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Welcome to the art of marketing operations, a Taylor podcast, I'm Glen
bottomly and today my guest is Melvin tenant. Who is the president and CEO of
Meat Minneapolis, an organization focused on making Minneapolis the
destination of choice for next events and vacations, promoting Minneapolis in
attracting visitors, generating critical incremental tax revenue and
supporting jobs and supporting the high quality of life in Minneapolis? Thanks
for joining me today, Meldon good to be with you goin and you're hired, that's
a great summary of what we do.
Wonderful. Thank you. Well Melton. What an interesting role that you have as
president in CEO of Meat Minneapolis. Can you share with our audience? How
did you get to this position? It's just a fascinating role that you have, but
back you Gwin for having me with you on this podcast destination. Marketing is
a discipline that a lot of people don't really know, even exists, but every
single major city in the country and around the world. Each of those cities
has a an organization such as Mat Minneapolis, which is responsible for
marketing it to its various audiences. So I've been a destination marketing
professional. For the majority of my career, I can honestly say that I did
not intend out of college to become a destination marketing professional, but
I've had the good fortune of of doing this in Minneapolis for almost the last
fifteen years, but I've also had a chance to serve in some other great
cities as well. Wonderful, I love the Phrase Destination Marketing, what a
great label to describe exactly what you and your team do that? That's
fantastic! So, let's start talking a little bit about you know the challenge
that you have. You know in many Meat Minneapolis, particularly as it relates
to the uncertainty that we've been in over the last nearly two years with the
Covin nineteen global pandemic, and
when you think about how Ovid nineteen has reminded us all of our
vulnerabilities, particularly personal vulnerabilities, but also
organizational vulnerabilities, how important it has shown us to to be
skilled at quickly pivoting when needed, as the CEO of Meat Minneapolis, I'm
sure that you have had to respond rapidly to change, managing and
priority prioritizing marketing projects, adjusting content messaging
shifts throughout the pandemic, relying on efficient communication, creative
problem solving, etc. What would you say? Melvin has been the key to your
success to bring Meat Minneapolis through this difficult time of Ovid
what it may sound, simple glen, but it is really communication. I think, back
to
what was our last day in the office before we went to a virtual environment,
which was
Friday, the thirteenth March, Thirteen two thousand and twenty, when we we
were on we're going to actually start a
hybrid experiment. If you will Monday the sixteenth, but as it turned out
that ended to be started out as the first day of a long journey of being
largely virtual, although now we're beginning to come back into the office,
but the one key is communication and looking at it as what I would call as
concentric circles of communication, starting with your very close team
members for us a board of directors. We have partner organizations that support
us in our ability to market and sell the the destination the community at
large and then customers that we are trying to market to and I'll go back to
the very very beginning. The team, in my view, needs to know everything that
we can possibly tell them, because the worst thing that could happen is that a
team member would make an off handed comment that boy I didn't know about
that. I nobody told me so we really stepped up our communication worked on
transparence. He worked on making sure that we took took to heart the fact
that our team was the core of what we wanted to do and it thias communication
and very intentional communication. Wonderful and then what it, what have
you found to be the biggest challenge in convincing communicating with
customers and clients who are looking at Minneapolis as a destination to
assuage their concerns related to Covid, nineteen or just other aspects of
making sure that they understand that Meat Minneapolis is the right
destination for them? Sure. Thank thank you for asking that question.
Just in destination marketing, WE COMPETE AGAINST A lot of cities anyway,
pre pandemic. It was a very competitive, competitive landscape and just to kind
of put it in perspective for groups and conventions. We compete against cities
like Indianapolis, Denver, St Louis Kansas City Chicago for the most part.
So each of those cities is trying very hard to get meetings and conventions in
tourists to their cities as well, so there is always always a very
competitive landscape. But for us the
convincing visitors to come to us in the midst of Ovid was not just a
minneapolis issue. It was. It was an industry issue, so a lot of industry
associations have joined together to to demonstrate that we can travel safely.
