Every winter, millions of skiers hit the slopes across North America, completing an estimated 78.4 million ski visits each season. Some 15.8 million ski visits—roughly 20% of the North American market—happen at a property owned by Vail Resorts, the premier mountain resort company in the world.
Vail Resorts runs the #1, #2, and #3 most-visited ski resorts in North America: Vail Mountain Resort, Breckenridge Ski Resort, and Park City Resort. In total, the company owns 42 mountain resorts, in the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, Northern California, Switzerland, Australia and other top destinations. The company’s Retail and Rental business unit is responsible for retail sales and gear rentals at its resorts.
Every year, the company’s Retail and Rental business unit runs targeted, omnichannel ad campaigns to existing and prospective guests, using a mix of email, direct mail, promotional programs, digital marketing, and traditional media.
During the most recent ski season, Vail Resorts’ Retail and Rental division worked with Start.io to build targeted ad campaigns using a mix of first-party guest data from Vail Resorts, and audience segmentation and targeting data from Start.io.
Start.io targeted likely skiers and snowboarders living in specific cities near Vail Resorts properties. The results were impressive, with Start.io beating the performance of competing ad-serving platforms in cost-per-click (CPC), clickthrough rate (CTR) and cost per mille (CPM).
Cost-per-click performance exceeded Vail Resorts’ Retail and Rental benchmarks by an average of 16%.
“We have been pleased with the results seen from Start.io for our Retail and Rental businesses, with improved performance across many of our key metrics when compared to other partners,” said Jon Secrett, Senior Manager of Vail Resorts’ Retail and Rental business unit. “The team is knowledgeable and responsive, helping to drive efficiency and greater performance.”
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