This 2024 Annual Report covers July 1, 2023 - May 31, 2024 The Yountville Chamber of Commerce is a 501c6 non-profit organization. We are proud to say, we wears two hats. We serve as a traditional chamber of commerce and as the destination marketing organization for Yountville. We are proud of this dual role, and our partnership with the Town of Yountville and the NVTID – Yountville to market the destination of Yountville. We believe our community is stronger and more successful because of this leadership alignment.
Our Mission: Enriching the vibrancy of our community.
Our Vision: To be the premier small-town destination.
YOUNTVILLE CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE
Annual Report
2024
JUNE 18, 2024
What’s Inside
Who
We Are
Membership by
the Numbers
Program
Highlights
Marketing
Highlights
Conclusion,
What’s Next?
Who We Are
In addition to our Vision and Mission, the Yountville Chamber has four key values that drive everything we do, from programming, to member services, to marketing and more. These values are the heart and soul of our organization.
1. Building a Thriving Community: We believe in cultivating strong relationships between businesses.
We believe in cultivating strong relationships between businesses and residents.
2. Being Your Champion: We believe in improving the economic well-being and quality of life in our community.
3. Driving Commerce: We believe in providing the tools, resources, and opportunities to help grow member businesses.
4. Promoting Yountville: We believe in marketing and promoting Yountville as the premier smalltown destination.
Our Board and Staff
The Yountville Chamber is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, made up of 9 voting members and 4 non-voting members.
The Yountville Chamber currently has two full time staff, Whitney Diver McEvoy, President & CEO and Andrea Scarpa May, Programs & Events Manger. We are currently hiring our a third full time team member, who will serve as our Member Engagement Manager. Additionally, we work with several organizations to help us execute our destination marketing efforts. Here is our current organization cart.
Our Annual Budget
The Yountville Chamber is in a solid financial position. Our income is primarily made up of 3 income streams: Membership dues revenue, Town of Yountville Contract and the NVTID – Yountville contract.
We have additional income from event ticket proceeds, member marketing services and our Guest Information Network Partnership with Visit Napa Valley for the Yountville Welcome Center. We continue to look for new ways to grow revenue for the chamber, through marketing opportunities and new events.
Yountville Chamber Budget July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024
Revenue $993,888.00
Expenses $993,792.00
Net Profit $159.00
Membership of the Yountville Chamber is made up of two categories: Business Members and Associate Members (Yountville Residents). Currently, we have 484 members total: 334 Business Members and 150 Associate Members.
We continue to focus on refining our member benefits and providing our members with top notch customer service. Our Business Membership growth has been steady over the past fiscal year, we are close to meeting our budget. Our Leadership Circle program, which includes increased member recognition continues to be successful with 59 members. We currently have a cap on our Associate Membership, at 150 members.
Membership By Category
Membership by Location
Membership
0 50 100
Arts & Culture 12
Dining 35
Wine 109
Professional Services 103
Places to Stay 31
Shopping 13
Outdoors/Health Spas 9 Membership Category
Napa/Unincorporated County
40.2%
Yountville
27.8%
St. Helena
11.5%
Outside NV/CA
10%
Oakville/Rutherford
7.9%
This fiscal year was year three of our three-year Strategic Plan. Our Strategic Plan contains four objectives that drive our operations. Goals and metrics are tied to each objective. Numerous tactics are created to ensure achievement of the yearly goals. The Yountville Chamber Board of Directors creates our Strategic Plan each Spring at our annual Board Retreat.
Objective One: Focus on Visitor Promotion to Foster Positive Economic Impact for Yountville and Surrounding Community
Objective Two: Connecting and Convening
Objective Three: Run and Effective and Sustainable Business Objective Four: Enhance Member Resources
We have made significant progress against the goals tied to these objectives. I would like to take this opportunity to share some highlights of our accomplishments. I believe these highlights are best shared under the umbrella of our four key values.
Building a Thriving Community: at the intersection of helping businesses succeed and our community thrive.
Program Highlights
Networking Mixers
Everyone is excited about networking again, and we love to see it! Our Monthly Networking Mixers continue to have 150 - 200 attendees each month. A mix of both Associate Members and Business Members in attendance. We see time and time again, bringing our members together on a monthly basis fosters friendships and partnerships.
Yountville Mustard Celebration/NV Mustard Celebration
This was our second year participating in the NV Mustard Celebration, with the goal of driving visitation January - March.
