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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGolf Board - Minutes - 02/14/2018Golf Board - Minutes Page 1 of 3 Call Meeting to Order: Kathy Meyer called the meeting to order at 6:00. Agenda Review Mike would like to review a new youth program coming to Colorado – Youth on Course Items of Note: No items of note Citizen Participation: No citizen participation Approval of Minutes: On a motion by James Penland, seconded by Ross Liggett, the Board unanimously (6:0) approved the Minutes for January 10, 2018 as amended. Meeting Summary Board Discussion: 2018 Golf Marketing Plan John Litel, Parks & Recreation Public Relation Supervisor, introduced himself and Emily Frare, Publicity & Marketing Tech. John informed the Board that Emily has taken the lead on the Golf Social Media campaign, with Dawn’s assistance. John informed the Board that his responsibilities include Marketing and Public Outreach for Recreation, Parks and he also assists Park Planning. He went over the 2018 Golf Marketing plan. John reviewed the 2017 fee, rounds comparison and proximity map for Northern Colorado Municipal courses and mentioned that our fees are still comparable. In 2017 we continued to focus on Fort Collins and nearby communities. This included outdoor Transit advertising. We strategically placed these ads near the courses. New branding was incorporated in all local marketing efforts. Print, outdoor, online and mobile marketing was utilized. We had an Agreement with the Coloradoan for online and print ads, focusing on late season sales of the Premier Card. Utilizing a drone, FCTV captured some rare and beautiful images of our courses. We also advertised with NPR. John reviewed the demographics of NPR members and golfers and found that they were similar. Ross mentioned hearing the audio files. John reviewed the Social Media analytics. He reminded the Board that Emily has taken the lead on this, with Dawn assisting her with data collection. We feel it’s best to 0BGolf Board Regular Meeting Wednesday, February 14, 2018 6:00 p.m. Board Chair: Kathy Meyer 1BCouncil Liaison: 2BBob Overbeck 3BStaff Liaisons: 4BMike Calhoon, mcalhoon@fcgov.com Dawn Worth, dworth@fcgov.com Golf Board - Minutes Page 2 of 3 revamp our Social Media to make it more engaging and Emily has a lot of great ideas for this. He informed the Board that we hired a local photographer, Richard Haro, to update our photo library. He reviewed some of the images and mentioned that we’ve been utilizing the same images of our courses for over 6 years. John reviewed drone footage of the courses. He stated that these images will be used in several projects. Ross asked if they were going to splice all 18 holes together. John said they’re trying to figure that out. Kevin is breaking them up that way, but we’re not certain. Ross said they’ve found it’s best to go 9 & 9, but not for Social Media. They then produce a video that’s under a minute for Social Media. John informed the Board that we have expanded our contract with CSU. We have increased our exposure to include the CSU football games. Last season we had staff there passing out koozies, RAM Fan coupons and set up a putting green. Our partnership also includes CSU Golf Team involvement with youth golf. John then reviewed project updates. He mentioned the importance of data collection. We have met with the Pros and the City’s IT Department to better understand our needs and how we can collect better data. We are still in the process of reviewing things and hope to implement better collection standards soon. Ross said it’s imperative to have good data collection. John Schmunk mentioned that the current system isn’t very user friendly. John is also a Pro Shop assistant at City Park Nine and he feels the system is cumbersome. Mike Calhoon informed the Board that we are updating to a new version of Golf Trac in October. John Litel saw a demo at a conference and it appears to be more user friendly. Michael Hardisty asked if we collect email and cell phone information. John Litel said that’s the direction we’re heading. James Penland asked if we record birthdays in the system. John said he has had this discussion with Jared Soares and Jared said a lot of people don’t care to give their birthday, which could cause difficulties with making it mandatory. James mentioned that Longmont offers a free round of golf on your birthday. John mentioned that he was interested in installing banners along Horsetooth however, with the current policies it prevented us from doing so. John Schmunk mentioned that the company he works for has had similar issues. John informed the Board that he and Mike met with the City of Loveland Golf Manager to discuss potential partnerships and he was very responsive to the idea. John also spoke with the Manager at Greeley and he appears to be