Winter 2016


Icelantic built their online presence with a steady, organic approach. Every piece of communication the brand produces drives consumers to the website.


website specifically as a sales tool, and whenever you create a website, you have to ask what the purpose is,” Loevlie says. “Ours is designed to bring all degrees of our brand together in one space, to make visitors feel like they are a part of the communit


“This is the firThis is the first time we have designed the pecifically as a sales tool, and whene ite, y


rs is designed to bring all degrees of one spac


and our social channels and read the brand story. And now you can also buy our products.”


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community. You see the blog read the br products.


While one marketing employee is tasked with procuring and distributing content, at a company with just four full-time employees (and 15 overall, excluding manufacturing), everyone needs to pitch in, including the brand’s sponsored athletes, who send imagery from locales around the world. A yearly calendar governs the marketing process, largely based on product launches, events, and art unveilings (the ski graphics come from original art by cofounder and artist Travis Parr). “We try to time launches on the new site with different print executions or promotional newsletters with ski publications to help drive traffic,” Loevlie says. Icelantic built their online presence with a steady, organic approach. Every piece of communication the brand produces drives consumers to the website. They collected emails every time they came in contact with a consumer, from on-mountain demo days to online giveaways. To maintain a list of willing subscribers, they’ve never purchased an email list. The email newsletters, which always come from a staff member with a signature at the bottom, are an impactful tool, funneling subscribers to Icelantic’s social media channels and content. Loevlie herself writes a number of the company email communications.


pitch h re g nnels mber of the


“We get hundreds of replies saying thanks for the words,” she says. “The copy is done in a peropy is done in a personal tone, like you are talking to your best friend. We want our messaging to be real, so that consumers are hearing directly from us..” With a target market that cares about quality and sustainability, Icelantic uses


s sa to y Annelise Loevlie CEO, Icelantic ectly W t mark


bout qualit abilit


“Made in the USA”


Fast Tracks, a paid membership program, allows brand enthusiasts a chance to take ski trips with the staff and purchase products at member prices. Membership opportunities sold out in eight hours!


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messaging in their marketing. Also, as an internal guide, they “won’t do anything if it’s not high qualit


quality and made in America,” Loevlie says. “It’s a huge part of our messaging.”


A paid membership program called First Tracks, promoted via the email newsletter and having its own landing page, offers brand enthusiasts a chance to take ski trips with the staff, access private events, and purchase products at member prices. The program, which is capped at 200 members, sold out one year in eight hours, proving to Loevlie that people desire a communal connection with the brand. Early on, much of the company’s advertising was print focused to gain brand validation in annual ski-magazine buyer’s guides. They now have an added focus with ski media on securing PR in print publications and adding more online advertising to track ROI. Brand partnerships have been effective since


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omoted via the em wn landi


enthusiasts a chance ate e


member price 200 memb oving


con


the early days, when Icelantic hung two pairs of skis on the walls of Tommyknocker Brewery in nearby Idaho Springs, Colorado, where the group grew up. By offering a chance to win the gear, they


gathered thousands of emails that winter. “You don’t have to have money to partner with a brand,” Loevlie says. “That’s WHY you partner with brands. Doing that early on, we saw the value in it.” Recently, they partnered with Jeep and Oskar


Blues Brewery, who last year put the “Road to the Rocks” program on seven million cans of its Dale’s Pale Ale in 36 states, giving consumers a chance to win a grand-prize trip to Icelantic’s “Winter on the Rocks” concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver in January. The first-of-its-kind winter show has quickly become a tradition for many skiers, ski media, and Icelantic dealers. “The overall intention is to touch people in more areas of their lives than just the mountain,” Loevlie says. “It’s a bunch of little, creative things that all add up and connect to a whole.” 


, as an inte s not hig vlie


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