As part of our support, we produced the 2nd Yountville Mustard Celebration. Featuring 8 wineries, mustard bites by Blossom Catering and art and gifts by Jessel Miller. Over 250 guests sold out the event.
Being Your Champion: we are a fierce champion for economic vitality in Yountville.
Driving Commerce: we a catalyst for business growth and strengthening our local economy.
A Trusted Resource
Over the last four years, the Yountville Chamber has embraced its role as a trusted resource for our businesses and residents.
We actively communicate with our businesses and get their feedback on critical issues such as water and power. Sharing data and insights with the Town of Yountville to work together on solutions for our community.
Supporting Workforce Development
This past year, we continued our efforts to support building a workforce pipeline here in Napa County. Including, recruiting dozens of employers for the Napa County Job Fair in
partnership with Napa Valley College. As well as connecting businesses with students for summer internship programs and mentorships.
Yountville Pride Celebrations
Our second annual Yountville Pride Celebrations take place Monday, June 17 - Sunday, June 23, culminating with Pride Music in the Park. This year, we have 17 events and 9
reoccurring offers! We have spent roughly $3,000 advertising this program. A big thank you to the Parks & Rec Dept. for your partnership on this program!
Promoting Yountville: we are proud to promote Yountville as the premiere small-town destination.
We are proud to partner with the Town of Yountville and the NVTID – Yountville to promote the destination of Yountville. Our marketing strategy is comprehensive, covering the following areas:
Yountville Welcome Center, Yountville.com, Social Media, Digital Marketing Advertising, Public Relations, Event Marketing as well as some radio and print advertising. Together, with our Marketing Taste of Yountville 2024
We were thrilled to bring back Taste of Yountville this year. A new format, focusing on Yountville wineries, taking place at Chandon on April 21, saw a near sell out! A total of 239 guests attended, 14 wineries poured and delicious food by Chandon.
We are currently in the early planning stages for 2025.
Yountville Visitor Guide
A new edition of our popular Yountville Visitor Guide is here! Available in print and digitally on our website yountville.com. A total of 11,000 copies will be distributed in Yountville and throughout Napa Valley. Featuring itineraries, member
highlights and our Yountville Map.
Destination Marketing Emails
This year, we committed to sending two destination marketing emails a month. Sending to a list of over 6,500 contacts with an average open rate of 46%! Additionally, we send dedicated member emails, focused on a specific business or offer. Those continue to be very popular, our recent email we sent for Bouchon Bastille Day had a 49% open rate and 11% click through rate!
Marketing Highlights
Committee, we create our yearly marketing strategy. The Marketing Committee also oversees the progress of our marketing goals. This committee meets every other month.
Yountville Welcome Center
The Yountville Welcome Center is the “front door” of Yountville. We currently have 33 volunteers, who greet and help visitors, as well as chat with locals and their dogs! We are open seven days a week, Monday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Saturday/Sunday, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
From July 1, 2023 – May 30, 2024, we saw a total of 10,713 visitors, this is roughly 1,000 visitors less then the previous year. The Yountville Welcome Center features rack cards from our members, visitor information sheets, free magazines, Yountville maps, Napa Valley maps, Visit Napa Valley Guidebook and more. We work collaboratively with Visit Napa Valley and the other Welcome Centers in Napa County to ensure best practices and information. Pictured directly below, Yountville Welcome Center Volunteers at Sterling Vineyards in Spring 2024.
Yountville Welcome Center Visitors by Month
YV Welcome Center Visitors
Jul. '23
Aug. '23
Sept. '23
Oct. '23
Nov. '23
Dec. '23
Jan. '24
Feb. '24
Mar. '24
Apr. '24
May '24
0 200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Yountville.com
Our destination focused website, Yountville.com serves as our home on the internet. All digital advertising and promotion goes back to this website. Yountville.com is designed to inspire and educate visitors about Yountville. The website contains member directory pages, featuring robust evergreen and search engine optimized content, events calendar, history of Yountville, our Get Inspired Blog, our virtual Yountville Welcome Center and beautiful photos of the destination.
Yountville.com saw 319,000 visitors over the past year. A 64% increase over last year during the same time! We attribute this continued traffic growth to our YEAR ROUND digital advertising campaign, the first time we have been able to do this. Additionally, you see a large spike in visitation during November and December, this is during our Holidays in Yountville campaign. When we are spending over $10,000 dollars advertising Holidays in Yountville. The top states to visit Yountville.com:
California, Washington, Oregon, Texas, New York.