interested as well. Mike mentioned that the Golf Manager in Loveland is leaving so they are currently recruiting to fill his position. John informed the Board that he, Emily and Dawn met with CPIO to review Website and Social Media standards. CPIO reviewed analytics and established social media standards for all three courses. We feel this will allow us to create consistent messaging and work more cooperatively with the Pros. We are also working with IT to reorganize and reprioritize information on the City’s website. We are planning to feature junior golf more prominently. We’ll continue to focus on local advertising with ads in the Coloradoan and outdoor advertising with Lamar. Lamar controls the outdoor advertising on the busses and bus shelters as well as the benches. John mentioned they are going to continue to really focus on Social Media. They found it’s very successful since you can target it for different things. Ross asked what the split was for traditional media and new media. John said last year he spent around 20% of his budget on Social Media. He said he would like to get to 50/50 at some point. John asked if the Board had any questions. Michael Hardisty mentioned the outdoor advertising. He feels it’s a bit confusing when the course name isn’t present, just the logos. Kathy feels the same regarding this. She mentioned seeing this in various places and feels it would be more beneficial to include the course names. John agreed that it wasn’t the standard to include the name and it’s something he can consider in the future. He explained that he did this primarily to drive those images so people would begin to recognize them without the course name being attached. Kathy also mentioned the holiday promotion for the Premier Card. She felt there should have been a better explanation of the benefits, it just didn’t grab her attention. John stated that it was also advertised online and there was a link to view the details. Kathy said it doesn’t benefit those who still receive the paper copy only. John Schmunk asked what age range John Litel was trying to target. John explained that he is trying to connect with all ages, which is why he does a variety of advertising. Ross explained that there is also an impact with the individuals you’re reaching on Social Media communicating with those who aren’t. Kathy asked how John measures results. John stated that some things are hard to measure and it just depends on the kind of campaign you’re running. With the Coloradoan, we can ask them to provide the number of times the link was clicked. They typically send a report that he hasn’t received yet. With the outdoor advertising they tell you how many vehicles pass by that area and what the bus Golf Board - Minutes Page 3 of 3 routes are. Michael suggested implementing a poll for the logos. John said that’s something we could consider in our annual survey. Tom Rock suggested that we market in Cheyenne during the spring as well. John said he’s considering marketing Greeley as well. John thanked the Board for their time and said they are eager for the season to start. Michael Hardisty asked if marketing fell under contractual services. Mike believes it is under commodities. Michael asked what the budget was. John mentioned that it is $25,000. He feels we are doing well with what we have. Mike informed the Board that the budget used to be $2,000. When we met with the CGA they recommended around 2%. Ross mentioned that it’s typically around 3% now. Other Business Ross said he is familiar with the Youth on Course program and a strong advocate. He gave a brief overview of the program and said it was created as a way to increase the accessibility and affordability of golf for youth. Tom asked how the program was funded and Ross was under the impression it was funded by donations. Mike said he believes there is now a small fee required. The Board agrees that it appears to be a great program. Mike will further review the program details and discuss it with the Board at a later date. Financials Mike reviewed the final 2017 report and stated that we did better than he thought we were going to do. He mentioned that golfers have been purchasing 2018 passes. There was an issue with posting Pro contract payments, which was $31,000. He’s hoping for more consistencies with postings in the future. Mike reviewed the rounds report and mentioned that we didn’t have many rounds, but it was more than last year. He stated that staff has been doing their best to get the courses open when possible. Adjournment: On a motion by James Penland, seconded by Ross Liggett, the Board adjourned at 7:00. Respectfully submitted, Dawn Worth Administrative Assistance, Golf Division Board Attendance Board Members: Michael Hardisty, Ross Liggett, Kathy Meyer, James Penland, Tom Rock, John Schmunk Staff: Mike Calhoon, Emily Frare, John Litel, Dawn Worth