Company Updates
PARTNER ACTIVATIONS
PEPSICO'S
A WALL RIDE WITH AN UPSIDE , opens in a new window
Breckenridge has partnered with Mountain Dew to build a custom wall ride feature constructed of recycled PET bottles and flexible snack packaging materials. Together Mountain Dew and Breckenridge are contributing to Vail Resorts' commitment to achieve zero waste to landfill by 2030.
GMC + hospitality PROPERTIES
Next Generation Yukon XL
The popular hotel courtesy vehicle program got an upgrade with the arrival of a new fleet of GMC Yukon XL Denali vehicles. Guests staying at the Arrabelle, Lodge at Vail, Vail Marriott, Osprey, The Pines, One Ski Hill Place, Grand Summit, DoubleTree by Hilton Breckenridge and Keystone Lodge and Spa enjoy complimentary ride service to the slopes, villages or town—now in the Next Generation Yukon Denali XL.
Nature Valley's
Ski & Snowboard Club Vail Support , opens in a new window
Nature Valley secured the title sponsorship alongside Arrigoni Woods for the Ski & Snowboard Club Vail for the 20/21 season. As the official bib sponsor for the sanctioned Alpine Events and Nordic Town series, Nature Valley supports the local club by helping young athletes and intermediate ski racers into the sport and beyond.
Arterra Wines'
Fine Dining with a View
At Christine's on Blackcomb and Steeps Bar & Grill, guests were able to book a table through the Time to Dine tool in EpicMix via the app store. This provided an experience to wine and dine at 6000 feet / 1828 meters at Whistler Blackcomb this winter.
Starbucks'
Filling Our Guests' Cup
Once again, Starbucks is filling our guests’ cup this winter. They can enjoy the familiar taste of the iconic brand at Food & Beverage locations across the West, the Rockies and Whistler Blackcomb. Pass holders even get 20% off their caffeine boost with Epic Mountain Rewards.
GMC's
Whistler Blackcomb Race Centre , opens in a new window
More than 16,000 skiers and snowboarders raced at the GMC Race Centre this season! Open every week from Thursday to Monday, the GMC Race Centre was groomed and reset daily by 10 a.m. with a dual Giant Slalom course. The timed course was free and set on an intermediate slope open to skiers, snowboarders and telemarkers of all ages. The GMC Race Center hosted 9 activation days between December and March, during which visitors enjoyed racing tips from a Whistler Pro, Bernie Yau, and GMC swag.
The North Face's
Remade Contest
Because our community needed a little bit of love, The North Face and Whistler Blackcomb partnered up to offer the chance to win a one of a kind Remade Nuptse Vest from The North Face. The Remade collection is a line of creatively repaired, one-of-a-kind styles created by upcycling The North Face products and fabrics in new ways. Aligning to Vail Resorts Commitment to Zero sustainability goal, this initiative ran from January 8th-22nd and received over 900 entries with the help from local TNF athlete Leanne Pelosi.
Telus'
Face Masks , opens in a new window
As the official Telecommunications partner of Whistler Blackcomb for 17 years, TELUS offers Free Wi-Fi across the property to ensure guests stay connected while experiencing our world-class resort. This year, we made a significant investment in order to extend TELUS’ world-leading network even further across our property, enabling a faster, more widespread connection wherever you find yourself on the mountain. On Opening Day, TELUS also distributed high-quality face masks to keep our guests safe and reinforced their brand platform “Together, let’s make the future friendly”.
GoPro's Best 20/21 Posts
Icebreaker's
BRANDED CABINS , opens in a new window
As the official base layer and sock provider of Whistler Blackcomb, Icebreaker outfitted the resort’s Guest Relations, Snow School Sales and Summer Patrol teams. The company also invited guests to “ride Merino” in their two new branded cabins on the Excalibur line. Messaging inside the gondola invites guests to learn more about Icebreaker’s journey to offer all plastic-free fabrics by 2023.
