DewMass Marketing

DewMass Marketing was developed as an Experiential Learning Class for the UMass Sport Management department in Fall 2008. This

year, a team consisting of 15 of the departments’ best students were once again tasked with developing and executing a comprehensive marketing plan around the Toyota Championship at Mount Snow by

targeting local teens and college students.

While the class is largely independent, they are in constant contact with Alli and Mount Snow staff overseeing the process.

Goals & Objectives

Goals:• Create Winter Dew Tour awareness in market

• Drive attendance to Mount Snow event by targeting teens and college students (12-25 year olds)

Objectives:• Develop promotions and distribute collateral throughout the

community and local market

• Generate local business partnerships

• Establish positive community outreach

To accomplish these goals, the class was split into 3 departments: Promotions, Advertising, and Partnerships

Promotions Department

This department was responsible for setting up different promotional events on- and off-campus.

• Typical setup of a promotion included: branded tent, table, prize wheel, Carinthia & Winter Dew Tour giveaway items

• All promotions were staffed by various class members from all departments

• The class collected email addresses for their database by requiring people to sign up in order to spin the prize wheel

• Promotional items included: Winter Dew Tour posters, coasters, stickers, bandanas, Carinthia pint glasses & giveaways

• To supplement these items, the class also produced several custom promotional items: t-shirts, sunglasses, drawstring bags, post-it notes

Calendar of Events

• November 3rd: Level 1 Movie Premiere• November 17th: Meatheads Movie Premiere, Charlie’s Bar • November 18-20th: UMass Ski & Board Club Sale• November 19th: Arizona Pizza Kitchen• November 22nd: Warren Miller Movie Premiere, Packard’s Bar

• December 1st: McMurphy’s Bar• December 5th: UConn Tailgate, Amherst Bball Tourney• December 7th: DC Tabling• December 8th: Stacker’s Bar• December 9th: DC Tabling

• January 24th: Buffalo Wild Wings/Amherst HS Night• January 25th: DC Tabling• January 26th: The Pub Bar• January 27th: DC Tabling

The class set up a series of promotions that targeted their audience.

Custom Promotional Items

T-SHIRTS

BAGS

SUNGLASSES

On-Campus Promotions

UMass Football Tailgate▫ Homecoming weekend▫ Branded booth in parking lot

Cafeteria Tabling▫ Branded table at entrance to

cafeteria

Dorm storming▫ Flyers & printed sticky notes

Meatheads Movie Premiere▫ Reached core ski audience▫ Gave presentation before movie

Ski n Board Club Sale▫ 4,000+ core customers

On-Campus Promotions

Mount Snow Yeti▫ “Viral” concept to generate buzz▫ Yeti attended various promotions▫ Posters were hung around

campus encouraging people to take pictures of the Yeti to win Dew Tour swag

Off-Campus Promotions

Colorado Ski Shop Rail Jam▫ Springfield, MA▫ Reached core audience

Warren Miller Movie Premiere▫ Northampton, MA▫ Highly-attended core event with

lots of families▫ Hosted Winter Dew Tour after-

party at Packard’s Bar

UConn Football Game Tailgate▫ Branded booth promotion in

tailgate area before the game

Bar Promotion Tour

Partnered with local radio station Hits 94.3

▫ :30 promo spots

▫ Live reads

▫ Radio remotes from the bar stops

▫ Radio van presence at each stop

The class developed the concept of a “bar tour” that took place over the course of the winter season. Each bar hosted a Winter Dew Tour theme night, with special drinks, promotions, and swag giveaways. Cards were made and distributed at each event to encourage attendance at all future stops. Anyone who got their card stamped at all 4 events was entered to win the Grand Prize.

Restaurant Nights

Arizona Pizza Buffalo Wild Wings

• Dew Tour Trivia Night

• Giveaways/raffles

• Marketing activation

• Combined with Amherst Regional High School

• Raised awareness to high school students

• 10% of proceeds donated to Hurricanes’ Booster Club

• Created goodwill within community

Advertising Department

The functions of the advertising department were to:• Design creative for all custom promotional materials

• Secure Winter Dew Tour advertising space across print, outdoor, online media

• Maintain a Toyota Championship facebook group targeted towards local college students

• Send out occasional emails to the database

Online

• Facebook▫ Set up “Winter Dew Tour – Mount Snow” facebook group

▫ The group accumulated 500+ members prior to the event

• Email Database▫ Expanded their email database to 1,800 people this year

▫ Emails were sent out every few weeks, detailing upcoming promotional events and the Toyota Championship

Transit Advertising

PVTA (Pioneer Valley Transit Authority)▫ Ads ran on the interior of all 32 PVTA buses that service UMass▫ Timeframe: 1 month before event (January 2010)▫ Reach: est. 300,000+ riders in January

Print Advertising

• Daily Collegian▫ Campus newspaper▫ Print advertisement▫ Timeframe: Mon, Jan 25 through the event (2 weeks)▫ Located next to Sudoku

Partnerships Department

The partnerships department worked with local organizations to develop marketing opportunities. Partners included:

• High schools

• Media outlets

• Community recreation departments

• Core shops

• Delivery restaurants

• Snowsearch

PR

Daily Collegian• Campus newspaper wrote an

article on the class• Included quotes from Chris

Prybylo and Greg Fisher• Featured some great Toyota

Championship mentions, including describing it as the “last major winter sports event before the 2010 Olympics”

Press releases on the class’ activities were sent out periodically to news outlets, including Hampshire Gazette, Amherst Bulletin, Burlington Free Press, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, Springfield Republican, Masslive.com

Partnerships

Amherst Leisure Services• Targeted families in Amherst who are already involved with Ski trips

and Basketball Tournaments• Received contact information and sent event reminders

Fat-Trax & Competitive Edge• Local ski & board shops

• Held promotions at various discount and product demonstration days in December and January

• Receive contact information for customers

Local Delivery Restaurants• Pioneer Valley Pizza, DP Dough, and The Hangar

• Flyers were attached to each delivery order• Estimated reach: 2,000+ (mostly college students)

Partnerships

Battle of Ski ‘n’ Board Clubs• Worked with ski ‘n’ board clubs from

the area’s “Big 5” schools

• Offered bus trips to Mount Snow on Saturday 2/6 for club members

• SnoSearch organized the day trips and sent out flyers to participating organizations

• $1,000 prize awarded to the ski ‘n’board club sending the most people

High School Program

The class also supervised a group of 3 high school students executing a marketing plan at Amherst High▫ Posters in Amherst High School▫ DVD projector played Dew Tour video during lunch▫ High school ski team contacted the ski teams at other schools to

tell them about the event▫ Ski teams at other schools in turn spread the word to their peers▫ Passed out stickers, bandanas, t-shirts, postcards▫ Post-it notes scattered across the school

DewMass Recap

DewMass Marketing, in its 2nd year of working with Alli and Mount Snow, continued to build off the success that last year’s class had. Highlights include:

• 20+ promotional events attended

• Development of the Winter Dew Tour “Bar Tour”

• 15+ local partnerships

• Dedicated news story from the Daily Collegian

• Creation and management of a new marketing team at the high school

We look for this partnership to become bigger and better in years to come!