You see different campaigns from airlines from from different cities.
From hotel companies that have their own cleanliness and health and safety
standard, so we did all we could to aggregate all of those and for us the
the Covin of readiness was something that we took very very seriously. Our
Convention Center and some other facilities received additional
certifications for for cleanliness practices. So we've addressed that head
on and felt like. We've done real well in communicating that to or to our
customers and I'm sure that that is really probably been very, very helpful
for them in making their decisions or for their destination for sure right
and if you think about the travel journey, a person has to leave their
home, get in a vehicle or a cab go into an airport, get onto a plane, get into
an another airport into another cab and then to a hotel and then maybe to a
convention center. So it's all about making sure that we're communicating
holistically about the ability to travel safely throughout a a journey.
So it s we're. We have to really spend a lot of time with our partner
organizations. I would imagine that that also helps your your customers
feel confident. As well that that you're, taking that holistic view that
you know it's not just a singular issue, you know you're looking at it and- and
that probably brings a lot of comfort, I would imagine to to your customers as
are making those decisions, that that is correct in very correct. Now, Melvin,
the art of marketing operations podcast. This podcast explores the balance of
what we call the right, brain and left brain thinking in an organization
combining both data as well, as you know, creative in strategy. So what
have you? What has been the most effective way that you have found to
integrate in combine creativity and and strategy with the data side of the
business in meat? Minneapolis intentionality is the word that comes
to mind. We have great professionals in our marketing area, in our research
area and in our sales area, and those are all different disciplines, but they
all work together for us to be able to effectively market and sell to our
various audiences. So we make every effort to bring all of those
disciplines together and I'll just use sales in marketing. As an example, here,
there are different parts of the brain that make you a skilled, marketer
versus different parts of the brain that make you a skill. Salesperson
Empirical Dat is is a big piece of it, but you mentioned creativity, so I
frankly have structured our organization so that we have leaders in
marketing and leaders in sales. Some organizations have a combined sales and
marketing function, but I think it's important to have them separate and I
do enjoy the tension sometimes between the two, because they challenge each
other and they really promote understanding of their respective
discipline. So I'll say, for example, that a salesperson may think that
marketing just makes it look pretty, and you know, and and I'll challenge
them and really make sure that they understand that marketing should be
integral in in the strategy and things that we've done in making sure we send
our marketing team members to sales function so that they understand that
side of it, but then also making sure that our sales people understand some
of the intricacies of the marketing function. So it's an ongoing
conversation between those two pillars of our organization. But it's been
really successful, but it's really important that we have two strong
leaders in both of those areas and that has worked well for US interesting
story. Melvin early in my career, I worked at an organization where there
was conflict between the sales organization in the manufacturing
organization and the Chief Operating Officer. At the time s swapped the two
positions actually swapped to the two individuals. So the head of production
became the head of sails in the head of sales, became the head of production
and the whole focus er to your point was to understand, actually walk, you
know, and they did that, for it was two years wow and it was to understand the
other side and in so I think that there's brilliance in what you were
just saying in the sense that making sure that the two organizations remain
separate, but also that everybody has that seat at the table and that you're
sharing that education and that and that knowledge across one another in
keeping them separate. Have you found that have there been some challenges
you mentioned about the healthy conflict? And I very much agree with
you about that that that, having that healthy conflict is good, better
results come from that, but have there been other challenges that you've been
faced with as you've set that structure? Well, you are always looking for ways
to make sure that all parts of the organization have all the information
they need and so that nobody is surprised. So we try to find whenever
there is an opport opportunity to improve that where there is a maybe a
sales initiative that the marketing department didn't know about soon
enough to be able to plan for from a staffing or resource perspective. So we
try to minimize that, in fact, this is the time of the year where all of our
our respective teams are doing their planning for next year. So we have
cross pollination of of different departments in other departmental
retreats just to try to eliminate that either confusion or duplication. So
it's, I don't think, there's a silver bullet glen, but it's a matter of being
very intentional about having that overlap having that collaboration and
that cross pollination. As I as I mentioned, thank you for that. Now,
when, when you think about the role that all of your teams play,
particularly on the marketing side, data is such a key component for every
marketing organization and, right now it seems from the people that I talk to
that we are swimming in data. Can you share with our audience a bit about how
meet Minneapolis Leverages data to maximize revenue, growth and internal,
