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Jim Mullins, marketing director at Mt. Shasta Ski Park in northern California, sells skiing to first-timers the same way he used to sell cars: enthusiastically. “I was a Honda dealer for 25 years,” Mullins says. “Discounting is part of selling cars. It gets people in the car so they can see the value. I brought that same strategy to skiing.”

So for January’s national Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month (LSSM), Mullins slashed the price of Mt. Shasta’s ‘guaranteed’ learn to ski lesson package in half, from $70 to $35. “We made it a 2-for-1 deal for that month,” he explains.

Then he switched his normal marketing for the month to all-LSSM, all the time. Radio, print, web—all promoted Shasta’s learn-to-ski programs.

The result? Seventy-nine percent more newcomers test-drove a pair of skis or a snowboard in January 2011 than in January 2010. And even though Shasta discounted the learn-to package by half, revenues increased by 11 percent. For the whole season, including January, learn-to lessons were up 120 percent.

A first-time participant in the national LSSM January campaign, Mullins is now sold on the program. He is already planning for January 2012. “We’re losing skiers every year to attrition,” he says. “We need to get more new people in the market across the board.”

Mt. Shasta was one of four ski resorts recognized by NSAA for the resort’s January 2011 LSSM campaign. Others who received honors include Eaglecrest, Alaska, Sugarbush, Vt., and Park City, Utah.

But the four are not alone. Three years after its launch, the national LSSM campaign is still on a strong growth path. This past January, the month-long effort introduced an estimated 75,000 never-evers to skiing and snowboarding, more than twice the number in January 2010.

And the growth curve is probably even better than that. “We think 75,000 might be conservative,” says Mary Jo Tarallo, LSSM executive director. Other numbers for 2011 show the program’s wide participation: the effort included resorts in 34 states, 19 state ski associations, three equipment suppliers, proclamations from seven governments, and an estimated $3 million in free publicity.


MANY ROUTES TO SUCCESS
Everyone agrees the snowsports industry needs to expand its base and bring in new participants. How resorts respond to the challenge varies due to local markets and even resorts’ business structures.

Eaglecrest, for example, is owned by the city of Juneau. Given its public status, it used the January LSSM campaign to focus its learn-to programs on the city’s different population and interest groups: women, the disabled, Girl Scouts.

“The goal of the LSSM campaign is very similar to our goal: provide opportunities to everyone to try skiing and snowboarding,” says Jeffra Clough, Eaglecrest director of sales and marketing. “As part of LSSM, we combined some existing packages we already had with events targeted at different populations, to get them up to the mountain.”

One of those packages was a half-day women’s learn-to program. It was so successful, Clough says, it will be repeated several times in 2012. Ditto for the January disability awareness day, and special January learn-to events aimed at groups like the Girl Scouts and the local Boys and Girls Clubs.

“My favorite quote from that day was a 10-year-old boy who told me he never had a sport before and now he does,” Clough says.

Sugarbush also used the January LSSM campaign to shine the light on its learn-to programs, particularly its “first-timer to life-timer” package (three days of lifts, lessons and rentals for $230, with a free season pass at the end). The program aims to keep newcomers engaged and encourage them to develop skiing and riding as regular habits.

In 2010, Sugarbush handed out 113 free passes. In 2011, it gave out 167. “They’re not huge numbers,” says Candice White, marketing director. “But we’re really proud of the growth. It’s always great to see growth. We’re also getting some nice customer remarks and feedback.”

Park City was recognized by LSSM organizers for its Start Now! program, which provides up to five $25 learn-to-ski or -ride packages for never-evers who are Utah residents. In 2010, 3,000 people signed up for the program. This year, the number was up to 4,000. About one-third completed all five lessons, with more than 10 percent going on to buy a season pass for the next year.

States and associations also got into the act with umbrella campaigns. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont all offered free lesson packages during the first week of January. New Hampshire’s state ski association offered a free lesson coupon that was downloaded by 4,025 people. Vermont, which included Nordic centers, offered three different discounted LSSM programs.

Ski Areas of New York (SANY) spent $200,000 promoting the LSSM campaign and the state’s many learn-to programs. “We take the model for growth very seriously,” says Scott Brandi, president of SANY. “We have great buy-in and support from our members, large and small.”


A BOTTOM UP PROGRAM
Buy-in, in fact, is essential. Without universal support from every corner of the ski industry, Tarallo says, the LSSM campaign is just a lot of hot air. “People need to understand that LSSM is a bottom-up program,” she notes. LSSM can tell people about the wonders of skiing and snowboarding. But if there’s no offer for people to take advantage of, then the national campaign is wasted. “It’s up to individual resorts, state associations, and retailers to decide what they can best offer to newcomers,” she adds.

“There are many ways the national campaign can connect the snowsports world with the population at large. But at the end of the day, it has to be the individual resorts who come up with offers,” Tarallo says.

Mullins, the former car salesman at Mt. Shasta, agrees. “The main reason for our success was getting buy-in on the program,” he says. “I’m just the marketing guy. I’m not the learning center director. He bought in, and helped me work out the program.”

Tom Pettigrew, Park City Resort ski school director, says resorts need to look at their own barriers to entry, and at their potential new customers, and develop programs that fit those circumstances. “Every resort is a unique property,” Pettigrew says. “What works at Park City Resort may not work at another area. Resorts need to make a program that fits their own market and capacity.”


