working on with the departments to get a photo library together. The website will benefit from being able to use the photo library. Wolters stated we are proposing to not continue with the photographer which will save money. Chair Boyce stated at the last meeting, the consensus was that we did not need so much writing. Mary Kae said with it being a new site, the fact that it has been online for a while and has generated activity, writing can be cut back. The blogs will help a lot in the back end in grabbing keywords and getting the experience stories written. Once all of these things are completed, and when the quarterly seasonal stuff is written, this media can be saved and switched out. Moving forward text can be changed easily. This would require a one-time fee to complete this. In response to questions posed by Chair Boyce, Wolters stated that the total amount is approximately $28,068 from now until the end of 2015; and Mary Kae stated the only way to know if we are getting our money worth and that this is working, is every cent is website driven, so the only metric that is real will be the analytics. There can be some cross- referencing from the hits and where they come from. David Kwok said each hotel can offer promotions to attach to the website which will help in tracking stays. Chair Boyce said it looks like there are some opportunities for the hoteliers with promotions to make sure there is value added. Mary Kae stated that with the $500 fee Genesis will continue to monitor ways to get more use out of the website. One thing that could be done is build something that would fly in on the webpage that would say "when you call to book your room, make sure you say you called from the website because we offer additional discounts". This feature would hotel staff to assist with tracking of the website. In response to David Kwok, Kae stated that the Committee can give information directly to herself, and it will be easy to get it on the website. Genesis can create a special landing page for special offers, a fly-in that will state that there are VIP offers if you call in and say you are booking through the website. Wolters stated that this website will service the restaurants and offer ways to connect to the ShoWare or the T-Birds website. Motion: Move to approve the budget for the website contract for the Online Marketing Proposal, Online Marketing Campaign Proposal, Social Media Management, Maintenance Proposal, and Freelance Writer Proposal. Not to exceed $30,000 David Kwok moved, Barbara Smith 2"d the motion. Wolters stated as a point of order, $30,000 of the funding will require Council approval to get going on some of the work to be identified and to move this forward. Genesis can invoice. Mary Kae stated that all on-line marketing requires payment in advance. Wolters said that we will use Julie Pulliam's credit card for the on-line required payment. tn Chair Boyce stated we will meet next on April 27 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Minutes of February 25, 2015 Page: 6 Good of the order - Nothing Assignment for the Next Meeting - Agenda and Minutes out a week ahead and next two meeting dates scheduled. Next Regular Meeting Date - April 27, 2015 at 4 pm (Committee will meet every other month on the 4th Monday of the month 4 pm., Centennial North & South Conference Rooms.) Adiournment - The meeting was adjourned by Chair Bill Boyce, at 5:00 pm. Submitted by Julie Pulliam, Lodging Tax Secretary