NSAA has declared this the era of trial and conversion. Well, this winter, there are two events that will further that goal. One is the second coming of the national Learn a Snow Sport Month (LASSM) promotion in January. The other is the 2010 Winter Olympics. LASSM is designed to get existing skiers and riders to bring their never-ever friends. The Olympics proves especially inspiring to ethnic viewers. That makes this winter doubly promising.

Both LASSM and the Olympics work because each, in its way, overcomes the inertia that keeps non-participants from participating and introduces them to the fun and excitement of sliding on snow. All you have to do is harness all that energy and assistance by putting newcomers into beginner programs that already exist.


LEARN A SNOW SPORT
Entering its second year, LASSM is poised to do big numbers. Its call—“rally around the Model for Growth”—drew participation from 23 states last year, and led to at least 22,000 trials.

Already, 25 states are on board for 2010, and that number could grow if resorts in California, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, and several Eastern states without state associations sign on. Any ski area is invited to get involved.

Mastermind and founder Raelene Davis of Ski Utah points to several other signs that this year will be big. Biggest of these is simply that the group is far more organized than last year, and has more tools to work with. An earlier start to the promotional push should result in greater numbers of newcomers.

Last year, participating resorts simply promoted one of their usual beginner packages during January. A few offered special discounts; Pennsylvania areas chopped $5 off the usual price. This year, Davis is encouraging all participating resorts to offer some sort of incentive discount or value-add. “Offer something that’s special for January,” she says. “You will get more people to take advantage of the offer and advance the initiative further that way.” Most of Utah’s participating resorts are offering the “Lucky 13,” a $39 package of lifts, lessons, and rentals. Ski Utah is also encouraging resorts to offer a discount for a three-day program.

The publicity effort is being ramped up, too. Several publications and websites are donating complimentary ad pages in December and January, including Ski, Skiing, Powder, Snowboarder, Ski Press, and Mountain Sports + Living. Davis hopes to add Snowboard, Freeskier and Transworld Snowboarding, along with Outside, Backpacker, Cross Country Skier and SnoTrax. Other broader possibilities range from USA Today’s Open Air (winter edition) to Family Circle, Parenting, O Magazine, and Men’s Journal.

To make it easy for resorts to do their own promotion, LASSM has developed an extensive “Tool Kit” to help with the nitty-gritty of implementation (see box for details).

The message is simple: winter is fun, get out and enjoy it. The ads direct never-evers to LearnASnowSport.org to find deals, participating areas, and more information.

To further boost visibility, several state associations are securing Governor’s Proclamations naming January Learn a Snow Sport Month. LASSM is also trying to arrange a proclamation from President Obama. (If anyone reading this has any connections . . .)

The web is another major focus. SIA’s WinterFeelsGood.com continues to host the LASSM site (the LearnASnowSport. org landing page redirects to WinterFeelsGood.com), which already provides a wealth of information for newcomers. The site also includes a media button for “Learn a Snow Sport” so that media types can easily assemble coverage of the promotion. And resorts can post info on the event on their own websites.

A Facebook page and Twitter account will serve the cause. Erica Kelleher of Snow Monsters is helping advance the initiative on social networks. State associations and individual resorts can link to the page/account and use social networks to spread the word. There will also be a YouTube channel for Learn a Snow Sport Month and Winter Feels Good so that resorts and first-time skiers and riders can share their videos of learning a snow sport.

Last but not least, the group hopes to get suppliers and retailers involved in the effort to gain awareness of the program. Suppliers could place a LASSM button on their websites with a link to LearnA­SnowSport.org. Shops would be great information-distribution partners and could make special offers to LASSM participants. They, too, can use Tool Kit promotional tools.

All in all, LASSM presents a significant opportunity to reach out and bring in new customers.


