2016 Advertising Expenditure
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ZB7.2 STAFF REPORT To: Board of Management From: Jennifer Tracey, Senior Director Marketing, Communications & Partnerships Subject: 2016 ADVERTISING EXPENDITURE Date: 2016-02-25 Summary: This report outlines the proposed media plan and expenditures related to the 2016 advertising campaign as provided for in the 2016 Operating Budget. The paid advertising will complement the public relations and event strategy to ensure we are reaching our target audiences in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond, and that we are communicating the right messages. Recommendations: It is recommended that the Board approve the following: 1. Expenditures to reimburse Public Inc. for any outsourced production costs related to advertising programs as required for the Toronto Zoo brand, not to exceed $229.0 thousand, plus HST; and, 2. Expenditures with ZenithOptimedia Canada Inc. for media purchases related to the 2015 advertising campaign, not to exceed $956.0 thousand, plus HST. Financial Impact: There are no financial implications related to approval of these recommendations as the related advertising expenditures are included in the Operating Budget for 2016. Background: The Toronto Zoo set out the following objectives which link directly to the goals in the recent Strategic Plan, to drive the Marketing, Communications & Partnerships planning for 2016: 1. Meet or exceed 1.325 million visitors with a positive net revenue; 2. Highlight the Zoo as a ‘must-see’, fun and engaging experience filled with discovery and learning for all ages with a particular focus on the successful conservation and breeding programs including the first giant panda cubs born in Canada; 2015 Advertising Expenditure 2015-02-04 Page 2 of 9 3. Continue to highlight the work the Toronto Zoo does to save and protect species, particularly Canadian species, and their habitats at home and abroad through conservation, education and research programs; 4. Engage and leverage partnerships (including city, tourism outposts and public and private); 5. Continue to build a strong year-round public relations and social media campaign to attract visitors from Toronto and beyond. Each year, the Toronto Zoo endeavours to maximize the advertising budget with the greatest reach to our identified target audience. In 2015, based on information from our onsite visitor survey and postal code data collected from our visitors and the potential impacts from the Pan Am/Para Pan Am Games we were able to better target our key market segment. In 2016, with updated and more robust information, we will not only utilize the data from the visitor survey and postal code information, but also leverage the lower Canadian dollar by targeting American tourists and highlighting the Toronto Zoo’s success with conservation and breeding programs for endangered and vulnerable species to reach and exceed the established attendance and revenue targets. The attendance target will be achieved in a number of ways including through the annual advertising campaign, consumer and visitor promotions, membership acquisitions, torontozoo.com, social media platforms, Toronto Zoo publications and collateral, media and corporate partnerships, education programs, public relations, special events and group events. The annual paid advertising campaign will be integrated with the communications and public relations plan to support the strategic objectives and will include television, radio, out of home, online, print, social and digital media as well as leveraging our partners to promote and market the Toronto Zoo and continue to promote the Giant Panda Experience which continues to be the main draw. The visitor surveys show that online sources now account for 81% of all sources of information when seeking out information about a specific attraction. Social media/online information and the Toronto Zoo’s website are the most influential tools when deciding which attraction to visit. Our survey indicated that 62% of guests visited our website and gave it a 98.8% good to excellent rating with 36% saying it had an influence on decision to visit. Based on this information we will continue to use our website and social media channels as key communication engagement tools and continue to build these communities. The Toronto Zoo launched a Twitter account in September 2015 to coincide with the announcement of Er Shun’s pregnancy and currently have over 6000 followers and in 2015 there were more than 2.19 million impressions through Twitter. Facebook continues to grow and in 2015 there was a gain of almost 34,000 new fans reaching a new total of 88,914 friends, an increase of 39% over 2014. Instagram continues to grow in popularity with 13,745 new followers added in 2015 for a total 17,700 followers. 