an organizational success for Meat Minneapolis, and then
any role that predictive analytics is playing in your organization? Sure well
with our within our organization. We do have a research function that that
we've established. I will say, though, that the best majority of our research
that we utilize to make business decisions comes from outside sources,
so we do a lot of
consolidating of data from from other resource, because there are so many
great industry research resources out there that, as you said, we've been
swimming at it, particularly during the during the pandemic. Most of it relates
to traveler sentiment or or confidence of the traveler those types of things
we get that data in any number of functions. So we
are able to consolidate that data present it to our our partner
businesses, because we obviously need the various businesses that are keeping
the promises that we make when we market the destination. So our job has
really been to consolidate that data slice it in dice it in ways that it's
actionable for our for a partner businesses as far as predictive. It has
a lot to do with the the full life cycle of the client and being able to
know where, where we first contact them and then following them through their
journey and we've been able to do that
pretty successfully when we
through our advertising, particularly digital advertising. So our marketing
department has done a really great job of
predictive analysis, and that's that's really a part of our our puzzle, but
I'll keep in keep in mind, though, that many of our our sales and marketing
activities are also for the future. So we have things that are right here in
the present with visitors that are coming in the short term. But many more
of our efforts are really geared towards the future. With that, the the
long in make sure yeah, yeah no understood and
have you found that
the information demands from partner businesses? How have how has that
changed over the years? The in terms of the partner businesses that you work
with
the information that you're providing them, I would imagine, has that has
changed and their demands have changed. You know over these, particularly over
the last two years, but probably the last five to ten. How is that changed?
The probably the biggest T, consumers of data amongst the different types of
businesses that we work with, probably the as a hotel community. We provide a
lot of data that helps them really enhance their profitability. It just to
kind of put it into simple terms of supply and demand. If they're making
decisions on what to charge for a
group at some point in the future, then it it would make sense for them to know
other things that are happening in the city so that they don't necessarily
under price their their ter, their hotel rooms, because a hotel room has a
one day shelf life. You can't sell yesterday's room again, so we've been
able to provide more information for hotel community from from demand in the
future that that's a really big
big piece of the Datis. What is the demand? What is the pace of our booking?
So what can they expect? Because each of these hotels has an ownership group?
That's looking to obviously maximize those investments, so we spend a lot of
time, both collectively with the hotel community, but also individual hotel
managers and even ownership groups to really lay out what the future looks
like having come off a tough year, two thousand and twenty and an emerging
year, two thousand and twenty one. The hotel community, as well as the entire
hospitality community, is very optimistic about two thousand and
twenty two. So we've really for that purpose have enhanced our research
budget significantly to be able to meet those demands M, which will obviously
translate ultimately to increase growth, more profitability exactly exactly and
then, when you think about so you have. You have many masters right. You have
many state holders, though tell community businesses, your partner,
businesses, organizations etc. So when you think about your marketing
organization, how do
how do you measure their performance? What have you found to be the best way
to measure your marketing team's performance well have to look at that
organization and kind of drill it down to marketing, but we have for what we
would call key performance indicators that are part of our. We have a
relationship with the city of Minneapolis as a as a contractor
technically, but those four kpis are our lodging tax collections. There,
revenue at the Convention Center the number of Hotel Room nites that we book
in a given year and then also the percentage of partner businesses that
we retain year over year. So those are the global types of of measurements,
but as far as within the
I'll start with the sales area, each sales person has an individual goal for
production for future business. So that's pretty easy to measure and then
in our sale. Excuse me in our marketing area. There are any number of factors
in terms of of campaigns that they produce and what's the the click
through rates and a number of other types of measures, but they really work
closely with the sales department so that they are looking at this
holistically, not necessarily a sales goal and a marketing goal. We have
collectively a goal to to increase the visitations to the city. So bottom line
is that we need to get more as many people as we can into the community so
that they can enjoy and spend dollars and support the businesses that we that
we need to keep those promises and also to support the jobs and the workers
that have that work at those businesses and in that process Melvin. Do you feel
that that the your marketing operations teams do you feel that they're, some of
your state holders, don't understand everything that they that they do? You
know the heavy demands that are on that are placed upon them. What do you think
are some of the things that may be your key stake holders that you deal with
day and a day out? What do you think they misunderstand about me?