THE OLYMPIC OPPORTUNITY
The Winter Olympics Feb. 12-28 serves an entirely different purpose. As SAM reported a year ago (“The Olympic Bump,” July 2008), the Olympics draw a TV audience as large as NFL football and nearly as avid as NASCAR. With the Games in B.C., many events will be televised during weekend prime time sports viewing hours. The Olympics provide much greater awareness of our sports than any promotional campaign ever could, and generates unspeakable enthusiasm for a brief period of time. The challenge is to turn that spike into a long-term love affair with winter.

To lure the excited masses, SAM spearheaded an effort to launch a national promotion timed to the Olympics. We began in summer 2008 and received enthusiastic support from the dozens of resorts and associations we spoke to. They were willing to offer 100 free learn-to lesson packages—one of their existing learn-to programs—to a national sponsor, in return for promotion of the deal, from the mid-February start of the Games into April. We even had full support from SIA to help build out the promotion with gear and a retail element. We made very promising inroads with a couple of Olympic sponsors and a national broadcasting company—all were genuinely excited about the potential for such a program. Alas, the recession pinched promotion budgets and sponsors were not able to come up with the necessary funding. We are still working on it, but time is running short.

In the absence of a national program, resorts can execute this plan on a local level. We hope many of you will do so. Talk to your local TV, radio, and newspapers. Take some of those free lesson packages and distribute them through these outlets. A local station might give away one or more packages a day throughout the 16 days of competition. Advertise adjacent to Olympic coverage on TV and in the newspaper. Give newbies a deal.

Partner with ethnic radio and TV stations in particular. Ethnic populations respond most strongly to the Olympics on TV (more on this below), and this provides a great chance to invite ethnic audiences to the mountains. You can also promote jointly with local ski and snowboard shops, much as with LASSM. In fact, many of the informational elements of LASSM could simply be applied to a February promotion as well.

The potential in such a program is huge. In “The Olympic Bump,” Leisure Trends president Jim Spring described research conducted after the last Olympics in North America (2002 in Salt Lake City), in which Leisure Trends and Gallup found that watching the Olympics stimulated 8.3 million non-participants to show great interest in trying either skiing (especially those age 25 and over) or snowboarding (ages 16 to 24). The 8.3 million includes only the most likely candidates of those who said they were interested or very interested—that number was 23 million.

Ethnic populations showed the highest enthusiasm levels: 32 percent of Hispanics, 24 percent of African Americans, and 57 percent of Asian Americans expressed a keen interest in one or more of the Olympic downhill sports. Only 17 percent of Caucasians did so (though they still account for the greatest numbers). The Olympics is clearly the vehicle to reach ethnic populations that have proved elusive in the past.

Resorts can easily help these highly interested folks overcome the usual obstacles they face. Never-evers say those obstacles are no access (22 percent), no time (20 percent), cost (16 percent), and travel (8 percent). These are same reasons committed participants give for not participating more often, and most can be overcome with information and an invitation.

As with LASSM, set up a section of your website to welcome never-evers. The media landscape has changed tremendously since 2002, or even 2006, and potential skiers and riders will turn to the web for information and direction. Make it easy for them to find the basic information that will answer their questions and reassure them they will be welcome and comfortable.

The Olympics provide a rare opportunity to gain visibility for winter sports. The masses are thoroughly attuned to skiing and riding for only a few weeks every four years. Get creative and turn our day in the spotlight into a stream of life-long customers. Enough with the fun and games—it’s time to put the Olympics to work!


THE TOOL KIT
The Learn a Snow Sport Month Tool Kit includes a variety of promotional materials to enable resorts to promote locally:
Logo
Banner ads in various sizes
Website button with LASSM logo
Frequently Asked Questions
Print ads
Social media tools
Sample press releases that can be modified as necessary
Health and fitness fact sheet
Link to Snow Monsters
Sample proclamation verbiage
Tips for successful execution
Poster
Spokesperson’s profile, contact info, how to use
Contact list of all participating resort associations, agencies and organizations