HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-06-26 - Minutes - Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes June 26, 2023 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Present: Commissioners Absent: Staff: Todd Martin, Chair Tourism & Hospitality Representative Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at-large *virtual attendance Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative Sonia Harvey, City Council Representative Elvis Moya, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Katherine Kinney and Chrissy Sanderson, Tourism & Hospitality Representatives Molly Rawn, CEO; Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance; Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications I. Commissioner Martin called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm. II. Old Business A. Chair Martin stated that the May minutes would be presented for review and approval at the July meeting. III. New Business A. CEO Report. CEO Rawn began by stating that we expect to have our auditors present the 2022 financial audit at the July meeting as well as our finance team present a budget adjustment. She does not anticipate that the adjustment will be a large one as we have budgeted well. She continued with a couple of personnel announcements; Melissa Freeman has joined our team as our Marketing Coordinator and Jose Romero has joined our team as a Sales Coordinator. Rawn pointed out a couple of highlights from the tourism activity such as the Arkansas Pottery Festival, an event we supported last year and this year, had an economic impact estimate of $239,756 with more than 1,200 participants and attendees. She also stated that Shareholders Week was very successful and she thanked staff who represented our organization. We have secured the 2024 Ragnar Relay Trail Race which will take place in April and we are already hearing a lot of buzz about this event that may host over 2,000 runners on Centennial Mountain. She also shared the economic impact of the 2023 Walmart Joe Martin Stage Race which was estimated to be at $757,000. She stated that Mike Sells, working with All Sports Productions and Bruce Dunn, reported 81 different media pick ups with a potential media reach of 985 million impressions. Finally, she shared 2023 Ozark Valley Triathlon and USA Triathlon National Championships Highlights that included 481 participants with 68% from outside the region/state and an economic impact estimated at $537,000. Rawn listed the many countries represented in our Visitors for May in the Visitors Center. The town center hosted 9 events since we last met, even with being closed for a substantial amount of time for the new doors to be installed. Team are preparing to host Touge Con, the small car show, again in September with an even larger crowd than last year expected. She reported that the town center hosted Fayetteville Pride’s Youth Zone and the Trans March and the events went really well and she was noted that she saw several of the commissioners at the events. In ending, she reported that June’s First Thursday was the largest in attendance she could recall and that everyone is looking forward to July’s First Thursday which is Dog Daze. Chair Martin wanted to state what a great First Thursday the June event and wanted to thank all of the team and especially wanted to thank Tyler Wilson and Chloe Bell for their work. CEO Rawn then spoke about the Tourism Incentive funding request form which is on our website under the CVB services section. She thanked team for working to create this new process and form and particularly thanked Tina Archer Cope who spent time researching how other CVBs handled funding requests to help us formulate our process. She explained that team members review the funding requests and gets back to requesters within a week when possible. She then showed the commission the Request for Proposals for a Tourism Master Plan which was placed on our website in the CVB Services section. This project was budgeted for in the 2023 budget although it could be that the expense falls in this year and next year. B. Financial Report. Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance Walker stated that May financials are in the commission agenda packets and at the end of May, our target for both revenue and expenses is 42% and we are at 40% for revenue and 35% for expenditures, leaving us in a pretty healthy position. HMR tax collections are at just over $2 million year to date, which is just 1% below target. Spending is 7% below budget and net operating income for the month is $357,000. On the balance sheet, cash and investments are approximately $4.9 million at the end of May, and town center’s unearned revenue is a little over $200,000. Chair Martin asked if Walker was concerned at all with HMR tax revenues and she stated that she is less concerned each month as revenues have been rebounding after a slow January which may have been due to late payments. Chair also asked Walker if there were any potentially important expenses we might be holding back that would reflect this lower expense percentage and Walker stated that much of the reduced expenses are on the town center side and that Tyler Wilson is very good about ramping down expenses when they are not needed. C. Marketing Report. Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications King shared that we had a lot of media coverage last month including a podcast entitled I am Northwest Arkansas that both she and Chloe Bell participated in, focusing on Experience Fayetteville’s role in supporting the tourism economy. King also spoke about a new feature coming to our website where mini-itineraries created by locals and travelers will be posted along with their pictures, pro-tips and a map with photos. She also recapped a photo shoot with Sells on May 6th which captured many of the new attractions in Fayetteville including the Ramble, Central BBQ, Bolders and Brews and we also captured some of the Pottery Festival and some of our new speciality merchants. Additionally, King recognized that this is the 10th anniversary of the Fayetteville Ale Trail and we know we’ve distributed at least 100,000 passports during that time and shared some specific stories of people redeeming their passports for prizes. Rawn included that we started with just 7 breweries 10 years ago and have more than 20 now. King also shared a story that Brannon Pack, our Director of Cycling Tourism participated in entitled “The Business of Biking.” Mike Sells with Sells Agency presented information about the Authentic Fayetteville campaign which kicked off mid-May with paid advertising and we are seeing boosts on our channels. Mike also shared paid advertisements for events such as Pride Weekend and the Experience Fayetteville Criterium. He also showed just how much our email newsletter has helped grow our website traffic with more than 70% from out of state. Sarah King stated that the newsletter is now monthly rather than quarterly and the list is now more than 11,000 subscribers. Mike Sells also shared tourism insights with 2023 Q2 research from US Travel Association indicating strong outlook for summer travel. Marketing tactics and our goals were discussed by various commissioners and staff with it being noted that email newsletters are certainly achieving some of our marketing goals. D. Vote. Purchase of Fayetteville is my Favoriteville trademark and associated assets. CEO Rawn opened up by saying we have advertised this phrasing on our building and in merchandise in our Visitors Center. She sees benefit with being able to use the phrasing on more than what we currently have and has been working with a trademark attorney for some time to determine exactly what we would like to do with this phrase. A main goal she has with this agreement is being able to use this phrase as a tag line, a website domain and for social media channels. This agreement also gives us the ability to license others to use and it gives us the rights to own the phrase into perpetuity. Chair Martin asked for a motion to authorize the contract with World Domination, LLC for $50,000. Commissioner Bunch made the motion and Commission Harvey seconded it. Chair Martin asked if there was any discussion and hearing none, he called for a vote on the motion which passed unanimously via roll call vote. E. Vote. Contract with Arrivalist for tourism insight platform. CEO Rawn began by stating that last year we brought Buxton on board for one year and we saw that it was not a good fit for our needs. We asked Mike Sells to help us research tourism insight platforms and team worked to both research platforms and define what data we wanted to get out of a software. With team involved, Arrivalist software was selected. She pointed out that because we have a line item of $25,000 to renew Buxton and the contract with Arrivalist is $45,000, the plan is to cover the difference with a portion of a $25,000 contingency amount that is budgeted for in the Tourism and Client Development line item. Rawn asked if the commissioners had questions and if Mike Sells had items to add. Commissioner Prysby asked if there was a dashboard and also asked how data is collected. Mike Sells stated that Arrivalist utilizes data from over 100 mobile apps that should translate into useful data. Commissioner Prysby stated that Arrivalist’s client list was impressive and conversation ensued on the helpful data that Arrivalist will give. Commissioner Prysby recommended that the team determine some usage scenarios and ask Arrivalist team to demonstrate how to retrieve data to answer those scenarios to help ensure we are partnering with a database that will be very helpful to our tourism work. Chair Martin asked if there were any more questions and hearing none, he called for a motion to authorize the CEO to accept a one-year contract with Arrivalist for $45,000. The motion was made by Commissioner Prysby and seconded by Commissioner Harvey. With no further discussion, it passed unanimously via a roll call vote. With no other agenda items, Chair Martin asked if there were any announcements. CEO Rawn stated that Commissioner Moya had requested a list of upcoming and newly opened restaurants and while the servers at the city of Fayetteville are still offline, Rawn was able to email Commissioner Moya a list of the Q1 new business licenses filtered by anything food or beverage related, there were seven. She will regularly include these when we receive them from the city. Additionally, Rawn wanted everyone to know that our mobile Van was already enroute to Washington DC to take part in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and that several staff members would be staffing this festival throughout the next two weeks. With no other business or announcements, a motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Commissioner Harvey and seconded by Commissioner Prysby and the meeting was adjourned at 2:55 pm. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville