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Minutes - 10/13/2012 - Hotel Convention and Visitors CommitteeMINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 13, 2011 MEETING OF THE OAK BROOK HOTEL, CONVENTION AND VISITORS COMMITTEE OF THE VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK APPROVED AS WRITTEN ON FEBRURAY 16, 2012. CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting of the Oak Brook Hotel, Convention & Visitors Committee of the Village of Oak Brook was held in the Upper Level Conference Room of the Butler Government Center and officially called to order by Chairman Norm Canfield at 10:15 a.m. ROLL CALL: Chairman Norm Canfield called the roll with the following persons: PRESENT: Martin Schooley, Dick Turner, Norm Canfield, Tracy Mulqueen, Linda Hunt, and Richard Allison. ABSENT: Chuck Fleming and Gail Long IN ATTENDANCE: David Niemeyer, Village Manager, Sharon Dangles, Village Finance Director, Donna Bettin, Executive Secretary, Mike Hullihan, Public Works Director/Engineer, Beth Marchetti, DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau, Krystal Glispie, Hyatt Lodge and A.J. Kowski, Residence Inn Oak Brook. Chairman Canfield welcomed everyone to the meeting and had everyone in attendance introduce themselves. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. August 11, 2011 Meeting. M. Schooley motioned to approve the August 11, 2011 meeting minutes. R. Allison seconded. VOICE VOTE. Motion carried. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. 2012 Budget Discussion Manager Niemeyer distributed handouts on the 2012 proposed Hotel Tax budget. Earlier in the week, information was requested on how the Village was spending the 2% portion of the budget. To bring everyone up to speed, Village Manager Niemeyer reviewed the whole 3% budget, how it is broken down between the I% and 2% and how this budget is funded. A 3% tax levy is in place for all overnight stays at the hotels. Within the 3% there are two separate accounts. 1% is spent on the advertising/marketing, Point B, DCVB, Chamber overnight stays program and website development. Five years ago, the Village went to a referendum establishing a 2% tax voted on by the residents of Oak Brook. The intent of the 2% tax was to use these funds primarily for beautification purposes throughout the Village. Manager Niemeyer distributed a handout and explained that per a recent discussion, the Village has not spent a lot of money on construction of the beautification plan. Between the previous election and downturn in the economy, the Village Board put a hold on any of the beautification plans. About a year ago, the Village applied and was awarded a grant from the state to fund a portion of the beautification plan from Spring road to Salt Creek. The good news is that grant fund is about 80 % of the construction. Under the 2% portion of the budget is 20% of the cost or $140,000. This is the Village's portion of the project, so the Board gave the go ahead to proceed. OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 1 of 4 Mtg. of October 13, 2011 During the last couple of years, the Village has not budgeted very much for beautification other than this project. You will see a very aggressive budget for this. Several years ago there was a Hotel District established, by law, that the Village can spend hotel tax dollars in. Manager Niemeyer explained the boundaries. Plans were then developed for beautification on 22 "d Street from Salt Creek to Spring Road and Spring Road to the tollway. Again, these plans were put on hold. Village staff is proposing to have 22 "d Street —Spring Road to the tollway project move forward next year. Engineer Mike Hullihan explained the already designed project details and why the grant project is so expensive. Discussion regarding the projects and where to spend the money ensued. The Hotel General Managers present prefer the 22nd Street —Spring Road to tollway project be spent closer to their locations. Manager Niemeyer explained that the direction from the Village Board is to be aggressive on the beautification plan. Currently, this is the most aggressive plan in place for implementation. Discussion ensued on the possibility of placing more sidewalks within the Hotel District. B. Point B — 2011 Marketing Recap Point B recapped the marketing efforts from 2011 in both the leisure and meeting sites and distributed handouts. On -line results for 2011 did exceptionally well this year as well as the local meeting planner website. Ad network saw a 50 % increase in click through rates. This is partly due to the change in partners for the Ad network. Point B thinks they can do better in 2012. They reviewed the creative marketing campaigns, Romance eblast, View at the Zoo promotion and Group creative's. In the fourth quarter, the Holiday campaign will incorporate the same vehicles used to date. NEW BUSINESS A. Point B — 2012 Marketing Thoughts /Changes Point B explained that they created two plans at two different budget levels. One at $200K and one at $250K. Handouts were distributed. Point B plans on shifting some of the priorities to the group segments with the major change in shift from the leisure plan to the group segment. Typically Point B spends about 3/4th" of the budget marketing the leisure segment and 1 /4d' in the group segment. In 2012 it will be 50/50. From a media vehicle standpoint, the internet will be the primary media vehicle method. The direct mail gets a little bigger in 2012. This is how we plan on reaching the meeting planners method. One change in 2012 is the use of the Ad network, utilizing the