AGENDA April 1, 2015 Marketing Committee Regular Meeting. Town Hall Training Room 9:30 AM

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1 1. CALL TO ORDER BY THE CHAIRMAN 2. ROLL CALL 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Approval of Minutes AGENDA April 1, 2015 Marketing Committee Regular Meeting Town Hall Training Room 9:30 AM Approval of March 4, 2015 LTAB Marketing Minutes 5. CITIZENS FORUM Citizens wishing to speak shall limit their comments to 5 minutes or less at the Chairman's discretion. No action may be taken. 6. MATTERS FROM STAFF A. Old Business a. Marketing & Tourism Director's Report b. LTAB MarkeTaos Report c. Other B. New Business a. Taos Marketing Committee Report b. MarkeTaos Report c. Book Taos.com Report 7. MATTERS FROM THE MARKETING COMMITTEE 8. ADJOURNMENT To request details on an agenda item please contact the Allyn Sanchez, Taos New Mexico, (575) If you are an individual with a disability who is in need of aid or service to attend and/or participate in a meeting of the Marketing Committee, please contact the office of the Town Clerk at 400 Camino de la April 1, Page 1

2 Placita, Taos New Mexico, (575) at least 24 hours in advance. For copies of this agenda please pick-up at Town Hall. April 1, Page 2

3 April 1, 2015 Title: Approval of Minutes Summary: Approval of March 4, 2015 LTAB Marketing Minutes Background: Attachments: Click to download Minutes for March April 1, Page 3

4 March 4, 2015 LTAB Marketing Committee Regular Meeting Town of Taos Training Room 9:30am Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER BY THE CHAIRMAN, LAURIE MOREAU 2. ROLL CALL: John Abeln, Adriana Blake, Jamie Tedesco, David Mapes, Ursula Beck, Laurie Moreau, Fritz Hahn, Rick Bellis, Francisco Guevara, Judi Cantu, Lynda Perry 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. The agenda was approved with a motion from Cisco Guevera and seconded by David Mapes. 4. CITIZENS FORUM David Cortez with Live Taos expressed concerns that there is misinformation in the community about double billing by Griffin & Associates due to comments made by the Town Manager. He suggested that we recommend a statement be made at town council meetings or to the media. Committee explained this was clarified in December. Chairman suggests that this be clarified in LTAB. Ursula Beck with the Taos Art School passed out copies of an article about an out-of-state firm used to promote Santa Fe tourism. 5. MATTERS FROM STAFF Rick Bellis reported that an RFP for a Local Economic Development Grant for event marketing and production costs will be posted next week (or last week?) with a deadline in 30 days. Specific dates were not provided. (Request this at LTAB). $50K is funded from reserves for the Milestones banners, and another $82K will be available from the general fund in July in the new fiscal year. Examples of events and organizations that might apply are the Paseo, Solar Fest, Mothers Day Concert, Taos Art School, Michael Hearne Barn Dance and the Lilac Festival. The Town has extended an offer to a candidate for the Marketing & Tourism Director position. Rick thanked John Abeln for is work on the RFP for PR/Advertising which was posted last week! LTAB Marketing Account (expenses YTD and balances) Rick reported $250K is going towards funding events and marketing events from LTAB reserves and general fund. LTAB gets half of LTAB funds. Convention Center funding is back in marketing and the Visitor Center. There is $183K or more that goes towards funding transit system; there is an effort to move the transit system to RTD as there is a dedicated sales tax for transit. There will be a workshop to look at this effort the week of March 17, This includes extending bus service after 5pm on Fridays and Saturdays to enhance tourism services. Studying NMRTD starting a regular run to TSV and the Enchanted Circle, as RTD has more resources/funding for this. Page 1 of 3 April 1, Page 4

