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November 22, 2004
See You Later, Cell Phone Sam
The Telluride Ski and Golf Company has said goodbye to Cell Phone Sam and his bevy of cartoon characters, ending that company’s “Telluride –a land where people come to play” storybook marketing tactic. This year, the company is going back to doing ski resort advertising the old fashioned way – with shots of snow-capped peaks and powder skiing.
Telski’s new advertising campaign hit the pages of such publications as Ski and Skiing Magazine this fall. It depicts Telluride as a real-world ski resort (no longer a cartoon wonderland), and an affordable, easier-to-get-to ski area than potential visitors may think.
Pete Woods, director of sales and marketing at Telski, explained the overall foundation for the Telluride Ski Resort marketing campaign is the same as it’s always been: to portray Telluride as a Colorado resort so unique that it feels like it is a world unto itself.
Woods explained that the new marketing campaign evolved from “brand audit” sessions that took place this June, when a mix of 30 community members, including Telski employees and others, met to discuss what locals feel is the Telluride resort’s biggest selling point.
“We put together this group so that it wasn’t just the ski company saying ‘This is what Telluride is,’ but instead what the community’s perception is,” Woods explained. “It was interesting to see that through the process, the brand we came up with this summer was very similar to what the company developed four years ago.”
The storybook ad campaign helped the resort stand out in the print media realm, Woods explained. “We don’t have the kind of marketing budget that some of the big time ski resorts have, so whatever we do has to really stand out,” he said. It was with this in mind that members of the brand audit committee chose the new print media marketing image, a dramatic photograph of Palmyra Peak with a skier in the foreground. Telski worked with Portland-based BPN ad agency to produce the advertisements. BPN has an extensive background in outdoor sports marketing and oversees all of the advertising for Columbia clothing company.
Telski’s major marketing campaign is not concentrating on the national print media this year. Instead, the marketing department has made a strong push into their focus markets, namely the L.A., Phoenix, Chicago, New York, Dallas, and Houston areas.
This is the first year the company has utilized outdoor advertising. Billboards with the Palmyra Peak skier photograph now sit alongside interstates and high rises in the aforementioned cities, reminding commuters that they can fly directly to and from Telluride from their home airport.
Telski is also using radio advertising in these target markets. In Phoenix and Dallas, for example, radio stations are giving away listener trips to Telluride. This method of radio advertising seems to deliver the most results for the money, Woods explained.
“With the listener trips, DJs talk about Telluride for six weeks before the giveaway and for weeks afterward. It’s a cool way for people to hear about Telluride,” he said.
Telski also focused more on Internet advertising this year, offering lift ticket and other deals for those who make travel arrangements online and increased their presence on the Internet with more Telluride locations used for keyword searches.
And as always, Telski is hoping to bring in more regional visitors from Grand Junction to Phoenix and everywhere in between.
“We’ve developed some aggressive offers for our regional visitors, and have also reached out to new markets (like Flagstaff) which has paid off with regional visitor numbers up,” Woods said. The company is offering a $69 kids ski pass, along with five and ten day passes and a “Free Day” card that costs $40 and allows holders to buy $55 tickets throughout the season along with receiving one free ticket.
Telski is also offering other deals for the more destination-oriented Telluride traveler, including the popular Limitless Lesson pass and the new five-day transferable ticket packet, allowing guests to buy five transferable individual tickets at a reduced rate.
This year’s marketing campaign aims to make potential visitors aware that Telluride is less expensive and easier to reach than they think.
“Our biggest challenge is just getting people in the destination market to come here,” said Woods. “Once they’re here, they’re sold. We have an 82 percent return visitor rate, so we know that once people get here, they fall in love. Our job is just to get them to make the commitment to come here the first time.”
By Martinique Davis
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Posted by Adam at November 22, 2004 10:10 AM