Stratton Mountain Resort goes mobile for skiers

December 4, 2007

Stratton Mountain Resort provides real-time weather updates via text messaging

Mobile media company G8wave Holdings Inc. and digital distribution firm JL360 have debuted a mobile effort for Stratton Mountain Resort to provide skiers with real-time weather updates and service offerings via text messaging.

JL360 and g8wave designed a mobilized version of Stratton's Web site at www.stratton.com, which allows visitors to access weather conditions, information about events, dining and shopping and other special offers all on their mobile device.

"We set up their WAP site and came up with very specific programs tailored to the community to deliver up-to-date information to skiers who frequent the mountain," said Habib Khoury, president/CEO of g8wave, Boston.

Stratton is leveraging all its media verticals to drive subscribers to Stratton Mobile at www.stratton.com/mobile. Consumers need only text Stratton to 22122 to receive up-to-the-minute information and special offers via SMS.

Advertisements will be included as part of the message that gets delivered to subscribers. Participating advertisers include local ski vendors, in addition to various beverage companies, Mr. Khoury said.

The messages will be delivered to tens of thousands of Stratton clients from New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

By providing up-to-date information about the customer's immediate environment, the messages are seen as relevant information and not advertisements, Mr. Khoury said.

"We're trying to wrap the advertising in a commerce event or a promotion event so that it is more meaningful to the subscriber," Mr. Khoury said.

"Consumers tend to look for things that are targeted... A skier would not necessarily be interested in a cleaning product, but I think that skiers would want to know about a coupon for a Tecnica boot or a coupon for skis," he said.

Stratton Mountain Resort is located on the shoulders of Southern Vermont's highest mountain. It offers skiing and snowboarding, golf, tennis and hiking -- all centered around a mix of family and fine dining and shopping.

"The Stratton community tends to be one that transcends season -- there are a lot of subscribers that come year round," Mr. Khoury said.

Users will continue to be part of the community -- receiving the SMS messages once they leave the mountain -- until they opt-out of the program.

G8wave provides mobile content distribution services, mobile marketing applications and consulting, and mobile community development services. The company seeks to position itself as a premier provider of mobile marketing services.

"Part of the downstream services we see is users being able to redeem a coupon on the fly by taking their mobile device into the store," Mr. Khoury said.

"More and more brands are waking up to the notion that they need to leverage the mobile channel as part of a unified strategy that includes Web, WAP, phone and print," he said.