5 Bus Service to TSV is currently paid for by TSV. Although the town owns more than one bus, there are no plans to repair a second bus. Laurie Moreau suggested a second bus, as the lack of buses to TSV hurts hotel efforts to bring ski groups to Taos. The bus service to TSV is not adequate if the town wants to attract ski groups looking for bus service to TSV. Jamie Tedesco asked where the marketing funds have gone, as the amount seems to be inconsistent with the original budget and expenditures. There is now only $500 in the discretionary fund, and Jamie suggested that the $183K spent on transportation might be better spent on advertising/marketing efforts that are best funded in an opportunity or discretionary fund and that too much money has been taken from marketing. A motion was made, discussed and amended to recommend and unanimously approved that the committee supports Town efforts to get NMRTD to take on transportation expense and to focus in the budget process in March/April 2015 to allocate funds that have been earmarked for transportation be allocated to marketing, including discretionary funds for PR and advertising opportunities. Ursula Beck shared that her students see the bus service as necessary to their visit to Taos, and that it is a necessary tourism asset. Rick noted that statute says the majority of the 1 st two-fifths of lodgers tax must go toward marketing, and 1/3 by law Could go to transportation. The budget has already been set for the current fiscal year. Griffin & Associates Report Laurie reported that Griffin & Associates were told by town staff that when $11,200 for the Santa Fe Visitors Guide was double entered, and then corrected, that $11,200 went back to reserve, not to the marketing budget. Rick said this is incorrect, and that the $11,200 was resorted to the marketing budget. Chair requests this be clarified in writing to Griffin & Associates. Adriana reported for Griffin & Associates that the spring TV ad has been approved by the NM Dept of Tourism using New Mexico True. Adriana played the ad the group agreed it was great; it used adventure and cultural images and video. Rick thanked Griffin & Associates for making the ad with a focus on adventure. FAM Mary 12 15, 2015 with 10 travel writers. Five writers are focused on adventure and will go on a llama trek, and five are focused on art. All ten will attend a Taos Cooking School class and Couse s granddaughter will have breakfast with all 10 writers. Cyndee Gustafson is organizing the art based track. They are here for 2 full days. Griffin and Assoc. will to Laurie a spreadsheet of expenditures that includes what it was for, the date and amount. Laurie has forwarded this separately to the attendees and committee members (attached). Taos Marketing Committee Report Jamie Tedesco reported that the committee had unanimously recommended the Town expend funds for the Lobos Club and sweepstakes. It is up and running and will gain traction as more of us share it on social media. Those who paid into or donated sweepstakes prizes will receive the database of those who entered sweepstakes. It cannot be shared with others due to opt in privacy laws. Jamie noted that Private Air magazine is pushing the great snow to social media. There are 5,000 names in the database for the town. Final push on the sweepstakes. There are opt in limits on who can use the database only those who spent funds to pay for the ad. Page 2 of 3 April 1, Page 5

6 Market Taos Report John Abeln explained the role of Market Taos. Market Taos was formerly the Taos County Lodgers Assn. For 30 years has produced its own vacation guide with 60K copies distributed. Owns Taos.org which has three calendars, and listings for lodging, restaurants and events. Noted the town does not own a website, so the Town s marketing firm promotes Taos and coordinates content with Market Taos for Taos.org. Webb Design has managed Taos.org. Visits to Taos.org are increasing; for example, February had 49K visits, an increase of 21% over Feb The best way to track Return on Investment (ROI) is to go from an ad or story that runs about Taos and then go to Taos.org and find info and link to websites. This is a conduit to help visitors pick if, where, when to visit and what to do. The board is not for profit; half are lodgers, and half are not lodgers who represent the community. Has a close relationship with PR agency to delivery more info from PR. Prior to2015 Webb Design maintained the website. Janet has retired, though focused on a few small elements. Market Taos s the general manager, manages people who update Taos.org and sells. Ally Hyder was contracted to do sales for Market Taos in ADJOURNED Next meeting is April 1, 2015, the first Wed of the month. LTAB meets the 2 nd Wed of the month. Both meet in the Town of Taos Training room (where we have been meeting). Page 3 of 3 April 1, Page 6

7 April 1, 2015 Title: Old Business Summary: a. Marketing & Tourism Director's Report b. LTAB MarkeTaos Report c. Other Background: Attachments: Click to download No Attachments Available April 1, Page 7

8 April 1, 2015 Title: New Business Summary: a. Taos Marketing Committee Report b. MarkeTaos Report c. Book Taos.com Report Background: Attachments: Click to download No Attachments Available April 1, Page 8