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Marketing
NATIONAL MARKETING AWARD WINNERS
FOR 2017–18 & THEIR CREATIVE INITIATIVES

TO HELP GROW THE SPORT INDUSTRY’S
BEST

BY REBECCA W. AYERS, EDITOR 2 0 17– 2 0 18

SELLING THE SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING experience is no walk in the park. With fierce competition from other recreation
industries, a fickle Mother Nature, limitations on the budget, and changing and aging demographics, a lot of the pressure to
find new ways to engage and retain customers falls on the ski area marketing department.
Each year NSAA recognizes those ski areas that have exceptional marketing programs. Seven winners for 2017–18 were
announced at a special awards reception May 7 during the NSAA National Convention and Tradeshow in Marco Island, Fla.
The sponsor of the program was Inntopia, a leading innovator of advanced reservation software for the snowsports industry.
Judges for the awards were Michael Bisner, vice president of sales/East for Axess North America; Ryan Davis, art director
of Nemo Design; and Matt Neren, founder and partner at Cultivator Advertising & Design.
Here is a look at the winning programs.

BEST OVERALL MARKETING CAMPAIGN (500,000 or more visits)

SNOWBIRD SKI & SUMMER RESORT, UT
of Los Angeles: “Too advanced,” he complained.
“I’d heard Snowbird is a tough mountain, but
this is ridiculous . . . .”
Greg’s comments were juxtaposed with a
stunning photo of a guest ripping down a trail,
and the One-star (★☆☆☆☆) campaign
was born. Other grievances culled from Trip
Advisor, Facebook, and guest comment cards
(“Disappointed,” groused Elizabeth of Dallas,
Texas, at not finding more corduroy) were also
paired with corresponding shots of deep and
steep terrain.
Within 24 hours of going live, the campaign
was the number-one story on Reddit.com with a
million views, and soon after AdWeek named it
one of the year’s seven best print ads (along with
Reverse psychology isn’t typically used to sell the skiing and titans such as Toyota and McDonald’s).
snowboarding experience, but Snowbird’s “One-star” cam- Snowbird purchased dozens of keywords related to the
paign last season is changing the resort marketing depart- ad creative and drove paid search traffic to a ★☆☆☆☆
ment playbook. Snowbird built an entire print and digital landing page featuring the tagline “The most misunderstood
campaign based on negative reviews, and the response was ski resort in the world.” In-resort visuals ran on the resort’s
nothing short of amazing. TV channel, on gigantic video walls, and emblazoned mer-
The marketing focus for 2017–18 was to celebrate the chandise in the retail outlets.
qualities that resonate most with younger destination travel- The campaign crossed over to mass market appeal,
ers and core customers. Marketing Director Dave Amirault and went viral on a global scale as national and local media
and the resort’s ad agency had a stroke of brilliance: position requests poured in. It became Snowbird’s most popular
complaints about the challenging runs and light grooming social post ever. Most importantly, it established Snowbird as
touch as unapologetic endorsements of those characteristics. a badge of honor for employees, locals, and anyone else who
The inspiration came from a one-star review by “Greg” cherishes its distinctive qualities.

46 | NSAA JOURNAL | SUMMER 2018