[Best & worst ads: Snowboard media]

Big cats, lucky ladies top 2009 list

Katie Bailey

SAM Magazine

The usual suspects* are back this year with a flurry of new campaigns to titillate and inspire legions of snowboarders to head to their slopes. There was some really good stuff this year and we’re stoked that these resorts have not only continued their commitment to putting out good advertising, but to the industry’s magazines as well. So here you go, the best of 2009, in all their glory.

Best overall creative
“More jibs, more jumps, more fun” – Bear Mountain, CA
Taking back its crown for best print campaign is Bear Mountain. Not only did these ads have the best creative, they had the best copy writing too, a killer one-two punch. My favourite ad of the year is from this campaign: a two page spread with a picture of a bobcat baring its teeth and Bear team rider Simon Chamberlain nearby, his arm torn off and laying bloody beside him. The copy: “One dozen cats unleashed nightly.” Love it!! The other ads, featuring other team riders, were equally as good, each explaining an aspect of resort operations in a shockingly normal non-marketing speak. Way to go, Bear, you really nailed it this year.

Most innovative
“What’s your good day?” – Northstar-at-Tahoe, CA
Northstar continued its push towards innovation in print advertising this year with a cool, three-page-spread campaign focusing on its pro riders. The campaign featured personal stories from their riders about their “best day” at the mountain, a trail map showing where the pros like to ride, and a fold-out, two-page photo of the rider. Readers are invited to go to the website, tell the rider their “best day out” and win a chance to ride with that rider and win his gear. Nice drive-to-web, and a good showcase of just how much Northstar supports its pro team with on-hill events and filming and photo opportunities.

Best eco-ad
“Save our snow” – Aspen Snowmass, CO
This campaign really came into its own this year and delivered the message with youth audience-appropriate creativity and execution. This isn’t the kind of message you shove down this audience’s throats, and I think they delivered it masterfully. Each ad features a stylized photo of an aspect of operations (in this case snowmaking) and some well-written copy explaining it. I like both the “Our business isn’t perfect” angle (kids are pretty quick to point out hypocrisy) and the photo caption, which I think all you resort folks will like too: “Frank White, our snowmaking manager, has got skills—like mad fixing-huge-dangerous-fiery-hot-power-plant skills.”

Best concept of an age-old question
“Two women want you. Neither is willing to share” – Heavenly, Lake Tahoe, CA.
Sure, this campaign is a little cheesy, but I liked it. A little bit of sexy girl innuendo certainly never bothered the largely male readership of snowboard magazines and the ads broke down my icy wall of cynicism. The concept was “Mother Nature vs. Lady Luck” and how each vies for your attention on vacation. Lady Luck is the siren, Mother Nature, obviously, the mountain. This is the age-old question of the big-mountain vacation (“Should I have one more?”) and I liked how they executed the concept. I think the copy writing saves it from eye-rolling-dom. It’s well written, just cheesy/silly enough, but doesn’t go over the top.

Best illustration
“This park ain’t no fairy tale” – Mountain High, CA
I don’t really have a highbrow explanation of why I like this ad, other than I like the fact that it has Pinocchio, castles and a mouse in a top hat in it. And I liked the way it was drawn. And I liked the terrain-park-as-Disneyland concept (I certainly would rather go to a terrain park than Disneyland). And I liked how eye catching it was with a simple color palate and giant font. Yep, I liked it.

Least creative
“Re-discover Cypress”— Cypress Mountain, BC
Now, in these tough times, it doesn’t feel right to poop on bad ads but this ad is pretty lame. There’s nothing technically wrong with it but the photo is of a dorky-looking rider, the copy isn’t great and the overall creative is boring. This is the 2010 Olympic snowboard venue! The advertising opportunity of a lifetime! What about the glory? The excitement? The new 22-foot pipe soon to be filled with glamorous pros? Unfortunately, according to this ad, the most important attributes of this resort are its six chairlifts, a local contest series, and the subtle indication people haven’t been discovering Cypress lately.

A wee bit underwhelming: Mammoth’s campaign was a bit underwhelming this year, maybe a bit too dark and arty to really capture your attention as you flip through a magazine. And Park City has been running with the same concept for a few years now and it’s gotten a bit stale. Probably time to switch this one up.

There you have it. It was a good year for creativity and, personally speaking, this year’s Bear campaign goes into my all-time top three for sheer awesomeness.

*Yes, I realize almost all of these resorts are in California. That was an accident, but in no way a coincidence, given the density of the Californian market.

