Big Burke announcement

[thetrailboss]

Well, Ski Area Management has just released their review of marketing for the past season and their "wins and fails." Guess what they said for "fail"?

Worst name change:
Q Burke Mountain, Vt.
When Ary Quiros became president of Burke Mountain, one of his first moves was simple and swift: he changed the mountain’s name to Q Burke. It didn’t take long for the community to notice and connect the change with the last name of the president. Employees and customers alike shook their heads at a move made by a man with virtually no marketing or branding experience. Then, after he cut ties with one of the community’s most beloved brands, Quiros fired off a series of e-mails to critics that further portrayed him as an arrogant, ego-driven leader.

Burke was, and is, an incredible mountain with a talented team, but their leader painted them into a corner with virtually nothing to do but watch their brand slowly get buried under a messy pile of online indignation. —GB

http://www.saminfo.com/article/bestworst-marketing-2013-14

Ouch.

Now before people accuse me of flaming or :uzi: , let me point out some things. First, SAM is the industry magazine and these are essentially peer reviews of what worked and what didn't. Note that they say that Ary has "virtually no marketing or branding experience" and that he really ruined the brand and the business. Their words, not mine and they are members of the industry looking at them. They also admit that Burke is a great mountain and had (or has) a good team.

SAM has previously recognized Burke for environmental work and best mountain for its size in terms of advertising, marketing, etc. So this is a different take on the place. Stenger also is pretty involved in SAM so this does not look good.

The industry is telling Ary to move on to something else. Hopefully potential EB-5 investors don't see that article.

 

[VTKilarney]

Has anyone been able to figure out if the job posting for a Marketing and Events Coordinator is the result of a shakeup or is a new position?

I'm thinking that it may be a new position for hotel operations, which if true, is about the best indication we have received that the hotel project is going forward.

 

[thetrailboss]

Has anyone been able to figure out if the job posting for a Marketing and Events Coordinator is the result of a shakeup or is a new position?

I'm thinking that it may be a new position for hotel operations, which if true, is about the best indication we have received that the hotel project is going forward.

Maybe Andrew moved on.

 

[VTKilarney]

Maybe Andrew moved on.

Ahh... I had actually forgotten his name. His LinkedIn page makes no reference to Burke, so maybe it was never updated when he took the job at Burke.

 

[VTKilarney]

Here is some interesting information about Burke's firesale, er... marketing campaign this winter:
http://www.origindesign.ca/q-burke-resort-facebook-ad-campaign

 

[thetrailboss]

Here is an interesting information about Burke's firesale, er... marketing campaign this winter:
http://www.origindesign.ca/q-burke-resort-facebook-ad-campaign

Yeah that is just the company tooting its horn over the project that it did. It was a good campaign but nothing really out of the ordinary as they had been running similar promos for the last few seasons.

 

[VTKilarney]

The are a couple of interesting things disclosed in the marketer's marketing:
1) They targeted skiers that lived within 90 minutes of Burke. Why??? This leaves out a) Montreal, b) Burlington, c) southern New Hampshire, and d) Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York via I-91.
2) They only sold 363 lift tickets with this promotion.

I'm disappointed that Ary spent his marketing dollars outside of the USA. I'm not too upset since Burke draws skiers from Canada, but it would have been a nice gesture to use the money to help create jobs in Vermont. Perhaps there was not a company in Vermont that could have offered the same level of expertise - although 363 tickets was not an impossible benchmark to beat.

I'd love to know what they spent per redeemed ticket for this campaign.

 

[thetrailboss]

The are a couple of interesting things disclosed in the marketer's marketing:
1) They targeted skiers that lived within 90 minutes of Burke. Why??? This leaves out a) Montreal, b) Burlington, c) southern New Hampshire, and d) Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York via I-91.
2) They only sold 363 lift tickets with this promotion.

I'm disappointed that Ary spent his marketing dollars outside of the USA. I'm not too upset since Burke draws skiers from Canada, but it would have been a nice gesture to use the money to help create jobs in Vermont. Perhaps there was not a company in Vermont that could have offered the same level of expertise - although 363 tickets was not an impossible benchmark to beat.

I'd love to know what they spent per redeemed ticket for this campaign.

