Page 46 - Winter 2018 Journal

Olympics and wanted to find a starting point,” she said. “We
are hoping to work with NBC again this year on their new
platform, SportsEngine.com.” (Read about SportsEngine.
com in the Early Winter issue, pg. 56).
The LSSM team also has partnered with Olympians
like snowboarder Kelly Clark, a 2002 gold medalist and
2010 bronze medalist who is an official LSSM ambassador.
“Kelly in particular has done quite a bit in the past to help us
through her social media channels—she’s been really sup-
portive,” Tarallo said.

he challenge for any ski area or organization looking to
T tap into the Olympics hype is that the Olympics and its
symbols are closely guarded trademarks. “You’re not allowed
to even use the word ‘Olympics,’ much less use the Olympic
rings logo or other symbols in conjunction with any kind of
promotion,” Tarallo said. “Instead, we encourage ski areas to
tap into local personalities, like former Olympians, and to do
things like host Olympics watch parties to help fuel the good
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at Killington. Photo by Reese Brown. buzz around these sports without directly trying to capitalize
on it around a specific promotion.”
Playing up local heroes can be a winning strategy—
growth in viewership from 2016, while viewership for the something Steamboat Resort and the town of Steamboat
Audi Birds of Prey event at Beaver Creek was up an astound- Springs, Colo., has been doing for years. On January 27, the
ing 58 percent.” resort and town will hold the Olympian Sendoff, a quadren-
While McCloskey said that NBC doesn’t project view- nial tradition rooted in hometown pride. The 105-year old
ership for the upcoming Olympics, the network averaged Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club boasts that it has
an impressive 21.4 million viewers for its nightly primetime produced a record 89 Olympians and counting.
broadcasts from Sochi in 2014. Further, the broadcasts from “Steamboat definitely ramps up our Olympic heritage
PyeongChang will include a record 18 nights of live prime- even more than usual in these Olympic years,” said Loryn
time alpine skiing. Kasten, Steamboat’s senior communications manager. (The
“Due to the time difference [14 hours ahead of Eastern resort maintains an Olympic history exhibit at its Thunder-
Time], this will be the most ‘live’ primetime Winter Olym- head Lodge at the top of the gondola in partnership with the
pics ever, as numerous sports, especially skiing, take place in town’s Tread of Pioneers Museum.) “The Olympic Sendoff is
the morning in PyeongChang,” he said. a community-wide celebration with all our past and present
Mary Jo Tarallo, executive director of the Learn to Ski & Olympians, with autograph signings, a historical video . . .
Snowboard program and the Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month the works. We also light a big cauldron at the base area every
promotion each January, said LSSM organizers collaborate close- night of the Olympics and host viewing parties in several of
ly with US Ski & Snowboard and NBC in the lead-up to the our base area bars and restaurants.”
Olympics to help viewers connect with real-world opportunities Billy Kidd, Steamboat’s director of skiing, still carries his
to try winter sports as all the TV coverage sparks new interest. 1964 slalom silver medal from Innsbruck, Austria, with him
LSSM has seen big spikes in traffic to the website and participa- regularly, and offers free “Ski with an Olympian” clinics every
tion in LSSM following Olympic years, Tarallo noted. afternoon he’s on the mountain. Deb Armstrong, the 1984
“During the coverage of the Sochi Olympics, for exam- giant slalom gold medalist, leads regular women’s clinics at
ple, NBC created an online social media outreach project Steamboat, and Nelson Carmichael, the 1992 moguls bronze
called ‘The Gold Map’ to help show viewers of the Games medalist, leads free “Nelson on Nelson’s” bumps clinics on
a path toward making their own Olympic dreams a reality. his namesake Nelson’s Run.
Within that project, our website [learntoskiandsnowboard. “There are so many Olympians living in this town that
org] became the go-to website for people who had never you never know . . . you could very well be sharing a gondola
tried skiing or snowboarding before but were inspired by the or chairlift with one of them on any given day,” Kasten said.

44 | NSAA JOURNAL | WINTER 2018