On The Bay magazine

2009 Winter issue

An inside look at the people and professions of Southern Georgian Bay’s ski resort community.

Read it here.

“There’s a lift attendant at Blue Mountain who does his job so well that I know that day will be a good day when he’s on duty. I’ll see him as we near the front of the usually packed lineup for the lift, directing traffic in a pleasurable, professional manner, making sure each six-person chair is filled to its capacity and no empty seat is left behind….”

As can be seen by my recent posts, my boyfriend and I just returned from a week-long vacation in British Columbia on a snowboarding trip. The weather was amazing and almost every waitress we had was very nice, but outside of that, the service we experienced was quite often terrible, which I thought was weird, given the current economic climate.

Air Canada was the first offender, which is especially awesome since Canadian airlines are expected to experience an 86% profit loss this year. We arrived at the airport, checked in at a kiosk, printed our bag tags, and went to line up at the main counter. Before we could reach it, an Air Canada employee rudely re-directed us to a single counter across the lane. It was because we had oversize bags, she said. We questioned this, since Matt flew with a board only two weeks ago and it wasn’t an issue, but she quickly barked, “Trust me. I’ve been working here for 20 years. You go over there.” There was only one counter open and a huge line, which got bigger by the second. It was February, ski season, and everyone had oversize luggage. So we had to wait half an hour in line to check our bags (only to be told it didn’t matter that our bags were oversized because they were pre-registered) while the six check-in counters across the lane were almost empty.  Nice way to treat your winter travelers, Air Canada. Glad to see that Canada’s ski-resort tourism business is so important to you.

Hotel staff (off resort) were just as bad.  One receptionist rolled her eyes when we asked directions to the ski hill. Rolled her eyes! And at one of the ski hills, a lift attendant yelled at us because we boarded an empty gondola while he was busy chatting with his bros instead of doing his job. I know you don’t get paid much, resort staffers, but we’re paying up to $75 a day to be there, so we expect civility in return.

Now, I don’t expect to get a medal becuase we went on vacation, but this is a recession and Canadian tourism is down. And we were out spending money. So how ’bout treating the customers you do have with care? And while I’m at it, BC should get off the ‘Toronto sucks’ train. As one woman put it when a Golden store clerk commented that we (Torontonians) “invade” BC: We spend money. Lots of it. I don’t see much of a point of running a business in a tourism town if you only want BC residents to come to it. Good luck with that.

Photo: Flickr

Just  got back from an epic trip to Revelstoke Mountain Resort in BC (and yes, I know the meaning of the word epic and I use it here in all its glory). After almost a month of no new snow at the resort (or anywhere in BC for that matter), our arrival coincided with a 10-cm dump the first day, 15 cm the second and a whopping 30 cm on the third. It was the kind of riding people pay $800 a day to cat boarding opeations for — incredible. The mountain is massive, featuring the most vertical in North America, and the tree riding is amazing. We rode natural gullys, tight trees, loose trees, and cat tracks to more trees — and that was just the accessible stuff. The locals were going crazy on the 30-cm days, dropping chutes and lines they had probably been waiting all season for. If you get a chance to head out west for a ski vacation, definitely check this resort out. It’s still pretty mellow, and it’s a neat time to catch it before it becomes a big destination resort.

I’m working on a pretty cool project right now for SAM magazine: profiling the Top 10 people under 30 years old in the ski resort industry today, as nominated by their peers (and bosses). While the names must remain secret until the article is published, we’ve put together a pretty banger list so far, including a 25-year-old young man who actually owns a ski resort. That’s crazy! I can barely afford to buy lift tickets at resorts these days.

While I’m often envious of really successful people my own age (not a virtue, I know), I’m not finding it’s particularly so with ski resort people. I’m just stoked they’re contributing to their resorts in a meaningful way at such a young age — ski resorts, like every other industry, are often top-heavy with “the old guard,” and this can sometimes be accompanied by a resistance to change. Terrain parks are a particularly potent example of this. But as the boomers age and move out of the industry, these are the people that are going to be running the show in years to come. And so far, it looks pretty good.

In other SAM news:

The November issue is out now (above) and in it, my annual profile of terrain park trends. Read it here.

-KB

Ski Area Management Magazine (September 2008)

Little Green Giants

by Katie Bailey

It’s not easy being green, especially when you’re little. Search “sustainable” and “ski” on the Internet and you find a wide selection of celebratory articles on what the Aspens and Whistlers of the world are doing to green their operations, but not a lot about what it’s like to be a small ski area pursuing an environmental agenda on a budget.

Read the whole story on SAM’s website: www.saminfo.com