ad running platform. Point B has used this avenue for other clients and it has worked well with good results, higher click through rates and lower cost per click. It will give Point B the ability to target people when they are on google, yahoo and related websites. A lot of the current hotel marketing is centered in February then June through the middle of August along with a renewed campaign during the holiday season in the winter months. Currently, Point B stated that there is a consistent trend of a move towards marketing for group meeting spaces. A big part of the focus going forward is generation packets and group marketing. Point B is moving toward a more aggressive campaign three times a year with different promotions for different seasons. This strategy is something that started towards the end of last year is based on pursuing leads and talking to different companies about where they had their different group conferences last year. OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 2 of 4 Mtg. of October 13, 2011 Point B stated that about $40,000 is spend on this part of the marketing campaign, and while this is more than last year it enables more promotional activity to happen, including the direct mailings which are a large part of the program. At the $200,000 level the marketing plan includes a campaign that is somewhat smaller. There is also less support in the lower level campaign as they cannot advertise in all the local mailings. Manager Niemeyer stated that this committee makes a recommendation to the Village Board on which marketing plan they approve of and then the Board will make the ultimate decision. Laura Barker from BridgePoint Technologies explained that one of the goals they are working on for the next year is to try and work with Point B more in terms of tailoring their website more to what Point B is doing. The company has a recorded 14,500 visits from January to September on their website, with 33 out of 50 states using the website and the majority of the browsers are on Internet Explorer. This is the reason the company wanted the Village of Oak Brook to update their website because the old site was not conducive to smart phones. The current trending on the website now is that the summer months were the biggest hits, with the average time that a potential customer staying on the website was 2 1/2 minutes, which is very good. The balance rate for the site is 56% which refers to how many people went to the website and quickly left it which is a number that the company hopes to lower. Almost 22% of the traffic was from people going directly to the website and 36% of the traffic came for people being directed there through search sites. DUPAGE CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU. Beth Marchetti from the DuPage Convention and Visitor's Bureau stated that their mission is to promote the area of Oak Brook as a place for travel and leisure. She stated that their company creates and distributes literature and electronic campaigns all through the Midwest. Last year, the Bureau was able to secure for Oak Brook 3,700 hotel room nights earning an estimated economic impact of close to $4 million dollars. She explained that for every dollar allocated by the Village of Oak Brook the DCVB generated $75 dollars in return on investment. At the annual meeting, the Bureau found out they received a decrease in state grants and therefore assembled a task force to study how the Bureau could remain sustainable. They decided that 2012 will be the transition year and after that the membership fee for the organization is based on whether the municipality supports the organization. Beth also mentioned that the Bureau provides marketing services for hotels and they currently handle the hotel marketing campaigns for Willowbrook and Oakbrook Terrace. Richard Allison questioned if the Bureau's website upheld Oak Brook's brand name and if there was cohesiveness between all of the different sites. Beth Marchetti explained that while the Bureau would take input from the Village they still serve all of DuPage County and would like to have their own identity. GREATER OAK BROOK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Tracy Mulqueen stated that the Chamber of Commerce will continue on the current path that they are on, but plan to expand their current activities. She explained that the hotels have stated that they would like the Chamber to continue to fill office space, because it leads to more hotel rooms being rented out. She stated that a commercial development panel will be held on October 19th to OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 3 of 4 Mtg. of October 13, 2011 focus together on a plan for development for the future. Manager Niemeyer stated that the Board is requesting more due diligence done in regards to the budget and what ultimately will happen is in the next week the staff will put together their recommendations for the budget. After this there will be two public meetings regarding the budget. The recommendation from the committee is to forgo the $1.3 million for the Salt Creek to tollway project and remove the $80,000 for additional marketing for the sports core and hotels banquet facilities. M. Schooley motioned to accept the 2012 budget with adjustments. R. Allison seconded. VOICE VOTE. Motion carried. OTHER BUSINESS - None ADJOURNMENT Motion by M. Schooley, seconded by R. Allison to adjourn the Regular Meeting of the Hotel Convention and Visitors Committee at 12:10 pm. ATTE David J. Niemeyer Village Manager Date OAK BROOK HOTEL COMMITTEE Minutes Page 4 of 4 Mtg. of October 13, 2011