Let's Hear It For The Girls!

The ladies having a good time at 2008's Wine and Cheese Reception and Fashion Show

She who holds the purse strings holds the power. I know that's true in my house. I'm only in this business because I spent so much time shopping at Willi's that people just started assuming that I worked there. This season, we will offer sponsors endless opportunities to reach out to this powerful costumer base by sponsoring events/clinics/seminars that will broaden your visibility both on and off the slopes and develop a relationship with the ladies who hold the purse strings.

In planning events, we often overlook the importance of the moms and grandmas and market events directly to the kids and the dads. Yet, according to most surveys, women control between 80 and 85 percent of household spending and a full one third of all sports equipment purchases are made by women. There is no doubt about it, with total combined earnings totaling one trillion dollars and total annual spending topping two trillion, women present us with the biggest opportunity today. They influence 95% of household purchases, 92% of vacations and 80% of sporting goods and apparel purchases.

While nearly half of all first time snowboarders are women only 27 percent of the overall participants are female. "That’s a big drop-out rate,” Says Hillary Sherman, Resort Programs coordinator for Burton Snowboards. “We need to improve the experience for women.”Among her recommendations, create a comfortable learning environment, use friendly influencers (local retail shops) and form an emotional connection. Make their experience fun so they keep coming back.



This season, we're preparing to launch an event marketing campaign directed specifically at the female customers between the ages of 30 and 70. In conjunction with Seven Springs, we are creating a Ladies Club designed around what our research shows women are looking for:

• connections with the brands
• a holistic approach to marketing
• community and shared values
• brand experience
• insider information
• a process of discovering brands.
  

Building upon our success in producing top-notch two day ladies events, we are offering club members six to eight events ranging from special shopping events to opportunities to ride with celebrities, from apres ski parties to two-day clinics in women specific ski and snowboard instruction. This is an opportunity to connect your brand, authentically and interactively, with the ladies who are making the purchasing decisions. If you are interested in talking to and hearing from our female customers I hope that you'll consider sponsoring one of the events for this club.

For the past couple of years, in partnership with with Seven Springs, we've made a tremendous effort to bring the young ladies into the fold of the park and pipe scene. We were highly visible sponsors of the inaugural Kristi Leskinen Homecoming Invitational and we lent our knowledge and connection to the event by sponsoring the "Ski With A Pro" segment. By pairing professional skiers and snowboarders with the young participants, we hoped to encourage girls to try their hand at the male dominated world of freesking and snowboarding. This opportunity was offered free of charge to kids 12 and under and, in keeping with the spirit of inclusion, we asked that participants donate to the Women's Sports Foundation.

Inspired and encouraged by the determination of the girls who showed up and took part in the Oakley, Monster Energy Drink and Willi's sponsored KLHI Amateure Rail Jam, I spent a good deal of time talking to the girls. I asked them what we could do to get them more involved. It came as no surprise that they were reluctant to compete against some of their high level male counterparts. I began implementing a plan to answer their requests and, with the help of our sponsors, created a separate ladies division for last season's Packed Stacked and Jacked event. All of our sponsors stepped up to the plate with separate ladies prizes for first, second and third place. Thanks to Oakley (again) for awarding the girl with the highest ranking with a one-year optics sponsorship!

We've already established sponsorship for all of the 2011 PSJ series and I'm happy to say that, thanks to our generous sponsors, we'll be able to have a ladies division again. I'm hoping to ride the wave a little further this season and would love to work with some sponsors on a girls day in the park. While I haven't found a sponsor yet, I am certain that there are companies interested in getting involved.

As the summer wears on, I'll be blogging about more opportunities to get involved with the promotion of snowsports to the younger generations. We will be offering a kids club and are hoping to support a rider development program. I will do my best to ensure that the girls are supported by these programs as well. I'll let you all know when I post information on those groups.

Evolution: The Jibbers

Jibbers, Park Rats, Newschoolers, whatever you want to call them, these skiers and snowboarders are leveling the playing field between east coast and west coast. Their unmistakable style combined with the general atmosphere of the events that they participate in creates a buzz on the hill. Now spanning three generations, X, Y and Z these athletes command a big part of the in-store and online sales in our industry. They are tuned in and online and they have created a revolution - make that an evolution of snow sports. Anyone who has come out to a ski/board event geared toward this demographic knows that they are a target audience that we can't afford to pass up.

Generation X is the generation born after the baby boom ended, its members were born between 1961 and 1981, and people aged 29-49. Many of us have watched ski resorts go from throwing people out for building jumps to sinking millions of dollars into terrain parks with gigantic jumps. We invented snowboards, and one piece neon outerwear. Our children belong to Generations Y and Z.

Generation Y In the United States the actual "Echo Boom" was a thirteen year span between 1982 and 1995 (age 15-28) when for the first time since 1964, the number of live births reached over four million. Gen Yer's use instant methods of communications like texting and IM and they share information with the world using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This trend of communication is continuing into Generation Z.

