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HomeMy WebLinkAboutVPCMinutes_2009_08_191 Promotions Committee Meeting Minutes – August 19th, 2009 City Hall Present: Tom Jones, Zeno Wicks III, Victoria Blatchford, Lynn Darnall, Rob Peterson, Michael Kendall, Catherine Grandorff, Amy Einspahr, Bridgit Burghardt, John Seward, Deb Garbers, Al Heuton, Tom Richter and Jeff Weldon. •Chairperson Blatchford called the meeting to order at 3:01pm. • Welcome to new members, and introduction of committee members • Agenda approved as presented • SDSU Student Fall Concert Presentation: Nick Wendell, Asst. Director of Student Activities presented information on an upcoming SDSU concert to be held on Labor Day. They currently have a retention committee, they are charged with keeping 1st year students on campus. Students move in on August 29th, with the Labor Day holiday, a lot of kids will go home for the weekend. The goal is to keep those students here, by providing them with entertainment. SDSU is starting to recruit more students from a distance, who are not able to go home on the weekend; this will provide them with something to do, vs. head to out of town for the day. Student Affairs has committed $17,000-$18,000, and is looking for a match from Visitor Promotions. They have extended offers, and are getting close to a band committing. Question into when think this will be confirmed? They hope to have an agreed upon offer by next week. Question into what type of a concert trying to attract? We tried for a country band, but that did not work out. Now looking at one band, it would be an alternative band with national recognition. Question into what time of day the concert will be? Planning an evening concert, with the headliner scheduled to perform around 9pm. There will be an opening act that will start at 7. The opening act will be someone local. Question into if have ability to do lights? Lighting is included in the budget. Considered having an afternoon event, but thought it would be better received in the evening. Question into the backup plan if there is bad weather? In the event of bad weather, the event would be moved to the Performing Arts Center. Question into the University’s contribution? The university is contributing $17,000- $18,000. The remaining amount is being requested from the Visitor Promotions Committee. If it does not cost the full amount, the unused funds will be returned to the Visitor Promotions Committee. The SDSU funds would be used first. Question into if there will be food vendors? We are currently looking into this, considering having SDSU concessions. As of now, just working with just Aramark, and trying to work a deal to get students free food. The concert is free admission, and will be held on Sylvan Green. The request is for Student funds. • Downtown Grand Reopening Event Presentation: John Seward with Downtown Brookings presented information on the upcoming event. Presented to the committee in May, and at that time, was asked to come back with a theme. The theme for the promotion will be: We’ve battled the construction and we won. A layout of the day activities includes: Grand March at 5:30, Speeches and Ribbon Cutting 6-7:45, the Great Ball Drop at 7:45, Music on Main from 7:45-10. The Grand March will include a portion of the SDSU Pride. Staff did not go crazy with activities, as there is a limited staff to work with. Question into if feel there will be people that are uncomfortable with the theme, specifically Veterans? No. Another concern would be making the connection, without additional information. Seward explained this is just the beginning theme, currently working the TV Productions to develop the advertising. Question into how much DBI is contributing? Seward answered nothing as DBI is $18,000 in the hole. Question into if the amended budget is correct? Yes. When reviewing the promotional side, the Collegian ad date is the wrong date. The date should be Sept. 8. Question into the expense for TV Productions? The expense is included in the big week promotion budget. Question into how will this get people into town? Look at the big week promotion schedule. There are TV ads, newspaper ads and radio ads planned. The promotion is for the Grand Re-opening, SDSU Welcome Back and the Harvest Festival. Question into the cost for Music on Main, if this is happening every week, is there additional cost this week? Discussion regarding the application in which it states that there are 118 confirmed guests on Facebook. This is misleading, as the confirmed guests are for the Welcome Back, not the Grand Re-Opening. Question into if there is transportation available for students? Working with the Transportation Committee and waiting for an answer back. Recommend talking to Brenda at BATA, as it is a BATA decision, not the Transportation Committee’s decision. Unsure at this time, if there would be a charge for students to ride the bus. Question into the original budget; Seward instructed the