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Growing the Sport
BRING A FRIEND 2015-2016
A Sure Thing for Ski Area Marketing
BY JOHN BRICE
AS SKI AREAS ACROSS North America finalize their marketing The 2015 Ambassador of the Year, Cindy Rust, brought
plans for winter 2015-16, a growing number of them will 27 beginners to first-time lessons at either Schweitzer
include the Bring A Friend program (BAF), a dynamic Mountain Resort, Idaho, or Mt. Spokane Ski and Snowboard
component of the seven-year-old Learn to Ski and Snowboard Park, Wash. Rust is a snowboarding high school science
(Month) initiative. The sole purpose of BAF is to incentivize teacher from Post Falls, Idaho.
existing skiers and snowboarders, even newbies, to bring
newcomers to a venue for LSS(M) beginner-lessons with The 2014 Ambassador of the Year was Scott Kolts,
professional instructors. of Dahlgren, Illinois. He brought 14 newcomers to Paoli
Peaks, Indiana, and one to Steamboat, Colo.—each for a
It’s not too late to create a BAF program if your ski area professionally-instructed beginner lesson.
does not have one. And most ski areas should have a BAF
program. As BAF enters its fifth year, this simple program can More Than Merely PR
stand out as one of very few sure things in ski area marketing.
BAF and its Ambassador programs are needed to maintain
“Industry research indicates that most newcomers and grow participation levels in skiing and snowboarding.
get started at the urging of a friend or family member,” While NSAA reports that skier visits remain relatively
explained Mary Jo Tarallo, executive director of the healthy at 56.5 million for the 2013-14 season, the number
LSS(M)/BAF program. Related, it is widely accepted in the of participants is somewhat stagnant among both skiers
industry that beginners who take lessons from professionals, and snowboarders.
rather than from friends or family, are much more likely to
stick with snowsports. Many industry experts say an aging customer base at
least partially explains the dwindling numbers. A report from
By formalizing a program that incentives current skiers NSAA, “Forging a Positive Future,” finds that “The pre-boom
and snowboarders to bring new people to professional and Baby Boomer generations continue to exit the sport in
lessons, BAF is energizing what’s already going on at ski large numbers and will be gone almost entirely in 10 seasons.”
areas. For example, at Pennsylvania’s Shawnee Mountain, This reports also finds that “First Timers and Beginners as
everyone who brought a friend for a first-time lesson received a Percent of Total U.S. Participants” is in decline, from 33.3
50 percent off their own lift ticket. In Central Michigan, percent in 2006-07 to 26.6 percent in 2012-13.
Snow Snake resort’s BAF participants got a discounted rate
on Super Bowl Sunday. Some areas have offered free lift BAF can be instrumental in growing the sport with
tickets to those bringing a friend for a professional lesson, younger generations, including Generation Z. This group,
including Massachusetts’ Wachusett Mountain, Vermont’s born in 1995 or later, makes up the largest population
Killington resort, and Maine’s Sunday River. demographic at 25.9 percent. Of course the millennial
generation (those born roughly between 1980 and 1994), is
Tapping into the potential of season pass-holders also now bigger than the Baby Boomer generation.
bringing first-timers to the slopes, Sunday River gives them
complimentary one-day skiing or snowboarding lesson BAF is one of the most important things we’ve ever
packages they can pass along to a friend or family member. done, said NSAA President Michael Berry. “We need to keep
This is among Sunday River’s most popular BAF incentives. bringing people to ski and snowboard, mentoring them, and
encouraging them to try it again and again. We need to keep
While BAF incentives vary, all participating ski areas paying it forward for all this sport has done for us,” said Berry
benefit from the Bring a Friend Challenge contest. Anyone at the October 2014 PSIA-AASI Director’s Conference.
who brings newcomers to a ski area for a beginner lesson
is considered a “snowsports ambassador” and can register Warren Miller Entertainment is so impressed with the
online for the Challenge. The Challenge offers great prizes LSS(M)/BAF efforts that the programs are now featured
as incentives including gear from Head, The North Face, annually as part of introducing the iconic films.
Burton, Seirus, and others.
Raelene Davis, chair of the LSS(M)/BAF Task Force
and marketing vice president for Ski Utah, echoes the
54 | NSAA JOURNAL | FALL 2015