Yountville.com Visitors by Month
Yountville.com Visitors
Jul. '23
Aug. '23
Sept. '23
Oct. '23
Nov. '23
Dec. '23
Jan. '24
Feb. '24
Mar. '24
Apr. '24
May '24
0 10000
20000
30000
40000
Yountville.com Sessions by Marketing Chanel
YountvilleChamber.com
Our award winning website YountvilleChamber.com serves as the one stop shop for all things Yountville Chamber for our members and community. Featuring business spotlights via our Blog, member resources, overview of chamber programs, community event calendar, and more. We are still growing our audience for this website, it is not nearly as popular as yountville.com. We do not spend any money marketing this website, over the last year, we saw a 12% decline in visitation. A total of 10,757 unique visitors to YountvilleChamber.com in the last year. An opportunity for us to improve during the next fiscal year.
YountvilleChamber.com Visitors by Month
Organic Search
44.8%
Paid Search
17.1%
Direct
16.6%
Organic Social
15.4%
Display
3.9%
YountvilleChamber.com Visitation
Jul. '23
Aug. '23
Sept. '23
Oct. '23
Nov. '23
Dec. '23
Jan. '24
Feb. '24
Mar. '24
Apr. '24
May '24
0 200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
Social Media
Social Media continues to be a critical piece of our destination marketing strategy. Many visitors still seek out social media for inspiration when planning their trip, and of course, sharing their trip when in market. We focus on four channels: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok. The Marketing Committee sets the Social Media strategy, that directs our daily content posting.
Our Social Media Strategy has three objectives: 1) Member Content; 2) Driving traffic to Yountville.com; 3) Establishing Yountville social channels as experts on “all things” Yountville.
Our overall audience reach grew by 56% over the previous year, from 60,801 to 95,099 people. We have increased the quantity of posts shared by 80% over last year, including our story content on Instagram. By engaging our audience in bite-sized formats via stories, we are keeping the algorithm happy. Total number of impressions across all channels has increased by 3.5%, from 17,433,154 to 18,041,887.
Facebook Followers: 64,712
Instagram Followers: 30,543
Pinterest Followers: 273
TikTok Followers: 1,109
Results of Special Marketing Campaigns Through Facebook/Instagram Please be sure to follow us at:
Facebook: @ExploreYountville | Instagram: @YountvilleCA | Pinterest: @YountvilleCA | TikTok: @ExploreYountville Campaign Date Range Reach Impressions Money Spent
Holidays in YV Nov - Dec ‘23 190,960 508,143 $3,000
Mustard Season Jan - Mar ‘24 182,049 439,461 $2,000
YV Short Film Fest. Jan - Feb ‘24 112,300 290,035 $1,000 Taste of YV Mar - Apr ‘24 58,338 131,372 $1,000
Art, Sip & Stroll Apr - May ‘24 173,398 447,250 $2,000
Digital Marketing Advertising Campaign
This year we entered into the seventh year of our Digital Marketing Advertising Campaign. The objective of this campaign was to implement a multi-channel, paid advertising plan to generate awareness of Yountville and increase visitation. Additionally, we added a new component this year, driving direct bookings through Expeida.com from October 20, 2023 - March 31, 2024, our investment was matched by Visit California and Expeida.com.
Our target audience for our Digital Marketing Advertising Campaign was focused primarily on the Bay Area and Sacramento region, ranging in age from 25 – 54 years old with a household medium income of $150,000 dollars plus.
In partnership with the NTVID – Yountville, we spent $200,000 dollars from July 31 2023 – June 30, 2024. This is the first time we have allocated enough budget to run a digital advertising campaign year round. This is a big step for Yountville, no other destination is doing this in Napa Valley, with the exception of Visit Napa Valley. Our campaign has run across the following platforms: YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, Google Search, Expedia.
Our Digital Campaign has Outperformed Engagement and Conversion Goals (data through April 2024)
Success Metrics: Exceeded Targets for Expedia.com, $259,000 dollars, 364 nights, in Yountville hotel bookings.
Digital Reach: 13.5+ million impressions, an 11% increase YoY.
Search Performance: Google Search achieved high Click-Through-Rate at 13%.
Awareness: 1+ million views on YouTube, indicating strong message reception.
