“We keep being told about fixes for the ski resort industry, but they never quite seem to work,” says Pat O’Donnell, president of Aspen Skiing Company. “The one big success in winter sports in the last 10 years has been snowboarding. But at this year’s Ski Industry Week there was almost no one from the snowboard industry at the conference. Surely as area operators, we have something to learn from them.”
O’Donnell is correct in saying there is little formal contact on an industry-wide level between the ski area industry and the manufacturing industry. However, a trend that is emerging are smaller partnerships between individual ski areas and manufacturers that are benefitting not only the companies involved, but the guests as well.
A quick glance at virtually any large ski resort offers plenty of evidence of the active relationships with major wintersports brands. Test and demo centers, uniforms, instruction centers, terrain parks all seem to have a manufacturing brand or logo stamped prominently on them.
Behind the public face of the events and test centers, the biggest of these tie-ins are essentially driven by retail.
The recent opening of an ACG Nike store at the Canyons in Utah is the most visible part of an extensive system-wide deal between ACG and the American Ski Company (ASC). ASC now holds a license to sell ACG products through ACG-themed stores that are owned by ASC. Another store is scheduled for next year at Heavenly in California to go with the smaller concept stores at Killington and Mount Snow in Vermont.
Within the deal, ACG produces uniforms for all ASC mountain staff, which, although tweaked for durability, are basically the same as the ones available for sale to the public at base village stores. ACG is also given sponsorship positions in halfpipes and terrain parks and is involved in various events.
“It’s a partnership based on the cash register,” says ASC Marketing Director Skip King. “If the product sells at retail, then for us the deal is working. There is no percentage fee, no promotional fee. It’s simply that they get distribution within their own dedicated showcase environment and we get a good product to sell and both parties are working to stoke the process.”
As if to emphasize that this tie-in is retail and goes only as far as is mutually beneficial, ACG is moving forward in a similar way with Intrawest, which will extend to an ACG shop-within-a-shop concept at their Mountain Adventure stores. There will also be a freestanding ACG store at Banff, Alberta, which has no ski area tie-in.
“There is nothing exclusive in these deals,” says ACG Marketing Director Bobbie Parisi. “Uniform programs put our product on influencers and our goal is for the consumer to see them and then go and check them out at one of ASC’s ACG stores, or anywhere else they are sold. But the millions of impressions we get are very valuable in the wider retail sense and in pushing brand.”
Similar deals often include an element of POP collateral and cooperative advertising dollars. “I would be doing this with my independent retailers too,” says Robyn Hasson, marketing director of Boeri, the official helmet of ASC and sponsor of their Perfect Turns instructional program. But the essence of the relationship with ASC is one of wholesale/retail. Most brands look for this sort of deal in preference to straight cash outlay.
For example, Ron Steele, west coast sales manager for Rossignol, has numerous retail, rental and instructional tie-ins with ski areas throughout his territory, but believes the only instance where he pays straight cash for exposure is for his demo center at the top of Chair Four at Vail.
However, cash-based deals are out there. The tie-in between Vans and Mountain High resort is one example.
“Vans makes a cash donation plus some product, which goes to sponsor our Faultline Terrain Park,” says Marketing Director Brad Wilson. “In exchange, Vans gets banner placements, logos on our trail maps and sponsorship of year-round events, from the snowboard Triple Crown to BMX events. The numbers are based on the value of the exposure for them and are assessed pretty much as an advertising buy would be.”
This direct brand exposure is worth a lot to Vans in Mountain High’s specific market, which is both close to Los Angeles and also more than 80 percent snowboarders, two of the key demographics for Van’s snow and street products.
But some brands shun both impressions or retail tie-ins.
“We don’t sponsor halfpipes often because we aren’t into creating impressions and don’t just slap our name on someone else’s work,” says Burton’s marketing director, Dave Schriber. “And we don’t do themed retailing because we don’t like being put on a pedestal. As a snowboard brand, we are not in the same business as ski areas that have to sell recreation and deal with people-carrying. We are simply about the actual on-snow experience. So we look for situations that deliver an experiential relationship with the consumer. For that reason our Burton Method Centers are the cornerstone of our resort marketing. What better way to introduce a product than to teach someone to snowboard on it?
“The other key element,” says Schriber, “is to make sure ski resorts are focused on improving the experience for snowboarders, not just selling more tickets. A resort like Brighton in Utah, that is endlessly thinking of ways to make things better for their existing customer base, is the sort of area we will always be interested in.”
However, for many brands, resort marketing is a balance between experience and impressions. “We need an image, but you have to use the product to validate it,” says Hassen. At Jackson Hole, Boeri not only provides helmets to drive retail and brand image, but also offers numerous demos, is involved with the resort’s safety awareness program and is part of the local fifth-grade passport program. They also staged a promotion with RSN in which anyone entering through the Boeri/RSN Web page could enter a drawing for a prize of a week at Jackson Hole for themselves and six friends, riding with an assortment of professionals. More than 30,000 people entered.
“You really need the full circle of cross-marketing, from demos to direct mail, to make it all work,” says Hassen. Jackson Hole is on the aggressive end of the scale when it comes to brand relationship ties-ins. They have a Burton Method Center, a uniform and retail tie-in with Marmot, the Boeri relationship and regular tie-ins with Rossignol and K2.
“But the reality,” says Jackson Hole’s Keri Cooper, VP marketing, “is the winter sports manufacturing industry is so small in dollar terms that our non-industry corporate tie-ins involve far more sophisticated deals. Not only can they write bigger checks, but a sponsor like Chevy can work its database in ways that tap into markets far beyond the scope of the winter sports industry.”
Brad Wilson of Mountain High agrees. “We have a tie-in with a local supermarket chain that sells discounted tickets. They are probably responsible for putting 100,000 on the mountain each season and that includes 25,000 beginners.”
However, not all industry players find dealing with ski areas easy going. “Everything at a ski area is very compartmentalized, so internal communication is slow and involves huge numbers of people,” says Robyn Hasson.
Dave Schriber adds: “Just when you seem to have developed a relationship with a department, either the staff changes or the department is folded into another one so you have to start over. And with the Method Centers it’s hard to get old-thinking areas to grasp that by eradicating the snowboard school as a profit center they are, in fact, increasing the overall pie and the experience for everyone.”
While deals that involve system-wide tie-ins with ASC or Intrawest or ACG and Burton suggest the clear advantage of being a mega-winter sports brand, there is still room for the little guy to leap in and gain some local exposure in specific situations.
Park City, for example, was having trouble attracting boarders to its Friday Night Jam halfpipe event scheduled five times this season. Meanwhile, Thomas Cooke, local rep for Nitro, a medium-sized snowboard brand, was trying to get a pass for himself and local team riders. Within a few hours, a deal was struck. Nitro would donate some boards (left over from a joint promo with hard rock band Limp Bizkit), some t-shirts and would bring their local riders up to the pipe each Friday. In exchange, they got title to the event and a big logo on the warming hut at the top of the pipe. Plus the passes.
“This is a great deal,” says Cooke. “Do you know how hard it is for local sales guys like me with zero resources to get this sort of targeted on-mountain exposure?”
Whether on a small or large scale, cross promotion will only become more prevalent as both resorts and manufacturers look for ways to maximize their exposure and marketing dollars. While the industry has failed in the past to come together at the top for industry-wide initiatives, perhaps this trend, starting at the individual level, will end up joining the two sides, despite themselves. And, it might simplify our message to the consumer.
