Case Study: American Skiing Company - MyA41 Passholder Community
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 & videos submitted
- 3,600+ comments
- 3,700+ forum posts
