Aspen Skiing Co.’s print advertising campaign for the '11-12 season “aims to capture a feeling of what the resort/community embraces and thus far sets it apart from the rest,” according to Carolyn Sackariason of the ASPEN DAILY NEWS. The new concept “harkens back to the Aspen Idea, when visionaries Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke helped create a resort community that centered around mind, body and spirit.” The ads reflect what Aspen “was before it was a ski town -- full of history, culture, recreational opportunities and community.” One ad reads in bold print, “Before Aspen, mountain was never cosmopolitan.” In smaller print below it reads, “Very few places will you find ski bums sharing cocktails with jet setters. The heart of a city. The soul of a mountain town. This is Aspen/Snowmass.” Sackariason noted the copy is "laid out over large-scale imagery of people walking on the Cooper Avenue mall at Galena Street at night.” A separate ad for Snowmass “shows a colorful photo of a little girl with bold print that reads: ‘Before Snowmass, happily ever after only happened in fairy tales.'” The SkiCo “has bought space” for the print ads in several publications, including Outside, Snow, Mountain Sports + Living, Transworld and Freeskier. SkiCo VP/Marketing Christian Knapp, who developed this campaign, said that the ads “will run from October through February.” Knapp added that while the “print buy has been scaled back, there will be a ramp-up in utilizing the digital world, through online advertising and search engine management.” SkiCo has become “heavily invested in social media” such as Twitter, Foursquare and YouTube. The company also is working with “local resort and government officials in their commitment to collectively provide tens of thousands of dollars in marketing efforts to American Airlines, which will enter the Aspen market for the first time this December” (ASPEN DAILY NEWS, 9/6).
