One thing everyone agrees on regarding public relations is that whether or not a ski area has outside PR counsel, it is necessary to have someone on site to answer telephone questions, welcome visiting press people and implement the communications portion of a crisis-management program should that be necessary.
“To be 100 percent effective—maybe 110 percent effective—you need both an agency and someone at the area,” said Kelley Davidson, manager of marketing at Copper Mountain, Colo.
But how many area managers believe they can afford both—or get enough out of both to make outside counsel cost-effective? Ski Area Management found only a handful of areas that presently have year-round outside public relations agencies, and the majority of these are Colorado destination resorts who have New York agencies: Copper Mountain has Lobsenz-Stevens, Keystone has Morris Silver and Steamboat has G.S. Schwartz. In addition, Jeff Blumenfeld & Associates has been retained by Ski the Summit in Colorado for three years. The cost of this effort is borne by resort interests in the county rather than by the three participating ski areas (only one of which, Breckenridge, does not have a New York agency), but it provides another voice speaking for Summit County to the media.
“Whether people realize it or not, and whether people like it or not, New York is the media mecca,” said Steamboat’s marketing vice president Kent Meyers. “Publishers, key broadcast executives and all sorts of other deal-makers all have some kind of New York office, so we feel that it is critical to have New York representation. Even logistically, we are 2,000 miles away and can’t put a photo in an envelope and get a messengs to Madison Avenue.”
Steamboat makes extensive use of the Schwartz team to set up and coordinate publicity tours for their spokesman, Billy Kidd, especially along the eastern seaboard. “When we have Billy on the road, his typical schedule includes a drive-time radio talk show, a morning newspaper interview, a noontime TV show and possibly an afternoon taping of a local evening sports show. To coordinate that from Steamboat Springs would be tough—if not impossible. The people at the PR agency know whom to call.”
Davidson of Copper Mountain said his resort had used Lobsenz-Stevens since its second season and that “they are an integral part of our marketing team.”
“There is give and take between us and Keystone,” said Pegi Adam, account supervisor in the Morris Silver shop. “Sometimes we steer Keystone in a particular direction, and sometimes they steer us. Our function is valuable because we are in touch with the media. The ski press knows Lillian Ross, who is Keystone’s communications director, but we are constantly in touch with other publications.”
The deal-makers that Steamboat’s Meyers mentioned include specialized promotional agencies, located mostly in New York but also in other big cities, with whom a public relations firm can make contact on behalf of a distant client. Jeff Blumenfeld also mentioned that PR agencies may have good ties with sweepstakes and barter agencies, which specialize in setting up radio in exchange for lift tickets or vacation givaway.
“If you have a week’s vacation to give away, for instance, an agency can help tie you in with a national promotion,” Blumenfeld said. “Ski the Summit is tying in with Sally Hansen Cosmetics’ ‘Great Looking Legs Sweepstakes.’ It is a summer promotion appearing as a full-page ad in the May 27 and July 7 issues of People and the July issue of Mademoiselle. One-third of that page has photos of three summer activities in Summit County plus descriptive copy. The grand prize is a one-week summer or winter vacation at a Summit County resort. The resorts are receiving millions of impressions from a full-page ad paid for by somebody else in exchange for a week’s vacation, and that deal was agency-set up.”
Even in New York, small and medium-size agencies seem most suitable for ski-area public relations, with agency principals and senior account people assigned to them. Lobsenz-Stevens with 60 employees is about the biggest, and they were handling Copper for years before they reached that size. Still, for a New York, Chicago or Los Angeles firm, a client must expect to pay $1,500 to $3,000 a month, plus expenses. In smaller cities, $750 to $1,500 a month is probably the minimum fee. “No agency can afford to work for less than $500 to $750 a month,” Blumenfeld said.
“We had a Duluth advertising and promotion agency for three years back in the mid-’70s,” said Paul Karo, general manager of Indianhead, Mich., “The problem was, they were 120 miles away and every time you picked up the phone, there was a charge. Now we handle everything in-house, even ads.”
At the other extreme is Frank Helm of Dodge Ridge, Calif., who finds All-Media Associates to be very successful in reaching his regional market.
“We feel a need for a public relations agency on the outside to help us get as much coverage as we can,” Helm said. “We’re a relatively small area—150,000 skier-days—and we are pretty much isolated in the mountains, four hours away from San Francisco. They’ve gotten some San Francisco TV stations to come up, but their biggest contribution is print coverage. We are now involved in an expansion. They’ll make sure we are noticed and are written about.”
Inauguration and expansion are two times when some areas who won’t always rely on outside public relations counsel may want to consider some. New York’s Steve Davis Public Relations handled Vernon Valley, N.J., in its early years and Bretton Woods, N.H., when it significantly increased its vertical and made other newsworthy improvements. Bretton Woods continued to use the agency for three years, but last year took over the PR functions in-house.
“It’s no reflection on the work the agency did for us,” said Steve Smith, vice president of advertising and communication at Bretton Woods, N.H. “But once things got rolling we thought we could handle it. A lot of public relations is grinding out releases and making contacts with writers.
“We also found that it was difficult working with an agency that was far away. We were always on the phone or using Federal Express which got expensive. We may be missing out a little in New York, but that’s not really our biggest market.”
Other area managers are lukewarm about the outside PR concept. Stan Judge of Wildcat, N.H., retained Parsons, Friedman & Central of Boston. He now says technology is phasing out the usefulness of outside counsel for day-to-day press relations for areas the size of his. “We ourselves are close to the media that is meaningful to us, and with computers, we can maintain accurate media lists ourselves. We will always use outside help for a stock sale or other projects, but we are just one of the few remaining pure ski areas and have no real estate, so our needs are not as varied.”
Steamboat’s management is convinced that a public-relations agency is good for them. “I would recommend everyone who can afford it to have one,” Kent Meyers concluded. “If the cost is comparable to another person on staff, it’s more than worth it. Like any other relationship, you get out what you put in.”
