Car sponsorship trends in the ski industry

Yesterday, we talked about Toyota taking over Audi as the official car of the US Ski Team.

Today, we'll try to figure if skiing still is a good avenue for a car maker to spend its promotional dollars.

Obviously, most skiers are affluent and able to afford expensive cars, but how does being the official car of the national team, a specific ski resort or the national ski patrol impact consumers?

Probably not as much today as Saab enjoyed when it equipped the Aspen Police Department in 1974. At that time, most cars where rear-propulsion and the Saab front-wheel-drive stood out among sedans and made the Swedish brand a must have when driving on snow. As the story goes, Aspen PD was undecided between the Saab and the Ford Bronco, and in the end, Saab offered a better deal, as the brand wanted to use the Aspen PD in its advertising.

Today, everyone from Audi to Volvo offers an SUV, and motorists assume that all are equal on snow. In Utah, Subaru is the official car at Snowbird, GMC at all Vail Resorts and Acura at Sundance.

Closer to home, Deer Valley Resort has enjoyed for several years a sponsorship deal with Cadillac, a brand perceived as “old”, at a resort where most guests drive BMW, Mercedes and Tesla, all stand-out products that leave the aging GM-built SUV design in the dust; I should say, “into a light dust of deep Utah powder...”

Does this kind of sponsorship help the brands? I seriously doubt it because the impact is now leveled off. In 2016, Toyota sponsorship budget was 7 time that of the group VW, so this might be a compelling reason why the Japanese automaker was able to displace Audi in supporting the US Ski Team!