committee not to pay attention to that budget, but rather look at the budget provided today. Discussion regarding when information is handed out at the meetings is different than that provided in the packet, this puts the committee in a tough spot, as they have not had time to review the new information, and are being asked to make a decision now. The event application was late, as it was due on April 1st. If these are final numbers, it is good for the committee to have the correct information for consideration. Question into business participation, mentioned about 95% of the businesses will participate. Is this a mixture of businesses? There are a number of stores that are staying open and running specials. Question into if the stores will be on the street? They can not be as the street will not be closed. Question into the backup plan for bad weather? There is no location you could move the event to. Question into if the Mayor is scheduled to speak? Yes. Questions into if the street will be closed? Temporarily, during the ribbon cutting and the ball drop. 2 • SDSU Welcome Back Presentation: Seward spoke with students, and they felt there was nothing to come downtown for. Asked the question on Facebook, as to what would make them come down? The answers received are already downtown. Need the students to become more familiar with the downtown and what it has to offer. Goal is to keep students here on the weekends, and hopefully during the summer. This event has support from SDSU. Activities planned include: battle of the bands, Nick’s Hamburger eating contest, chess boxing, road rally, dodge ball tourney, Guitar Hero contest, NCAA Football contest. Students have the opportunity to sign up first, after September 1st; the general public will be allowed to sign up. Each event has marketing costs as each event is so complex. The information could not be put all on one poster, with enough information for the public to understand what it is. The winner of the eating contest wins a champion trophy that is 3 ft tall. Battle of the bands: 5 bands signed up so far, with all of the bands from Brookings, and all have played in Music on Main. The prizes are less than what is normally paid out. Guitar Hero and NCAA Football: these events will be held on Mon and Wed nights, not during the Welcome Back. Video games are huge, and the bars are busy on Friday night. The prizes will be X-Box 360, with the Lantern and the Ram contributing to these. There is little marketing for this, as there will not be a problem getting people in the events. Football will take place at the Summit, and those who are under 21 can participate in this. Road Rally is a poker run on foot. Chess boxing is 3 minutes of boxing and then 4 minutes of chess. Sports Connection and Brookings Engraving are sponsors of this event. The event will be held in the 72 hour parking lot. Question into if insurance will cover the chess boxing? This is covered under the umbrella insurance. Question into if the insurance covers anything that happens? Seward answered yes. They will include a waiver with the Nick’s Hamburger Eating Contest. Question into where the battle of the bands is taking place? Everything is taking place in the 72 hour parking lot; on 3rd Ave. Question into if the parking lot has been secured? We are on the last signatures. The battle of the bands ends at 8pm. Question into how people will know where the event is taking place? Signs. Question into the amount requested-$7250.67? Question into what the students get for the funds? Half of the stuff costs, the other half does not. There is no entrance fee for anyone. Question into if students will pay $25 to be in the eating contest? Question into the number of participants for the contest? 24. There is always a charge to enter a battle of the bands. Question into if the university has been contacted regarding financial help if this is going to help with recruitment? Seward has talked with UPC, but did not feel they were in a position to help financially. Nick Wendell added that when the UPC was approached, it was late in the school year and all of their funds are planned for the semester, so they were unable to commit financially. Question into if others have been approach, for example Student Affairs? No. Would encourage you to contact them, as retention is something they are working on. Question into if student organizations have been contacted? No. They are mostly students and are in influx. • Big Week Promotion: Question into if the theme is going to be carried throughout? Yes. The goal is to tie all three events into one experience-student, parents and residents. In the process of getting rid of Shop, Dine, Play. Once the branding is done, plan to tie in with that. Over 100 communities use shop-dine-play. Trying to reinvent ourselves. Seward questioned how to calculate cost for time spent using Twitter and Facebook? We are looking for hard costs on the promotional side. Those are staff costs. Question into the incentives to providing, to stay in Brookings? The application says incentives will be provided coupons from hotels; specifically, who will you be working with? Seward explained they are working with businesses for a scavenger hunt on Saturday. Working with the hotels is more difficult. At this time, nothing finalized. Question into how will the rooms tie into the weekend? 