Minneapolis', market teams? Well, let's say that we we market and sell an
intangible product a destination and that destination is made up of any
number of components. But basically we sell the experience, and that sounds
really great and we do have responsibilities for recruiting certain
numbers of visitors and hotel occupancies. But one of the maybe
disconnects and natural disconnect is that we have that responsibility, but
we don't control any of the distribution channels or any of the
product that we're selling. So we rely on the partnership and he the good work
of our hotel community, of our restaurants, of our attractions and
transportation companies. Other service businesses, but
sometimes the level of expectation is, is pretty high, but bottom line is that
we don't control that the distribution channel or the
or the inventory. But the good news is that we have great relationships with
our partner organizations and we work with them very very closely, so that it
is hand and glove really. The bottom line is we. We want the end user, the
customer to feel as though it's a seamless experience and so over the
over time, we've been able to forge those relationships that allow us to do
that, and I would imagine that you provide direct feedback to those
partners that you stated you don't control the hotels, you don't control
the restaurants, you don't control the experience that the guests that are
coming to Minneapolis once an event is show when, once an event venue is
selected, you don't control that, like you say that the end result that
distribution. But I would imagine that you probably play in the upfront
process. You probably play a key role in providing feedback to all of your
partners about what you're, hearing, pre and post event correct. We do we do
that a lot. We have surveys that we share and up their specific information
that relates to a partner business. We provide that, but even further up front
on a big event like the Super Bowl which we hosted in two thousand and
eighteen. We were part of a major training program for the hospitality
industry, understanding that we were going to have a significant number of
people that had never been to Minneapolis or this area. So we wanted
to make sure that the experience they had was was was memorable and very
positive, so training and we've done training in the past, but that was a
very significant deployment of resources to do that training. We do
other ways to recognize the hospitality industry. We do a cordery hospitality
hero award to make sure we recognize service. So we place a high value on on
service delivery. Would you say that that's unique to meet Minneapolis,
something new, that you've brought to the organization or do you find that is
this a a technique that you have seen in other cities in other destination
marketing venues we've always placed a value on it. We just look for ways to
enhance our ability to to make sure that our visitors have a
good experience. So service has always been a been a part of it and we're
always looking for ways in which we can improve ourselves, and we talk a lot to
our peers around the country so that that's the good news our industry is
very collaborative and very congenial. So we talk to our counterparts
frequently by a number of issues and service and visitor experiences is just
one of those areas. I would imagine it is very competitive in the space, but
it also sounds to your to your comment that, although competitive as you
mentioned, competing against Denver, Chicago, etc, there's probably a very
tight knit group in destination marketing sharing best practices. This
works. This isn't working because you know there's almost this notion of. If
one city can grow, all cities can grow and we're raising all boats in sharing
some of those best practices. Would you agree, you're, exort, exactly right
fact. We just recently attended a conference amongst our pew
organizations, and the subject of that conference was on advocacy on dealing
with local community issues dealing with local political concerns, so we
come together share best practices. Just like you mentioned. There are
multiple meetings of different areas of destination, marketing that are
convened on an ongoing basis, and even in formerly we get surveys from our
peers. A lot to you know. How do you do this? How do you do that? What's what's
what's the best practice of
the big issue right now is is returned to work, so we've had just a number of
surveys and conversations about that subject, for example, and it's been
very helpful to have that type of relationship with your peers- and I
don't know of many other industries that share as much information amongst
ourselves as destination. Marketing professionals do. That is good advice