Looks like they had Jay as a client; pretty easy to see why they got the gig.

As to the 90 minute draw they know that is where most of the market comes from.

 

[VTKilarney]

As to the 90 minute draw they know that is where most of the market comes from.

But isn't that the problem? Perhaps it's not going to change until lodging options improve and they are just recognizing that reality. I'm just surprised that they purposely left out 95% of the Northeast skier base.

 

[thetrailboss]

But isn't that the problem? Perhaps it's not going to change until lodging options improve and they are just recognizing that reality. I'm just surprised that they purposely left out 95% of the Northeast skier base.

I think they (rightly) assumed that the pitch would be for day trippers who would be in the general area and interested in skiing over warm weather pursuits.

 

[from_the_NEK]

Looks like they had Jay as a client; pretty easy to see why they got the gig.

As to the 90 minute draw they know that is where most of the market comes from.

And for a lot of people that are day tripping, 90 minutes is about the farthest they will go. Anything longer and people will likely want to stay overnight. Until that hotel gets built, there aren't very many beds to accommodate that.

 

[thetrailboss]

And for a lot of people that are day tripping, 90 minutes is about the farthest they will go. Anything longer and people will likely want to stay overnight. Until that hotel gets built, there aren't very many beds to accommodate that.

Will the beds have Quilts on them?

 

[dlague]

Looks like they had Jay as a client; pretty easy to see why they got the gig.

As to the 90 minute draw they know that is where most of the market comes from.

The 90 minute draw are those who are more than likely to ski there - If i were trying to pull in skiers and snowboarders, I would want to target a market that is larger than our current market. I have met plenty of people from the Boston area at Burke while sitting on the chairlift. Southern NH has a pretty significant population and the 93 to the 91 is darn near a straight shot. If you pull up a population density heat map and there are plenty out there it is pretty clear that the market is more than the 90 minutes. Next time you are on the lift at Jay Peak or Burke, ask the person riding up the chair with you where they are from - I have not run into many locals.

 

[fbrissette]

The 90 minute draw are those who are more than likely to ski there - If i were trying to pull in skiers and snowboarders, I would want to target a market that is larger than our current market. I have met plenty of people from the Boston area at Burke while sitting on the chairlift. Southern NH has a pretty significant population and the 93 to the 91 is darn near a straight shot. If you pull up a population density heat map and there are plenty out there it is pretty clear that the market is more than the 90 minutes. Next time you are on the lift at Jay Peak or Burke, ask the person riding up the chair with you where they are from - I have not run into many locals.

View attachment 12485

I fail to see why they would not market Massachusetts and New-Hampshire. Not marketing Montreal makes sense at this point. Jay is one hour less of driving and currently has a lot more to offer.

Once the hotel is built, I could see Burke successfully market mountain-biking to Montrealers. This would require mending fences with KTA however.

 

[Andrew]

Ahh... I had actually forgotten his name. His LinkedIn page makes no reference to Burke, so maybe it was never updated when he took the job at Burke.

Nope, no shake up. Still here, just was on vacation last week. Marketing and Events coordinator is a position we're looking to fill. I gotta get around to updating that LinkedIn page one of these days.

 

[VTKilarney]

Glad to hear!

 

[VTKilarney]

Will the beds have Quilts on them?

I'm not sure, but the word on the street is that the bathrooms will have lots of Q-tips. Actually, I should keep my mouth shut. That may wind up being their next ski school marketing slogan.

 

[thetrailboss]

I have not been to Jay in some time, but on my visits before the big expansion there were lots of folks from Quebec and BTV. Not many locals per se because there just aren't that many relatively speaking.

Burke, on the other hand, relies more on the folks in their backyard and the (relatively few) BMA affiliated family and friends that ski there. Hence why they need to be more diplomatic about all things local.

Obviously they are anticipating an increase in skier days when the hotel opens but the market is flat right now and I just don't know whose skiers they are going to steal.

 

[dlague]

Ouch! That is a BIG logo!

 

[VTKilarney]

I'll repost it with a smaller version. (Note: original post was just deleted, and is now reproduced with a smaller image immediately below at #1281.) For some reason, when I edited the original post to swap out a smaller image it kept the original (large) image in the post as an attached image.