Ski Area Management...

WEATHER REPORT:

SKIES ARE CLEARING UP

A few years ago, long-time skier Paul Goodloe (pictured) at The Weather Channel questioned the five inches of fresh snow reported in what looked to be rainy West Virginia. But Snowshoe Mountain’s Joe Stevens was definitely seeing some serious snowfall outside his office window, so he also saw an opportunity. Long a proponent of working with meteorologists, Snowshoe’s veteran communications director tracked down Goodloe at his Atlanta office and told him that rain at lower elevations of the Mountain State often meant snow for the mile-high resort.

Their ensuing conversation led to an invitation from Stevens for Goodloe to visit the resort, which he and has wife did during one of Snowshoe’s annual ‘Media Days.’ Goodloe actually met his future bride, Rebecca, while skiing at Intrawest’s Whistler-Blackcomb. After his visit to Snowshoe, he became an even bigger fan of Intrawest resorts--and he always checks if that West Virginia rain means fresh powder for Snowshoe!

This experience typifies how ski resort public relations pros can work with meteorologists as a unique way of reaching their markets. “I’ve been approaching these folks for years and it’s been amazing how much coverage we’ve gotten because of it,” says Stevens, who has been at Snowshoe since 1990 and won the ‘SAMY’ in 2000. “From The Weather Channel to lots of regional weather reports, Snowshoe’s conditions are constantly covered because we provide them with what they want.”

What they want is something interesting to report. This can range from great footage of an event (Snowshoe is the only ski resort with it’s own video satellite truck) to correct statistics about snowfall and conditions. “As a skier, I love to report good news about ski resorts and Snowshoe makes it easy for us,” says Dave Cochran at Lynchburg’s WSET over in Virginia. Cochran is another meteorologist friend of Snowshoe’s, thanks to the work of Stevens.

Rather than simply inviting print or electronic snowsports and travel journalists to visit their resort, many mountain PR people are reaching further afield to get coverage for their mountains. This means meteorologists are prime candidates for a marketing campaign.

“I have definitely targeted meteorologists,” says Sunday River’s Susan Duplessis. “I began to realize last season how important they are--not only getting out the word that it’s snowing in the mountains, but also to get them to promote the concept of enjoying the outdoors in winter, period!”

The campaign Duplessis pursued included a media blitz of Boston television stations, where she specifically set up appointments with two weather departments to learn how best to get information to them. “It worked out beautifully,” says Duplessis. “Both stations were happy to get information, actually saying most ski areas don’t take advantage of them and that they appreciated me taking the time to come down and see them.”

Duplessis has also developed a good relationship with the head meteorologist at the New England Cable Network in Boston. “He’s an avid skier and very much interested in what’s happening on the mountain,” she explains. “He welcomes footage of events or just powder days and I’ve FedExed him tapes several times.”

Closer to Sunday River, Duplessis has had similar results with Portland-area meteorologists. “I find they are more receptive to your phone calls if they already enjoy skiing or riding,” she says. However, she has also targeted those who don’t yet ride or ski, inviting them to Sunday River to see how much fun winter weather can be (something Stevens and others have also done successfully). “I work as hard at developing relationships with meteorologists as I do with other reporters and assignment editors,” she says. “They are definitely as important, in terms of their effect on the industry.”

In the Midwest, where weather is often an issue with potential snowsports enthusiasts, resorts and ski area associations have been creative when it comes to targeted meteorologists. For example, in Michigan and Minnesota, snowsports resorts have banded together with specific campaigns.

The Michigan Snowsports Industry Association (MSIA) has pursued a ‘Cold is Cool’ fax campaign for the past five seasons. “We provide a variety of faxes to send to Michigan television stations whenever one of our member resorts hears a local weather person or other on-air personality refer negatively or positively to cold weather and snow,” says executive director Mickey MacWilliams.

