Case Study for Agency
03-1014834-715

When we were hired by a Southern California ski area, newly purchased
by our client, they were unranked in the market share, had inferior
facilities, were located in a town with no overnight accommodations and
had a significantly lower advertising budget than its competitors.

Our challenge was to overcome all the negatives, establish a viable
marketing strategy, begin to build an image... and get skiers on the
mountain.

We had one advantage that we chose to exploit.. the ski area was close
to Los Angeles, on better roads, than our major competitors. “Mountain
skiing without mountain driving” became the focus of our advertising.

Our target audience was males 16-21 so radio was the clear media
choice. Also, it required far less production budget. We did a “donut”
of original rock music on front and back with our generic message, and
changed the middle as the weather changed or as we developed short term
promotions.

Radio was also receptive to trade but had a finite use for ski lift
tickets, so we developed a VIP Pass... good for a lift ticket, ski
rental, group lesson and lunch. The stations loved it as a client give
away and it tripled the value as a trade vehicle without hard cost to
the ski area. On smaller stations, we did 100% trade, which allowed us
to extend our marketing area and intensify our coverage. We also used
targeted, painted outdoor boards.

Inasmuch as our client was in a “sexy” business, promotion was another
clear way to increase our exposure and image the ski area. We made
deals to be on soda cans with a discount offer and to distribute
coupons in counter cards at major fats food chains and other
businesses. The owner was able to calculate the effectiveness by
counting coupon redemptions.

As the owner increased his lift capacity and snowmaking as our
awareness grew, we added television advertising and began three-way
promotions between television and radio stations and the ski area,
which created hug exposure at no additional costs.

We also upgraded the scale of our retail promotions. We developed a
relationship for the ski area with the major grocery chain in Southern
California. As part of this annual one month promotion, the grocery
chain actually tickets sold at a discount (and kept a fee) and heavily
advertised a two for one ticket promotion in major newspapers,
television and radio which virtually amounted to hundreds of thousand
of dollars in free newspaper and broadcast advertising with a very
strong message for the ski area.

A major broadcast promotion was negotiated with the leading automobile
dealership association which also featured the ski area in a major
flight of television and radio spots in exchange for tickets.

To create image, we created events which we “sold” to our major media
partners. The most successful created event was a 24 hour ski party
which we ran from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. At 4 AM there
were over 3,000 hardy skiers on the mountain and we generated over
100,000 in total profit to the ski area on that single night.

In summary, we established a viable advertising position for the
mountain and we never changed that. We used media to deliver our
message and, more importantly, to help us leverage our dollars and
build an image as “party mountain” to our audience.

The result... the ski area became 2 in skier days and, according to
competitive research, 1 in awareness. We were never able to beat 1
because of the overnight accommodation situation, but we always had a
target to shoot at. Was our success due to advertising, PR or
promotion?
YES!