50 rooms per day is a large number just for this event. Seward mentioned going to try to tie the Harvest Festival in with the Cereal Bowl, SDSU Football game. Question into if the 50 rooms per day was overstated? John added it would probably be more around 25 rooms total. Question into the total amount requested, is it in the range of $16,000? Yes. Question into the cost of the Collegian ad at $800 for one ad? Yes. Question into the original amount was $360? That was a mistake. Question into if the application was originally brought in April? Everything has changed? Seward explained he started in February. He has a lot of stuff going on, with the grand reopening not even on the work plan. Seward is trying to catch up. Discussion into the applications are disorganized, as the applications have changed as we have been sitting here, as well, you are still talking about confirming stuff and the event is only two weeks away. Concern is the costs for the ads have gone up in a week, question into if they have been solidified? Yes. • Voting SDSU Fall Concert-Request $17,000 Wicks motioned $17,000 out of the student fund, Einspahr seconded. Discussion: make an addition to include that if they do not use the funds, the funds are put back into the Visitor Promotions Student Fund. The motion to read: up to $17,000. Motion Carries. • Voting on Downtown Grand Re-Opening-Request $1,670 Wicks informed the committee that the student representatives would like to propose paying for half of everything, the $16,000 if the city funds the rest. Blatchford mentioned one issue is the application was received late. In the past, applicants are usually turned away, and told to reapply next time. Grandorff added this is a chance to create a better relationship between SDSU and the City. The Taste of Brookings event was held a few weeks ago, and the event was great. It was a total turn around from past events. If that is how the events are going to be in the future, support the event. The idea is great, fell as if put in a position have to give money. Question into where the money would come from? Seward mentioned the marketing fund. Those funds have been spoken for, to help promote the brand once completed. Regarding the tournament funds, there are applications coming in the August meeting that have good economic impact. Regarding the applications: question into which is the most important application? The Grand Re- opening can be put on, without any funds. The big week promotion and the SDSU Welcome Back take greater priority. Application dies for lack of motion. 3 •Voting on SDSU Welcome Back-Request $7,750.67 Darnall motioned $7,750 out of student funds, Peterson seconded. Discussion: Kendall moved to amend the motion to read, the motion is contingent upon the committee funding the Big Week Promotion, Grandorff seconded. Funding decisions are full committee decisions. Kendall motioned to table the Welcome Back application until the big week promotion application has been discussed, Wicks seconded. Application tabled. • Voting on Big Week Promotion-Request $7,142.70 Wicks motioned $7142.70 out of the Marketing/Branding fund, Kendall seconded. Discussion: Question into the commitment on the branding? The estimate provided by the consultant was to budget two thirds of the consultants fees, with the consultant’s fee being $84,000. Question into a possible reduction in the cost of advertising? Is there some doubling up on the advertising? The Big Week Promotion has everything in it; this will be promoted through the weekend. Question into if could bail on the TV ads? That is the target audience. TV and Online advertising are big. Question into if the Collegian ad could advertise the Welcome Back also, and have just one ad? Seward explained they could reduce the Collegian ad, as they are already promoting the Welcome Back. Also could look at just advertising once in the Peach and the Madison Daily Leader. Wicks motioned $5,892 out of the marketing/branding fund, Kendall seconded. Discussion: Wish every event could be this diverse with marketing. Motion carries. • Kendall motioned to remove the Welcome Back application from the table, Grandorff seconded. Motions Carries. • Darnall motioned $7750 from the student fund, Peterson seconded. Motion carries. • Encourage Seward to bring copies of the ads to the August 31st meeting. Question into if there is a calendar for next year? Seward mentioned that is something they are working on in October, as they are looking to be more efficient. It helps to know what is happening. • Darnall motioned to adjourn; meeting adjourns at 4:40.