Anheuser Busch's
ULTRA HAUS , opens in a new window
From January through April, Anheuser-Busch secured a long-term rental of Trappers Cabin at Beaver Creek and rebranded the property as the ULTRA Haus. The property was outfitted with signage and Michelob Ultra décor. Each weekend, Anheuser-Busch used the property to host employees, distributors, and influencers. As part of the experience, Anheuser-Busch created the “Win a weekend at ULTRA Haus” sweepstakes, open to Colorado residents.
PEPSICO's
bubly tube park at Whistler Blackcomb , opens in a new window
On December 16, 2021 Whistler Blackcomb opened the brand new bubly Tube Park for guests to enjoy. With the PepsiCo partnership expanding to Whistler Blackcomb, the tube park has received a brand-new look and feel! No skill or equipment required, just a sense of adventure and desire for excitement.
Oakley's
Own The Mountain – Breckenridge & Vail
This year Oakley took an alternative spin to their original Oakley Week activation and decided to host a digitally-led mountain takeover at 2 Vail Resorts locations. The new initiative gave guests the chance to win prizes both on resort and via social, all in the name of sports and just for #TheLoveOfSports. Guests were given a daily update of which Prizm lens they should be wearing based on the weather conditions from a variety of touchpoints including signage at the base of key chairlifts and via social media. In addition, daily Golden Tickets were hidden around the mountain with clues posted on resort Instagram channels. A day-long "Shred Hunt" encouraged resort guests to find all 8 Prizm lenses hidden across the mountain for a chance to win an Oakley Prize Pack which drove visitation back to retail stores. To drive overall participation and awareness across the channels, Oakley invited their followers to share a photo or video of them at each resort in the last 5 years for a chance to win more Oakley prizing.
Nature Valley's
Spring on your Mask
In support of spring break and our ‘Spring on your Mask’ campaign, Nature Valley was provided the opportunity to help with mask compliance among our guests at some of our targeted resorts. The strategy was to focus on the parking lots and to encourage arriving guests to wear a mask by handing out complimentary CDC compliant masks via roaming Brand Ambassadors. In the afternoon upon returning to their vehicles, guests were surprised with complementary Nature Valley bars as a thank you for visiting and snack for their journey home. Over 9 days at 5 resorts saw 4,500 masks and 14,000 Nature Valley bars were distributed and sampled at 5 resorts over 9 days during the spring break period.
American Express's
Joint Marketing Program
Vail Resorts partnered with American Express to create an offer exclusive to American Express card members. The Amex Offer was featured on American Express's website and incentivized card member spend via a statement credit on qualifying purchases at Vail, Beaver Creek and Park City resorts.
COMMITMENT TO ZERO
COMPANY , opens in a new window
As a company we are on track to reach our industry-leading Commitment to Zero goal to achieve a zero net operating footprint by 2030. Announced in 2017, the three pillars of this commitment include (1) zero net emissions by 2030 with 50 percent progress toward this goal by 2025, (2) zero waste to landfill by 2030 and increasing waste diversion to 50 percent by the end of 2020, and (3) zero net operating impact on forests and habitat. Learn more about our progress at the 'Learn More' link below.
Partnerships are an important way we’ll reach our Commitment to Zero goal, and we would like to thank partners like PepsiCo and Eco-Products, who have championed these collective sustainability efforts throughout their partnership this year.
Partnerships are an important way we’ll reach our Commitment to Zero goal, and we would like to thank partners like PepsiCo and Eco-Products, who have championed these collective sustainability efforts throughout their partnership this year.
PEPSICO , opens in a new window
This past summer, PepsiCo expanded its commitment to waste reduction by partnering with international recycling leader TerraCycle to roll out a snack wrapper collection program across our Rocky Mountain resorts to turn our waste into new unique features like picnic tables, Adirondack chairs, and terrain park features. Check out the great partnership story at the link below on our Epic Promise page.