and in a good background, I think for our audience to understand the unique
nature of destination marketing in general, and would you say Melvin that
there are some key resources? Obviously, Europas in the industry is key, but are
there other key resources that you work with and in leverage to maximize the
success of your marketing efforts at Meet Minneapolis? Well, it's again goes
back to communication. We understand that we have access to all sorts of
national research, that we try to distill and disseminate to our partner
organizations, but it doesn't take the place of having individual
conversations with with hotels with restaurants, with those partner
businesses to really understand on the ground. What's going on, so it's a
matter of if using the relationships as well as the empirical data, and we are
always looking for ways to pull all of that all of those those resources
together. It's not it's not rocket science in many ways. What we do. We
spend a lot of time listening to our various stake holders and really
understanding what those needs are in adapting our our programs and
initiatives. One example of that is that during the pandemic, we initiated
a monthly state of travel and tourism webinars series that we thought was
going to be just during the pandemic during the height of the pandemic, but
it is turned out to be just a a wonderful resource that partners enjoy
and it's become just a
part of doing business. Now we weren't doing it consistently before, but now
we are, but that's an example of an adaptation that has become a standard
business practice now yeah. What's interesting. There too is you're, also
providing the thought leadership not only to the local area but to others in
the industry, and so I commend you for doing the Webinars, and you said that
that is continuing now, even so, yes, yes in the two thousand and twenty two
absolutely ow, that is yes, that is really really exciting, and that I mean
the other wonderful aspect of what you just described is that's a great
manifestation of continuous education, continuous learning- and you know so
when you think about yourself and your team, you know how do you, how do you
keep learning? Obviously the Webinars Ries is a key component to that. But
how do you continue to keep learning and encourage your team to keep
learning well. First Starts Glen, in my view, with a mindset to really
understand that we can't know everything that we have to be open to
learning and I believe all of our team members are open to learning and where
that learning can come from doesn't have to be formal. You don't have to
necessarily be in a Weben or a seminar, a workshop. It could be very informally.
You know going back to that event that I talked about on advocacy with our
other destination marketing organizations. Recently, it's those
hallway conversations where you'll get an Aha moment. It's like I would never
have thought about this particular idea. So once you have that openness to
learning, you will find that learning can come from any number of places and
it doesn't necessarily mean that you, a certain level of person in the
organization or a certain credentials. You just have to be open to the fact
that learning can come from anywhere. So that's that's. The philosophy I have
and- and I believe most of our team members are- are open to
to learning wherever they might be able to acquire it. Excellent thanks for
that. Mellon now moment before we wrap up today's episode. What would you say
is the main takeaway that you would want to leave our audience with in
understanding the challenges facing marketing operations executives today.
Well, for us, our discipline of Marketing Destination Marketing. We
just want to make sure that people understand that tourism doesn't just
happen. It takes intentionality if people go for a visitor for a
convention or some other tourism activity. There is a lot of work that
comes behind it from the the infrastructure itself to the
subtle or overt marketing that created it for conventions there are people,
that's been that their whole life is planning meetings and selecting sites.
So we are just want folks to know that there is an organization working on
behalf of Minneapolis that is working hard to make us, as you said, early in
the broadcast, the destination of choice, and it doesn't just happen, but
we were very passionate about what we do. I can hear the passion in Your
Voice for sure.
That's wonderful! Well that wraps up this episode of the art of marketing
operations. Thank you so much for joining us today. Melvin and until next
time stay safe, take care, and thank you for listening
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