The package currently provided to resorts by the MSIA includes seven different faxes, including addressing bare ground (though the slopes are covered), how Michigan residents love snow, the economic impact of snow and snowsports, and one that simply thanks on-air personalities for positive coverage. MacWilliams says the resorts use the faxes just as they are, add specific comments, or simply use them as formats to produce their own versions. For repeat ‘negative’ offenders, MacWilliams volunteers to get involved directly by making a phone call, inviting them to ski, or whatever else it takes.

“The more ‘kindly’ we remind our broadcasters and weather forecasters that many people love the winter, the better,” says MacWilliams. “We know faxes we have sent are working because we’ve heard the facts from our faxes spoken on the air, a number of broadcasters have called to say they agree with our plea, and we have noticed more sensitivity when weather broadcasts are made.”

Up in Minnesota, the industry association MnSNO has also taken a unique approach to getting meteorologists and other on-air personalities to cover winter sports. The past three seasons, they ran a ‘co-op’ television campaign, running ads assembled by the association and then also providing the ‘MnSNO Ski and Snowboard Conditions Report.’ “It has been incredibly successful,” says executive director Phil Peterson.

Targeted at the four stations in the Minneapolis area, the report provides on-air personalities lots of freedom to do the report in their own way. They’ve had meteorologists having wearing ski goggles, showing film clips of themselves at the slopes, referring to the association’s website verbally and visually, and more. “It’s changed the vocabulary of the on-air meteorologists and other personalities,” says Peterson. “They talk more about winter sports throughout the broadcast and we also have them coming to the slopes more often and mentioning it. It’s contagious and it’s growing nicely.”

Out west, similar strategies are working elsewhere. For instance, Mammoth’s Joani Lynch says, “Because 90% of our visitors currently come from always-balmy Southern California, we work closely with the weather forecasters in this region to communicate current weather information at Mammoth. There are always huge differences in our weather--while it might be 80 degrees and beach weather on the coast, it could have just snowed two feet at Mammoth.”

Lynch says she’s noticed more networks reporting snow conditions during the weather segment. Because of this trend, she’s planning Mammoth’s first ‘Weather Summit’ for next February. “We’ll invite the meteorologists in the region to attend a three-day conference with educational speakers and plenty of time for skiing and riding,” says Lynch. “The goal is to have a few of the attendees broadcast their weather segment live from Mammoth, as well as to expose everyone to what we offer their viewers.”

In the northwest, you wouldn’t think Whistler Blackcomb would need to make meteorologists aware of their great conditions. However, their PR and communications guru Chris Nicolson says they work closely with the region’s weather reporters. “We’re located 1 1/2 hours from Vancouver. Down there, the local ski resorts of Grouse, Seymour, and Cypress keep conditions in the minds of Vancouver’s residents,” says Nicolson. “In addition, Vancouverites are active and there are usually comments about the snowlines and mountain conditions during newscasts.”

But Nicolson likes to take it several steps further when it comes to coverage. “Whistler Blackcomb’s media strategy is to reinforce the relationship between the on-air personalities and our resort by hosting them on our slopes,” he says. “A media relations person can’t ask for anything more than the weather person reading the forecast with a smile and raccoon eyes and then talking about their great weekend in the mountains.” Nicolson also tries to get meteorologists to describe a snow storm as ‘fantastic for riding,’ rather than ‘deadly.’ In addition, he works hard at providing appropriate news through their charismatic senior communications officer, Chris Strome--they often get him on morning weather reports, prompting Strome to say thousands of local women wake up to his voice every morning.

Back at Snowshoe, Stevens continues to refine his meteorology methods. He says, “It’s great to work with well-known personalities like Paul Goodloe at The Weather Channel, but I also try developing relationships with younger meteorologists.”

For instance, this past season, Stevens cultivated a relationship with James Canterbury at WDTV-TV in Clarksburg, West Virginia.. James visited the resort several times and ended up covering the conditions at Snowshoe many times. He’s now a devoted fan of Snowshoe and you never know--maybe he’ll be reporting snow conditions at The Weather Channel one day. If so, you can bet he’ll make his viewers love snow as much as he now does!