2 2015 Advertising Expenditure 2015-02-04 Page 3 of 9 Target Markets: Marketing, Communications and Partnerships continues to work hard to find the right advertising mix that continues to target the Toronto/GTA area as 58.4% of our visitors come from here and also reaches outside of the GTA to include the growing area of Durham and extends along the 400 series of highways and into the United States. Attendance to the Toronto Zoo in 2015 was strongly local with 58.0% guests coming from the City of Toronto and the surrounding Greater Toronto Area with an increase in visitors from the Durham region (13.5% in 2015 vs 11.7% in 2014). There was no change in visitors coming from Toronto with the exception of a slight (1%) drop in visitors from Scarborough over 2014. Ontario visitors saw a slight drop in 2015 with 22.4% compared to 24.6% in 2014. However, there was an increase in US visitors (8.1% in 2015 vs 5.7% in 2014) and international visitors saw a jump to 8.1% in 2015 from 5.7% in 2014 which was likely due to the Pan Am games. For reference, the Greater Toronto Area is defined as the central City of Toronto, and the four regional municipalities that surround it: 1. Halton – including the City of Burlington, and the towns of Oakville, Milton, and Halton Hills; 2. Peel – including the cities of Brampton and Mississauga, and the town of Caledon; 3. York – the regional municipality from Lake Simcoe in the north to the City of Toronto in the south. Its eastern border is shared between Durham Region, to the west is Peel Region, and Simcoe County is to the northwest; 4. Durham – the regional municipality located in Southern Ontario, east of Toronto including the Cities of Oshawa and Pickering, Towns of Ajax and Whitby, municipality of Clarington, and townships of Brock, Scugog and Uxbridge. Target Audience: While the Toronto Zoo’s primary target audience continues to be young families with children under the age of 12, 2016 provides a unique opportunity to appeal to a much broader audience given the success with the global Giant Panda Conservation Breeding Program and additional births in late 2015 and 2016. In the key family market, the parents are typically 24 – 44 years of age with children ranging in age from 3 – 12 years. The mother continues to be the key decision maker/influence for a zoo visit and moms are motivated to visit the Zoo primarily because it is a family outing (58%), followed by seeing a special exhibit (18%). Of those 18% who indicated a special event/exhibit as the main reason for a visit, 88.0% of them identified the giant pandas as the main draw. Currently, the Toronto Zoo is undertaking a new Master Plan which will inform potential emerging markets and demographics to pursue. 3 2015 Advertising Expenditure 2015-02-04 Page 4 of 9 Word of Mouth In 2012, word of mouth was noted by only 5% of our visitors as a source of influence in the decision to the visit the Zoo. This increased to 22% in 2013, and in 2015, ‘word of mouth’ overtook the mainstream medium of television as the most influential information source at 36.5%. This continues to be a very important area for us as we know if we provide an excellent visitor experience this will influence our visitors to tell their friends and families to visit the Zoo. Toronto Zoo will continue to contribute to a positive visitor experience by hosting special events on site this year including Easter activities, Mother’s and Father’s Day activities, animals days, giant panda birthday parties, Halloween, holiday events as well as member only events. In addition, in 2016 we will be introducing a new Guest Experiences Team. This team will be serve as Toronto Zoo Ambassadors and will create an enhanced guest experience through unexpected and proactive guest engagement throughout the Zoo site. Marketing, Communications & Partnerships – 2016 Given the global attention the Toronto Zoo has received with the birth of Er Shun’s giant panda twins, we have been providing updates on each milestone the cubs achieve. There has also been regular updates on the progress of the polar bear cub and white lion cubs. These milestones provide opportunities to emphasize the critical role the Zoo plays in the conservation efforts of many local and global species too and this is primarily done through earned and social media. The Toronto Zoo develops a year-round public relations strategy to enable us to garner earned and social media attention during the non-peak seasons to keep the Zoo ‘top of mind’ with consumers and focus on a paid advertising campaign during the peak season of May – September to maximize visitation. Through the fall and winter of 2015/2016, the earned and social media strategy was to focus on the breeding success of the white lion cubs, giant panda cubs and polar bear cub. Through these efforts, the Zoo generated more than 640 media stories reaching almost 35 million people with an ad value of $718,313.00.