CVB Annual Marketing Report

Transcription

1 CVB Annual Marketing Report For the fiscal year ending December 31, 2013 CVB Name: Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau (TCCVB) dba Traverse City Tourism Person Completing report: Brad Van Dommelen Title: President/CEO Corporate Officers: Chairman: Vice Chairman: Secretary/Treasurer: Mike Anton Fritz Heller Justin Mortier Bureau Mission Statement: The Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau serves as the destination s principal marketing resource, stimulating economic growth through convention business and leisure tourism development with respect for our community and environment. Bureau Marketing Goal: To make Traverse City the top travel destination in the Great Lakes Region. Brand Personality / Attributes: Traverse City offers a year round destination experience with stunning natural beauty, a plethora of outdoor recreation opportunities, exceptional golf courses, unique boutique and gallery shopping experiences and wine and culinary tourism attributes. The destination offers a wide variety of lodging accommodations from quaint B&Bs and cabins to beach front hotels and full service resorts to accommodate a wide variety of budgets for both leisure travel and meeting / convention needs.

2 Rebranding: In the fall of 2013 the organization hired a local company, Brand Tonic, to assist with a rebranding initiative. After review of various options the name Traverse City Tourism (TCT) was selected. The name maintains the emphasis on the destination (Traverse City) and communicates the industry that we are associated with (Tourism). It s a simpler and more modern name and with the removal of the term bureau it removes the misperception that we are affiliated with municipal government. Target Customer Groups (vertical and affinity markets, ie., golf, ski, motorcoach, sports teams, etc.): As a year round destination with a wide variety of amenities the Traverse City area appeals to a diverse set of customer groups. For the leisure market TCT s greatest emphasis is on family travel for the summer season, empty nesters and seniors for the fall color and wine touring season and winter recreation enthusiasts for the winter season where we offer downhill and cross country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling. For the group market our greatest area of emphasis is on the state and regional association markets, group tour & travel markets, Michigan corporate and youth and amateur sports groups. Promotional Methods (advertising, trade shows, PR, FAM tours, etc.): TCT uses a variety of promotional methods to market our destination including: Leisure Market: In 2013 we engaged in a significant amount of advertising to attract the leisure market including the use of radio campaigns, print campaigns in newspapers and magazines, direct mail campaigns to targeted markets, outdoor billboard campaigns, Movie Theater marketing, bus wraps in Chicago and e-marketing campaigns with various web and e-newsletter initiatives.

3 TCT also partnered with Travel Michigan with the National Partnership Program where we invested $500,000 that was matched with an additional $500,000 from Travel Michigan for a national 30 second television ad that was aired on 10 cable networks during the weeks of April 22 & 29 and May 13 & 27. The campaign aired 369 national spots. In an effort to build our shoulder and off-season time periods we balanced our advertising spend throughout the year spending 33 percent of our budget for winter promotion, 10 percent for spring, 27 percent for summer and 29 percent for fall (excluding our national campaign). We also directed 72 percent of our marketing spend to out-of-state markets to support our objective to grow our non-michigan based business. TCT also participated in a number of consumer tradeshows throughout the year including: Novi Golf Show Grand Rapids Golf Show AAA Travel Show Columbus International Women s Expo G.R. Food & Wine Festival Chicago Golf Show Chicago Adventures in Travel Show West Michigan Women s Expo What s Cooking Detroit In addition we partnered with the West Michigan Tourist Association (WMTA) at additional consumer shows where they distributed our Traverse City marketing materials. TCT is very active with Public Relations efforts. We regularly send press releases about new destination information to the travel media as well as produce feature length stories that we allow travel media to use in whole or in part for destination stories. Throughout 2013 we also hosted 42 travel writers in the destination to allow them a first-hand destination experience. Meetings & Convention Market: In 2013 TCT also engaged in some advertising in meetings trade publications specifically ones that target our state association market.

4 In addition to the consumer shows listed above, TCT also participated in a number of trade shows to attract the meetings market to our destination. These 2013 shows included: SGMP Annual Education Conf. SGMP Annual Meeting Nat l Assoc. Sports Commissions PCMA Annual Meeting Destination Michigan Showcase American Bus Association JSP Marketing Sales Missions Michigan Meeting Professionals Int l Circle Michigan Collaborate Marketplace Michigan Meetings Expo Connect Marketplace Org Pro Connect Sports Target Geographic Markets: In 2013 our emphasis was to maintain our competitive position in Michigan while building our destination awareness in drive to markets outside of the state. The primary out-of-state market of interest was Chicago. In addition to Chicago we also engaged in out-of-state marketing and promotion activities in St. Louis, Cleveland, Columbus, Fort Wayne, South Bend and portions of Ontario. Marketing Results: TCT website is the primary call to action in our advertising and promotion efforts. In 2013 we had 1,044,118 web visits, an increase of 10.56% in web traffic to our TraverseCity.com web site over Our top five markets that generated web traffic and their changes over the prior year are: Michigan increase of 4.99% Illinois increase of 24.92% Ohio increase of -1.74% Indiana increase of 8.99% California increase of %

5 In addition to the web traffic results the lodging assessments collected by TCT in 2013, which is a gauge of overall market lodging revenues, increased by 4.67% over In our group sales efforts, TCT generated 278 group leads for our member lodging properties in These leads represented 55,898 room nights which is a 4.3% increase over the prior year. Our Visitor Center assisted 59,278 visitors in 2013 offering assistance with information on things to see and do while in the Traverse City area. This includes assisting in making lodging reservations as we have found a significant increase in visitors arriving in the destination without having made lodging reservations. TCT produces a variety of marketing collateral pieces to promote our destination with the primary marketing tool being our annual Traverse City Area Guide. In 2013 we produced and distributed 340,000 of these magazines to consumers interested in receiving information about the Traverse City area. Staff and Outside Professionals utilized in the Marketing Effort: In 2013 TCT had 15 employees. The staff included: Brad Van Dommelen Tori Piersante Mike Norton Jennifer Case Kathee McCafferty Sarah Barnard Terese McInnis Leslee Fritz Joni McGuffin Sherry Davis Sharon Pierce Mary Winowiecki Rebecca Aldrich Florence Ludka President / CEO Vice President Sales Media Relations Specialist Director of Publications Visitor Center Manager Sales Manager State Sales Manager Corporate Sales Manager Exec. Assistant / Office Manager Sales Assistant Receptionist Marketing Manager Digital Marketing Specialist Controller

6 Judy James Accounting Assistant To support our marketing and promotion efforts in 2013 TCT also utilized the services and expertise of several outside organizations including: Travel Michigan Pure Michigan Partnership Programs Think! Social Media E-marketing support Gaslight Media Website support JSP Marketing Washington DC Sales Representation Spinnaker Chicago Sales Representation Brand Tonic Rebranding initiative I certify that to the best of my knowledge this report is correct: Brad Van Dommelen March 29, 2013 President/CEO Enclosure: 2013 annual audit