American Skiing Company
MyA41 Passholder Community Program
WINNER - Word of Mouth Marketing Association "WOMMY" Award!
Challenge
People love to ski, and skiing is a social activity.
The "All for One" season pass gave passholders living in the northeastern U.S. the unique opportunity to explore all of American Skiing Company's northeast resorts - Killington, Pico, Mount Snow, Attitash, Sugarloaf, and Sunday River.
ASC had been exploring opportunities within social media and wanted to create a program that would tie together the passionate and social nature of skiing and ultimately improve the consumer's experience with the All for One multi-resort season pass.
Solution
The result was the launch of MyA41, which gathered, connected, and engaged All for One multi-resort season passholders in a social networking environment, while encouraging cross-resort engagement and participation. Consumer interest in the program exceeded expectations with more than 4,000 applications submitted in the first month.
Passholders were invited to join the MyA41 program and registered using their valid passholder ID. Passholders filled out their skier profiles, managed their ski logs, and created and shared social media such as photos, stories, tips, and videos.
Content was filtered by mountain, allowing MyA41 members to get up-to-the-minute news about their home mountain as well as other ASC resorts accessible with the pass. A combination of citizen journalism (submitted by members), insider access (submitted by ASC employees), and engaging social media activities (maintained by Affinitive) created a memorable consumer experience that facilitated two-way communication between passholders and resort staff, added value to the "All for One" pass and strengthened brand loyalty.
Entering an ongoing and two-way dialogue with consumers was approached with caution by ASC, who had struggled with brand detractors in the past. This new progressive communications effort quickly paid dividends, however, when consumers felt their voices were being heard. In fact, a number of consumers were even converted into ASC and "All for One" pass advocates, who not only spread the word, but also actively defended the brand.
Results
- Participants: More than 3,900 "All for One" season passholders
- Active Members: 44% of members "active" each month
- Average member age: 42 years
- 1,500+ photos and videos submitted
- 3,600+ comments
- 3,700+ forum posts
By Capability
- Word of Mouth and Social Media Marketing, Technology, Strategy, and Measurement
- Managed Customer Communities
- Online Consumer Advisory Panels
- Viral and Buzz Marketing
- Loyalty Programs and CRM Integration
- Consumer-Generated Media
- Brand Ambassador Programs
- Facebook, Social Applications, and Widgets
- Influencer Programs
- Community and Social Network Marketing
- Product Seeding and Sampling
- Consumer Engagement Promotions and Sweepstakes

