CBMR and TA propose partnership to increase 2012 marketing efforts

“It is exciting to have you work together on that”

At the end of November, the Gunnison Crested Butte Tourism Association (TA) learned that it has a reserve fund of $467,000. That’s money above and beyond its operating budget, which is projected to be a minimum of $940,000 in 2012. It’s also well over the required reserve, which is set at 25 percent of the operating budget. That leaves approximately $200,000 that could be spent on supplemental marketing for 2012—and that has brought together some surprising partners: the TA and Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR).

“We got together and thought, ‘How could we put these funds to work for the county and to help build on our drive and our fly business?’” said Jane Chaney, executive director of the TA.
On December 6, Chaney appeared before the Board of County Commissioners (also the Local Marketing District [LMD], which funds the TA) with Scott Clarkson, CBMR’s new vice president of marketing and sales, and Jeff Moffett, CBMR’s director of Crested Butte Vacations. They outlined a draft proposal that would allocate $200,000 for marketing over the remainder of the winter season and much of 2012.
“This is a brief overview. This is not anywhere near the detail that we’ll provide you, but we wanted to bring up the idea for you that the $200,000 go into additional marketing for 2012,” Chaney said. “Revenue amounts are apportioned based on where our primary visitors come and where we go into hunting season. This is just to get a conversation started.”
The draft suggested allocating an additional $90,000 for 20 weeks of winter marketing, $30,000 for five weeks in the spring, $45,000 for 11 weeks in the summer, $24,000 for the fall and $11,000 for the shoulder season. It left out roughly five weeks in April and the very beginning of May. Ideally, the funding would supplement current efforts to promote events and seasonally appropriate activities across the county.
“We’re looking at representing the entire county, not just the north and not just the south. We’ll be looking across all four seasons in these 41 weeks,” said Clarkson.
The commissioners were interested in hearing a more detailed plan, and asked that a longer discussion be added to their next work session on December 13. In anticipation of creating that plan in just one week’s time, Moffett requested input from the commissioners.
“One [question] is simply the $200,000… is that an amount you’re comfortable looking at, more or less?” Moffet asked.
“These fund balances are a bit elusive in terms of pinning them down, so in some cases it makes more sense to keep it extremely healthy and in others it makes little sense to have that much. These are dollars that are generated by lodging tax, and to have them sitting in a pot sometimes makes little sense to me. They need to be spent on marketing,” said Commissioner Hap Channell.
“If it’s a good plan,” added Commissioner Paula Swenson.
County manager Matthew Birnie noted that financial policy dictates that the reserves equal 25 percent of the operating budget. With an operating budget of $940,000 and the potential of approximately $40,000 for a new web site, that means the reserve would need to maintain approximately $250,000. There could therefore be $200,000 for consideration.
Moffett also wanted to know if the commissioners agreed with the seasonality of the plan, and whether each day of the year should be treated as equal in terms of revenue potential.
“In some ways the biggest potential is in the seasons where it’s not that great,” Birnie said.
“[Like] May, October,” Swenson added.
“I think summer,” Channell said, “Your growth figures even show summer, even though it’s a smaller slice of that pie, got bigger proportionately than others and that bodes well because it also puts a more even impact on facilities, occupancy, staffing, the whole deal. We get into a more year-‘round effort than less…”
“The towns have all collected, except for Mt. Crested Butte, more sales tax in the summer than in the winter now, so I think there’s probably opportunity everywhere,” Birnie added.
Chaney agreed there are opportunities to reach people in the shoulder seasons, like the two weeks after kids go back to school. Marketing could reach out to empty nesters during that time. But she reminded the group that many year-round visitors come from Colorado. Going to the mountains for the weekend is often a last-minute decision based on good weather. If the weather is bad, she said, good marketing can’t change that. But it can take advantage of electronic media and radio to promote the Gunnison valley when the weather is good.
“A lot of electronic and email communications… it’s something we can pull the trigger on last-minute,” Chaney said. “We could wake up on Monday and go, oh, the Friday forecast on Monday is great, let’s drop some [media and] radio in the Front Range.”
Commissioner Phil Chamberland asked the TA and CBMR to also consider, to the extent possible, filling seats on the airlines.
“I think it’s worth spending money as a community on airplanes,” he said.
“Looking at air reports these days, my biggest concern is our Denver service, that we’re not running the guarantee. I talk to those guys often, and if those flights don’t perform well, there may not be as many next year… we can’t take that for granted.”
The TA and CBMR will return to the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, December 13, after developing a more detailed proposal for spending the additional $200,000 on marketing. No formal decision would be made until it appears on a regular agenda.
“I know you worked hard to include a county-wide marketing effort here, that’s the requirement of the LMD and the TA both, so I’m going to be looking at your proposal very closely for that,” Channell said.
“I think it is exciting to have you work together on that,” Birnie said.