JANUARY 2012
But resorts don’t have to do it all themselves. The LSSM organization can help with program details. Tarallo and the state associations are involved in planning year round. Over the spring and summer, there have been many changes and improvements to the LSSM website, including a new look and design. The Partners Tool Kit section contains graphics, press release templates, and various communications tools resorts and their partners can use to develop their own resort-specific LSSM offers. The section is now housed in a new password-protected area of the website, and is designed to make the Kit easier to access and use.

Other changes include a ski area and retailer locator that conducts a zip code search, so consumers can find resorts and retailers in their area. There is also a new translation function for eight languages to reflect the growing diversity of the U.S. population.

The LSSM website also includes portal pages to the President’s fitness challenge and Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. Tarallo says LSSM is also encouraging ski clubs to partner with the national campaign in a joint effort to grow the sport and club membership. Partner clubs are listed on the website.

Plus, LSSM has added new partners this year that resorts can tap for support. These include two national ski retail buying groups: Snowsports Specialists Limited and Snowsports Merchandising Corp. “We’ll probably have about 300 or 400 retailers on board this year,” Tarallo says. The retail partners are eager to help promote the learn-to program and serve as an information source in their communities, and thus reach a broader audience with the LSSM message.

USSA, another partner, is recording PSAs by seven of its Olympic athletes, including Lindsey Vonn, for partners to use. USSA, and indeed the entire international competition community, aim to raise the visibility of and participation in skiing and snowboarding.


STATES AT THE FORE
State associations were the driving force behind LSSM three years ago and remain the key engine behind the effort. And they, like many individual resorts, are also stepping up their 2012 campaigns.

The Vermont Ski Areas Association (VSAA) will highlight the state’s many learn-to programs and profile instructors in its Ski Vermont magazine, which is direct-mailed to 120,000 individuals and handed out at trade shows and travel centers. It’s also posted online. “We want to very significantly increase the profile of our learn-to options,” says Jason Gibbs, VSAA marketing director. “Our goal is to increase learn-to lessons five, six, seven percent.” After years of flat or decreasing numbers of beginner lessons, that level of one-year growth would be significant.

Decreasing the complexity of the January LSSM offers is another goal, he says, and would help the state achieve its growth target. “We haven’t nailed down the offers yet, but we want something very compelling, affordable, and easy to understand and redeem,” Gibbs says.

Interestingly, he notes that in recent years, offers which had some cost associated with them were more likely to be redeemed than free ones. “We speculate that’s because people had something vested in them,” he says.

Other states are stepping up their efforts, too. Brandi says SANY will increase its LSSM radio budget by 20 percent, and begin the campaign in mid-December. As part of its effort, SANY will spend $50,000 on radio ads in Cleveland, and plans to expand the campaign to Toronto in 2013.


INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE
As with many areas, the four NSAA-recognized resorts are planning their own new initiatives—many of them aimed at conversion, the next step after trial. Increasing the number of core skiers and riders is, after all, the ultimate goal.

At Mt. Shasta, Mullins is set on winning NSAA’s Conversion Cup in 2012. “We want to track how many first-time passholders we get from the learn-to programs,” he says. “We’re going to really concentrate on youth and enhancing our conversion rates and turning them into lifelong skiers and riders.”

Similarly, at Park City, Pettigrew plans to keep the Start Now! program at 4,000 skier days, but may cut back on the actual number of participants in an effort to increase the conversion rate. The area will add some incentives to increase full participation. “I’d rather see 800 newcomers complete all five visits than have 4,000 participate one time,” he says.

At Sugarbush, White and her ski school director are working on a next-step program. “Once people have completed their three lessons and gotten their pass, what can we offer them to come back?” White asks. “What skills should we focus on for phase two of their ski journey?”

White says Sugarbush is also keeping in touch with last year’s first-time participants. “We sent them a letter and coupon to come back and take a brush-up lesson,” she says. “We’re also talking about doing some kind of kickoff event for last winter’s first-time skiers. Once we bring them into the sport, it’s important that we don’t forget about them.”

LSSM LETTERS
One of the great rewards of teaching newbies to ski and ride is the reactions they have. Here are reminders from two of last winter’s LSSM guests.


Dear Sir or Madam:
I am a 64-year-old man who had never skied before. My bride is younger and was not a skier, either. We are both widowed and trying to join two families. Most of our families are already skiers, and we decided to rent a house at your resort for Christmas week.

My wife and I intended to try snowshoeing, but there was not enough snow. The agent suggested we go skiing because the resort had made plenty of snow.

I must tell you just how successful you have been in making me into a late-blooming skier. I simply have fallen in love with it, as has my bride. I'm now a skier for life.

I would like to have more people experience the thrills, excitement, the wonder, the beauty of the panoramas that have captured my imagination. Skiing has made my winter too short. Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful sport!


Dear Sir:
I have never snowboarded or skied in my entire life and decided that it was time to pick up a winter sport, since I live in New England.

All I have to say is, “wow!” You have a great and beautiful resort with amazing people working there. From the moment I got there to the moment I left, I’ve never felt more welcomed.

Thanks to the all season/all mountain pass that I received from the package, I will definitely be back soon so I can work on linking my turns. And I can assure you that as long as you have the kind of staff that you have, you will have a customer and enthusiast for life.

—Excited Snowboarding Nu-be