ECO-PRODUCTS , opens in a new window
Vail Resorts is eliminating all single-use, guest-facing conventional plastic products across its resorts, and Eco-Products is supporting these efforts to ensure all disposable food and beverage items like cups, utensils, grab-and-go containers are plant-based products that align with our regional waste streams. Check out how they are helping us #putwastetowork.
Blackcomb Helicopter's
100% CARBON NEUTRAL FLIGHTS , opens in a new window
Flights with Whistler Heli-Skiing and our partner Blackcomb Helicopters are committed to being 100% carbon neutral.
Employee Engagement
Helly Hansen's
TRUST Tour
For the second year running, Helly Hansen hosted the TRUST Tour. For this iteration, Helly Hansen pivoted from the in-person format to a virtual one. The event is designed to bring together members of the on-snow community with Helly Hansen designers, their uniform team, and brand experts. The tour creates a platform to exchange ideas and learn from the staff’s experiences in-uniform in order to design the next generation of uniforms. Additionally, Helly Hansen highlights their newest technologies and updates employees’ pro-deals.
Clif Bar's
Employee Avalanche Safety Presentation
Clif Bar leveraged their relationship with Whistler local big mountain professional skier Tobin Seagel to hold an informal avalanche safety presentation. Tobin discussed the ‘Go or no go decisions in the backcountry: how do you manage risk when the decision isn't obvious,’ providing real life examples from almost two decades of chasing big backcountry lines across the world, from our backyard in Whistler to Baffin Island.
Oakley's
Ambassador Program
Oakley partnered with Breckenridge and Whistler Blackcomb to expand their Ambassador program to 30 Ski and Snowboard Instructors. This initiative leverages the best instructors at the resorts to attend a virtual product knowledge session with their local Oakley Marketing rep. In return receive a pair of Oakley goggles of their choice. Acting as brand ambassadors with their new found knowledge can provide their clients with knowledge on the latest technology and recommendations on the best goggles to suit their needs.
LaBatt's
Jacket Contribution
Labatt helped our F&B staff at our bars in Whistler Blackcomb stay warm this winter by providing jackets to many employees who had to stand outside with new COVID protocols.
PEPSICO, ECO-PRODUCTS, HELLY HANSEN, NATURE VALLEY AND OAKLEY'S
EPICPROMISE CHALLENGE SUPPORT
Earlier in March our partners PepsiCo, Eco-Products, Helly Hansen, Nature Valley and Oakley supported our interactive staff engagement program, My EpicPromise Challenge. The My EpicPromise Challenge ran for the month of March and invited Vail Resorts employees to completed fun activities at their resorts and in their communities for a chance to win RAD prizes. We thank our partners for supporting our EpicPromise mission to support the health and sustainability of our local communities, employees, and the planet.
TEAM UPDATES
Welcome Luggage Forward , opens in a new window
We are thrilled to announce our new Strategic Alliance partnership with Luggage Forward, a door-to-door luggage and sports equipment delivery service. The service allows skiers and snowboarders to ship their gear and luggage in advance of visiting the mountain properties; no more lugging gear through the airport. Luggage Forward shares our commitment to guest satisfaction and the environment. Luggage Forward will offset all emissions generated by shipments to and from Vail Resorts locations through its longstanding partnership with carbonfund.org.
Vice President, Brand Strategy
Welcome, Scott Baldwin
In January 2021 we welcomed our new VP of Brand Strategy, Scott Baldwin, to Vail Resorts. Scott has spent the past 17 years building brands in the US, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Scott joins us from General Mills in Minneapolis, where he most recently led the growth for $1B+ brand franchises in cereal and snacks. During his career at General Mills, he has lived in the US, Philippines and Dubai. His wife and their 4 children are currently working on relocating to Colorado. In his new role, he will be leading the centralized resort Brand Teams, Guest Insights, Content Marketing, Hospitality Marketing, and Strategic Alliance.
