We were absolutely thrilled to see some of our recent branding work was profiled as Logo of the Week by Australian-based Logo Chief. Since the snow has now melted and there’s a couple of facts to set straight we should provide our own profile of this successful case study.
The Marketing Challenge
The Toronto Ski Club is one of the oldest ski clubs in Ontario. And, along with the Collingwood Ski Club, owns about half of the ski hill at the popular Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood, Ontario. It’s private clubhouse sits at the base of Blue and was built in the 50’s after the founding members had strapped on their skies and discovered the superior skiing north of Toronto.
But the clubhouse needed a little work. About $3 million worth. And, in order to fund that, the club needed to put on a push for new members.
Example of Publicity for New Clubhouse courtesy of Escarpment Magazine
The Branding Strategy
The club had a lot of assets.
- A great membership base famous for its warmth.
- A rich and colourful history in pioneering skiing in Canada.
- Access to the best ski resort in Ontario and, through it, potential exposure to tens of thousands of skiers and potential members.
But the club, despite its proud history, had been under-marketed and the research we conducted found that 40% of the people who skied at Blue Mountain had never even heard of the Toronto Ski Club despite its role as one of the founders of the hill. The website didn’t rank well, its powerful history and modern story were not well-told online. And the brand identity – completely redone in the last 10 years – didn’t leverage the history as an asset. It was if we had the history of the Montreal Canadiens but were using the logo of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
Meanwhile, the affluent, 40ish families it was trying to attract were showing a renewed affection for brands that have a ‘cool history’. Fueled partly by the patriotism of the Vancouver Olympics, retro clothing for Canadian brands like Hudson’s Bay and CBC were flying off the shelves as consumers turned to brands that were authentic and local.
Could we develop a branding strategy that leveraged the history in a way that made new members want to join and existing members want to buy clothing that would give the club greater visibility on the hill?
And could we wrap it all up in a website that told the story and ranked better?
The Solution
Contrary to what the Logo Chief piece says we brought in top design firm, Amoeba Corp, part of the John St. agency. They not only did work for Hudson’s Bay but they also had done the logo for the extremely popular Toronto FC major league soccer team. Following the strategy the team poured through the history books to develop a logo that provided a modern take on the original design from 1924.
(Why a single pole? We didn’t know either till we found out that the original members back in ‘24 used a ‘ski staff’, not two ski poles. That’s cool.)
And crafted a bit of digital storytelling that went like this:
It started in 1924 with a trailblazing membership that made it their mission to explore and ski as much downhill terrain as they could find, and who ultimately played a pivotal role in the establishment of skiing on the Niagara Escarpment. And it has continually strengthened over the years, with a family of members that actively embrace and enjoy the winter months with boundless enthusiasm and a pioneering spirit.
Today, the TSC’s private clubhouse proudly sits at the base of Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ontario and the club continues to welcome the winter with best in class alpine programs, unrivaled hospitality, and an exceptional vantage point from which families can share their enthusiasm for the season’s pleasures.
The Toronto Ski Club at Blue Mountain. Loving winter since 1924.
Sweet. Cool ski clothing was created using a couple of variations of the design.
And the site was re-built around this story, taken out of a Flash format and augmented with top keywords to get it ranking and quotes from existing members to boost conversion. The Facebook page was also optimized and reinvigorated.
The Results
- The site moved from page 3 on Google to a high position on page 1.
- Site traffic increased by 101%
- Average pageviews increased by 7%
- Clothing sales hit an all-time high
- The club exceeded its membership goals for this past winter; almost tripling the number of test-drive members
- In fact, membership goals have almost been reached for next winter and there’s not a snowflake in sight.
Changing branding with a well-established organization is never easy as the Gap and Starbucks well know. You’re messing with something sacred so it was nice to get notes like this:
“As a long time member of the Toronto Ski Club, I appreciate and commend Bob Nunn for his skillful management of an important but contentious project including both, the development, as well as the membership “sell through”, of a rebranding of our club’s visual identity.”
We recognize the support of the members and Blue Mountain Resort and the incredible execution of the staff and volunteer members in achieving these results. Hope this inspires your own online branding challenges.
Bob Nunn is an award winning internet marketing consultant based in Toronto passionate about building brands by tuning-up their online marketing and conquering the halfpipe. Does your internet marketing need a tune-up? Contact us to learn how an 11-point audit can create a roadmap to get your brand revved up online.