Generation Z is one of the names used for the people born between the mid-1990’s and the late 2000’s (14 and younger). This is the "Net Generation". They are highly connected, many having had lifelong use of "pocket internet" through their mobile phone and media technologies such as the internet, mp3 players, laptop computers and cell phones.

These three generations are witness to the rise of action sports such as skateboarding, motocross extreme skiing and snowboarding. They are the target audience for action sport event marketing. Even the International Olympic Committee is taking notice by agreeing to consider including skier halfpipe in the 2014 games. It's no wonder, according to The Neilson Group, on the first night that Shaun White competed in the 2010 Olympics, 30.1 million people tuned in. This compared to 18.4 million who watched "American Idol". It was the first time any show has beaten "American Idol" since May 2004. This year, multiple live attendance and television ratings records were broken at Winter X Games 14. 84,100 people attended the four-day event and for the third straight year Winter X was ESPN's highest-rated and most viewed program with more than 43 million viewers, (more than the Olympics!). The Dew Tour also saw a spike in attendance with 33,000 fans the highest event attendance in the two-year history of the Winter Dew Tour.

As Gen Y and Zer's prepare to go off to colleges around the country, we hope that they take the jibshop with them. We hope to have developed a relationship with these athletes so that whether they go to school in Utah or Ohio they will be loyal to the shop that has brought great events to their mountain. Just as Facebook rumors can go viral overnight, we're betting that these kids can spread the word about their local shop around the country. Our Packed, Stacked and Jacked Facebook Fan Page is testament to the notion that we can reach a global audience simply by creating a captivating event and marketing it to our local skiers and riders via social networking websites. In addition to fans from just about every state in the USA, the page is being followed by fans from places like Djibouti, Norway and Austria. While these riders and skiers could never shop at Willi's, they can visit thejibshop.com from anywhere. We can use event marketing to spread our business globally.

The emergence of the terrain park has leveled the playing field between east and west and, while the earlier arrival of snow and the later departure out west still provides west coast athletes with more days to ride, the kids in the east often begin skiing in the parks at a much earlier age, giving them an upper hand to the kids out west who don't get bored with their mountains until they reach their teens. We are producing some big names right here in the mid-Atlantic. Athletes like Tom Wallisch, Kristi Leskinen and Louie Vito grew up shredding Seven Springs. They are the heroes of the action sports world.

Seven Springs Terrain Park Crew, lead by Joel Rerko, is receiving top honors by highly respected industry insiders. Last year the readers of Transworld Snowboarding voted them #1 halfpipe in the Eastern U.S. and #3 parks overall http://snowboarding.transworld.net/1000112908/featuresobf/transworlds-top-five-east-coast-parks-resorts-and-pipes/3/. This year, Seven Springs hosted the second annual Kristi Leskinen Homecoming and while the fans missed the boarders (Olympics), the skiers were competing for world ranking! Brands looking for parks to film promos in are starting to sit up and take notice of their talented builders too. Forum and Flow both spent several days in our park last season. The Forum trailer is up and has some great shots of our parks http://vimeo.com/12806934. By the way, that flaming telephone pole…Joel’s creation!

According to 2003 report from American Sports Data, Inc., action sports account for 1/3 of all sporting goods sold in the United States, more than 14 billion dollars. Event Marketing is a crucial way to reach potential customers in this demographic. While the Dew Tour and X Games cater to the highest levels of the sports, even the less able participants like compete in rail jams now and then. Several grass-roots competitions are cropping up around the country but breaking through to the upper levels of freestyle skiing and snowboarding is akin to being discovered by a Hollywood agent. There are talented kids playing around on every ski hill in the country and they just want a chance to win some great prizes and show off their skills. Last season, over 119 competitors came out and competed in Packed, Stacked and Jacked. Our inaugural season sparked world-wide interest because of its grass-roots vibe.

Sponsoring athletes is a great way to get recognized and you don't have to limit your sponsorship to high-level pros. Your brand's sponsorship helps you to plant the seed of brand recognition and loyalty in the minds of the next group of riders coming up. Studies have shown that positive feelings toward the brand are dependent on creating a link in memory between that brand and a positive stimulus. Our local scene is a microcosm of the larger national and international action sports scene. Just as X-Games viewers are influenced by the athletes that they see on television, local kids are looking to the group a little older and more experienced than they are and are trying to emulate them. When they see that your brand is supporting someone that they admire, it impresses upon them that you are supporting their sport.

Taking part in this evolution is not an option, it's a necessity for brands that want to continue to be relevant. We're excited to be involved with these talented skiers, riders and park designers and we hope that our involvement grows in the years to come. Seven Springs is working hard to provide parks that progress the new era of action sports and we are thrilled to partner with them. Since my position was created in 2008, we've been working hard create events that reach out the this powerful group of consumers and we're enjoying every minute of it! Come out and see what the buzz is all about.