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Selling the mountains to the masses

Image is everything, but not for everyone What is the image of Whistler, projected through advertising, that makes people from all walks of life choose to come here for their holiday? When in comes to advertising Whistler, various demographics are gi

Image is everything, but not for everyone

What is the image of Whistler, projected through advertising, that makes people from all walks of life choose to come here for their holiday?

When in comes to advertising Whistler, various demographics are given different images and different expectations when it comes to the number one rated resort.

Whistler-Blackcomb works with Vancouver-based advertising agency Wasserman and Partners on its consumer magazine advertising campaigns. Wasserman is affiliated with Detroit Creative, an advertising agency in Whistler.

Whistler-Blackcomb writes a brief for the agency each year on what they are looking for and what image they want to project to the various demographic groups.

"We’ve got a big youth focus this year," said Christy Allen, sales and marketing manager for Whistler-Blackcomb.

"We tell them (Wasserman and Partners) we want it to be cool and aim at youth and they come up with the concepts for the different magazines," she said.

President and Creative Director at Wasserman and Partners Alvin Wasserman said that in their series of advertisements, each market is targeted differently but with the idea of persuading each that Whistler should be their holiday choice.

"Rather than saying Whistler-Blackcomb is this one place, that just has this one thing, we’re definitely segmented and drilling deep into people’s consciousness and saying ‘we are this kind of place for you,’" Wasserman said.

"We’re talking to families in a certain way in terms of making it obviously family friendly, there’s a something-for-everyone kind of angle.

"But then we’re also talking to people who want to experience the park and the kind of rawness that is associated with the life around the park, before after and during," he said.

Wasserman said the riding culture is one where the corporate voice needs to be avoided at all costs.

"The whole riding culture doesn’t like ads, they don’t want to be advertised to and they certainly don’t want a corporate voice. We’re here, we understand the life and we let them define it in their own terms," said Wasserman.

"Groomed Daily" was an advertisement last season in a number of snowboarding publications. It features a snow groomer hucking a 360 in stop-motion photography in the style of a big air rider. According to Wasserman and Allan, it was highly successful in it’s rider appeal.

"It totally stuck out in our magazines. No one else had done that, and it was just a different way of saying ‘hey, when it comes to a place to ride, our parks here are sweet, and we have an eye on them and a dedication to them that’s fanatical,’" said Wasserman.

Allan said that Groomed Daily was an example of an ad that sold an image to the market.

"We’re talking cool factor there," she said.

This year the world’s snowboarding community can expect more focus on local riders in Whistler-Blackcomb advertisements to draw them to the terrain parks on both mountains.

"We’re talking about the riders a lot more closely and profiling them as part of what Whistler is. Whistler has developed a lot of people with great reputations and this is a good place for people to bring what skill they have and leverage it, learn more and be where it’s all happening," said Wasserman.

A more metaphorical Whistler-Blackcomb advertisement this year features a woman wearing a bra with her back to the reader. A pair of hands seem to be removing the bra. A tag on the bra reads: "Feels like the first time. Whistler-Blackcomb"

Wasserman said that this style of advertising is part of a long tradition at Whistler-Blackcomb.

"We’ll do a metaphor or symbol ad every year about the experience and try to get the message across in a fresh way rather than in a representational way," said Wasserman.

"Because Whistler’s a leader it can afford to take a leadership position and not show the mountain. We can use another symbol to represent the experience on the mountain," he said.

Wasserman said this ad has an appeal to anyone who can relate to that first time experience.

"This ad was a successful way of getting across that ‘omigod the world is incredible and I’m right here in the place I should be,’" he said.

Allan said this ad was a bit too edgy for the broader market and it will appear only in the magazines directed at niche markets.

"This ad is running in Transworld, SBC Skier and targeting those younger mountain enthusiasts. Really with all our advertising that we do, that is not a general ad," she said.

However Wasserman said that the ad had a really wide appeal.

"It would appeal to anyone who can relate to the age when you first encountered a bra, whether you were wearing it or undoing it," he said.

"The primary message is that freshness of the experience, that first time jolt."

Families will be targeted with advertising portraying a completely different image of Whistler: A picture of two mountains and above each mountain the slogan "You are not seeing double."

"It will suggest that we’ve got everything from big alpine bowls to gentle cruisers, that we’re the Olympic hosts and it talks about the nightlife, the restaurants and the real family experience. There’s something here for every member of the family," Allan said.

"These are the ads we will run in all family targeted magazines."

Allan said the dual mountain ad will run in the likes of Powder, Ski Press and similar magazines.

"To the general ski magazine crowd and the international market we portray the dual mountain image, the two mountains, one village, our size and magnitude, 7,000 vertical acres, the variety of terrain. We really focus on everything that sets us apart form other resorts," she said.

When it comes to advertising to families, Whistler-Blackcomb works with Tourism Whistler and Resort Reservations to decide whose advertisements will go in which publications.

"Between the three of us we look at all the magazines and decide who should advertise in what, because Tourism Whistler are obviously very family focused. Whistler Blackcomb, promoting the mountains, will go into the niche magazines or vertical publications," said Allan.

Wasserman said: "There’s been a sense of ‘let’s not duplicate efforts and to best stretch a dollar’ so they’ve (Tourism Whistler) left some of these niche markets, the boarders and the freeskiing, to Whistler-Blackcomb. Tourism Whistler targets the more destination traveller coming out with the family, even the couples that are higher end, very mobile and tend to be more skiing orientated."

"Whistler has many facets but it’s all the same diamond," he said.

Wasserman said the secret of the success of Whistler-Blackcomb’s advertising is understanding the life in the mountains.

"We’ve got a lot of people in that Whistler operation up at Detroit who are actually living the life, so we’ve invested in that market to understand the people who are on the mountain all the time, the skiers and the boarders," he said.

"I would say that having people up there is part of the idea pipeline and Wasserman and partners has worked on the mountain since Intrawest acquired Blackcomb way back when, so we have a real experience in that," he said.

Wasserman also said that Whistler-Blackcomb keeps in touch with the visitors who come to the resort to understand what their wants and expectations are.

"I would say it’s a triad of input, making sure that we’re in touch with what people are getting out of this place and not confining it to what we were last year or what another mountain is," he said.

"Because Whistler-Blackcomb is such a leader we have to continue to lead and together we do that."