Situation
Taking a vision to reality, and spreading the brand throughout North America and across the ocean, requires a multi-pronged and multi-year strategic communications effort. Red Sky CEO Jessica Flynn was part of the agency team during the grand opening seasons for Tamarack Resort from 2004-2006, then was brought in-house in 2006 to run global media relations for North America’s first new all-season destination in 20 years.
From 2004-2006, the focus was on marking the historic nature of the resort opening, and getting a foot in the door with media influencers in multiple verticals: real estate, travel, sports, general business and lifestyle. Not only did the agency team have to introduce Tamarack, it also had to introduce Idaho to national media audiences. With bare-bone amenities and more vision than
reality, selling that vision in a compelling and authentic way to media was key.
From 2006-2008, the tide shifted as Tamarack’s infrastructure and investment growth put the resort on the global stage. National sports competitions, celebrity investors and record-breaking real estate investment brought the spotlight. The PR effort ratcheted up as Flynn launched the in-house communication department.
Strategy
As Tamarack physically grew, so did its popularity. A broad, proactive “pay attention to us!” PR effort shifted in 2006 to a more focused approach that targeted specific industry verticals (luxury, golf, real estate, mountain biking, spa, culinary, meetings, etc.) and bolstered the reactive capabilities of the small in-house team.
Flynn developed the communication infrastructure pieces needed to handle the daily needs of global media, and an equally important secondary purpose — to harness the marketing power of the 400+ employee base. The strategy and tactics for this proactive-reactive effort included:
- Design, development and oversight of the online and printed bi-annual media kit (winner of two Press Club awards for Best Media Kit). She also led the way for the company to use media kit material and media coverage as the basis for employee on-boarding and internal communication efforts
- Spokesperson duties for resort-wide video, regional print and broadcast media and national broadcast media
- Development and national distribution of two dozen news releases (via newswire and direct email) and hundreds of customized story pitches
- Managed media for two U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix events — broadcast on NBC and attracting 40+ journalists
- Grand opening of the Osprey Meadows Golf Course and the national campaign to highlight the course, resulting in multiple Top Course honors
- Grand opening of Idaho’s first Zipline Tour
- Grand opening of the Lodge at Osprey Meadows
- Facilitation of more than a half dozen film and video shoots on the mountain in winter and summer
- Management of Snowsports journalists conference for 25 guests
- Outreach and booking of media interviews at national tradeshows and events
- Celebrity media coordination at ESPY Awards luxury suite
- Facilitated more than 100 individual media FAM tours
- Multiple real estate releases and business/real estate media outreach
- Four-season preview media blitzes for Intermountain West media
- Crisis communication for the summer 2007 fire season
- Crisis communication for the February 2008 financial troubles
- Strategic counsel to senior management for all crisis communications, public affairs, internal communications initiatives, message development and led all reactive and proactive global media relations efforts.
Flynn was also involved in the start up of the Payette River Mountains Visitors Association, and the collaborative promotion of the region on a national level through that organization and shared media FAM trips to the region (working with Brundage Mountain, Whitetail Club, Jug Mountain, McCall Chamber, Ashley Inn). She also led the way in collaborating with regional and statewide tourism, sports and economic development organizations on proactive public relations efforts.
Results
For the grand opening year, media outreach efforts led to intense and high-level coverage, including features in New York Times, USA Today, The New York Post, Ski Magazine, Skiing Magazine, Sunset Magazine, Outside Magazine and hundreds of dailies across the country — reaching a circulation audience of more than 174 million in 2004 alone.
At the height of Tamarack’s success (2006-2008), media coverage reached a circulation of more than 355 million, including features in top-tier global lifestyle, real estate, travel, daily news and business outlets such as USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Irish Times, Sunday Times, SKI magazine, Sunset, Mountain Living, Men’s Journal, National Geographic Adventurer, Golf Digest, Golf Magazine, Portland Monthly, Seattle Metropolitan and Bloomberg Markets Magazine.