Engagement: Facebook/Instagram leading in site visits, producing 16,000+ website sessions.
Conversion: The Expedia campaign yielded a 5.03 times the return on ad spend.
Public Relations
We continue to retain Fuller & Sander Communications to manage Public Relations for the destination. Fuller & Sander oversee Familiarization (FAM) Tours as part of their contract, generate press releases for upcoming events and field all incoming press inquiries about the destination.
Fuller & Sander Communications coordinated a total of 26 Familiarization Tours and hosting the Public Relations Global Network Organization Luncheon including 50 PR professionals from across the US. The following publications were represented: Bon Appetit, Sunset Magazine, SF Chronicle, City Style and Living Magazine and more. A total of over 571,910,381 million impressions were generated through Fuller & Sander Public Relations efforts. Directly below is a list of the top five publications Yountville and Yountville businesses were featured in over the past year.
Holidays in Yountville
Holidays in Yountville took place from November 19, 2023 – January 1, 2024, and featured six weeks of holiday fun. This year’s program offered a calendar of events, the Holiday Gift Guide, opportunities to give back to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Valley, Wreaths Across America, and more. The goal of Holidays in Yountville was to heavily promote the destination and drive commerce to our businesses during the holiday season.
We kicked off Holidays in Yountville with our annual Yountville Town & Tree Lighting. Over 700 people came out to begin the holiday season. Donating dozens of toys to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Publication Name Story - Hyperlinked Unique Monthly Views The Mercury News NV Weekend: Wineries, Eateries and Shopping in Yountville
30,734,599
Cowboys & Indians
Mag.
What’s Hot in Yountville, CA 2,933,700
Associated Press Spectacular Fields of Yellow Mustard in NorCal Wine Country
18,271,290
KGO/ABC 7 Yountville in NV Provides Travelers with Activities Galore
5,517,038
United Airlines
Hemispheres
These Four Napa and Sonoma Spots Pair Wine with
Breakfast
12,227,190
Valley and enjoying a sensational performance by Transcendence Theater Company. A big thank you to the Town of Yountville Parks & Rec Department for helping us pull off this very fun event.
Over 65 businesses participated in Holidays in Yountville this year. A total of 270 events were posted on our holiday calendar. A total of 66 gifts were featured in the holiday gift guide. A total of 820 wreaths were placed at the Yountville Veterans Home Cemetery on National Wreaths Across America day, the most we have ever placed.
We heavily marketed Holidays in Yountville, spending over $10,000 dollars, generating substantial exposure for Yountville and our businesses. We used the following channels to market the event:
Facebook Ads; Google Display Network; Print Advertising; PR efforts; Radio Ads with KVON & the Vine and banners in the town of Yountville. Non-paid efforts included promotion with Visit Napa Valley, email blasts through our customer database and listings on our website.
Best performing Marketing efforts for Holidays in Yountville:
Google Display Network Ads: 919,000 impressions.
Facebook/Instagram Ads: 190,000 Impressions
Visits to Holidays in Yountville webpage: 38,000 unique visits Email Campaign: 72,000 people emailed, average open rate of 44% over 11 emails.
As we embark on our new fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2024, our Board of Directors has approved our new three year Strategic Plan. Over the next three years, the overarching objectives of this plan will remain the same. Each year, the strategies and tactics will change depending on the priorities of the chamber and our community. Our objectives for the next three years are:
Objective 1: Focus on Visitor Promotion and Engagement to Foster Positive Economic Impact for Yountville & Surrounding Community
Objective 2: Connecting, Convening and Collaborating
Objective 3: Run an Effective, Sustainable and Engaging Chamber Objective 4: Enhance Member Resources
The Yountville Chamber of Commerce is grateful for the opportunity to serve as the destination marketing organization for the Town of Yountville and the NVTID – Yountville. We are a small but mighty team of staff and volunteers truly dedicated to promoting our town to ensure economic vitality in Yountville. Through this economic vitality we experience a high quality of life many aspire to enjoy.
We look forward to the coming year ahead and our partnership with the Town of Yountville and the NVTID – Yountville. We thank you for your continued support and engagement with us to fulfill our mission of enriching the vibrancy of our community.
For more information about the Yountville Chamber of Commerce, you can visit our website at YountvilleChamber.com or contact us at [email protected] or at (707) 944-0904.
Conclusion, What’s Next?