Crowning A Champ
After a five-year closure, Saddleback Mountain in Rangeley, Maine made a comeback for the ages in 2020. Year one of Saddleback’s reopening saw solid skier visitation, but year two lacked growth and fell short of the first year’s visitation numbers.
Saddleback’s main competitors were all bought up by the same deep-pocketed corporate conglomerate, and the mountain needed to differentiate itself from the Goliaths while increasing skier visits to prove solvency to the new owners who brought it back to life.
Enter WFTW.
Maine’s Favorite Mountain™
In a “make or break” situation, WFTW was tasked with growing skier visitation for the 2022/2023 ski season by 30%. So we put a stake in the snow and convinced the client to go right at the big guys by declaring Saddleback “Maine’s Favorite Mountain” and spending the entire season telling people why.
Donny “Friggin” Pelletier
Our coup d'état, though, was bringing ski influencer Donny Pelletier to the mountain halfway through the season for a covert content grab. We dropped our “Donny Does Saddleback” series over a two-week span in January, giving our client a viral hit and racking up more than 2 million earned impressions.
The campaign resulted in a 32% increase in skier-visits when compared to the previous two-year average, and 35% year-over. Research revealed a 400% increase in un-aided brand awareness. And in April 2023, “Maine’s Favorite Mountain” was selected as a finalist for Best Overall Marketing Campaign at the National Ski Area Associations Awards.
“WFTW has a broad and unique skill set. From branding and creative messaging to ROI-based decisions, and everything in between. They constantly think about how to drive results through traditional methods, and at the same time, explore out of the box ideas. They listen, reflect, and deliver pointed impactful communications across all spectrums. They’re great partners, in all respects, and are fun to work with.”
CEO, Saddleback Mountain
