How Whistler Blackcomb used HootSuite to maximize their campaign efficiency and resources. Every January, Whistler Blackcomb hosts the Deep Winter Photo Challenge presented by ARC’TERYX. Professional photographers are encouraged to shoot in-bounds at Whistler Blackcomb for three days, capturing athletes in their natural mountain habitat of powder filled bowls, trees, and après bars. The final slideshows are played in front of a live audience at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler and judged by a panel of industry professionals. The winner receives a large prize purse and the title of “King/Queen of Storms”. The goal for the resort is to build brand engagement, create awareness of the event and provide a behind the scenes sneak-peek while the contest runs to drive pre-event ticket sales.

1. Case Study: Whistler Blackcomb
Case Study: Whistler Blackcomb | 1HootSuite Media Inc.
Maximizing efficiency and resources
with the HootSuite dashboard
Introduction
Whistler Blackcomb is North America’s premier four-season mountain
resort. It was the official alpine skiing venue for the 2010 Olympic and
Paralympic Winter Games. The resort uses HootSuite to manage a total
of nine social networks for all of their social media needs.
Every January, Whistler Blackcomb hosts the Deep Winter Photo
Challenge, a unique event that brings professional photographers
together for three days on location, to capture athletes in their natural
mountain habitat of powder-filled bowls and snow-covered trees and
slopes. The annual event is sponsored by outdoor apparel company,
ARC’TERYX. Professional photographers are encouraged to shoot
in-bounds at Whistler Blackcomb for three days, capturing athletes
in their natural mountain habitat of powder filled bowls, trees, and
après bars. The final slideshows are played in front of a live audience
at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler and judged by a panel of industry
professionals. The winner receives a large prize purse and the title of
“King/Queen of Storms”.
Whistler Blackcomb’s goal for the Deep Winter Photo Challenge is to
build brand engagement, create awareness of the event and provide a
behind the scenes sneak-peek while the contest runs to drive pre-event
ticket sales.
Always online
Whistler Blackcomb used
the HootSuite mobile app to
stay on top of social activity
during off-hours or at times
when they were away from
the office. Manage your
social networks on the go:
visit hootsuite.com/mobile
Photo credit: Robin O’Neill

2. HootSuite Media Inc. Case Study: Whistler Blackcomb | 2
The Challenge
Time management for this campaign was crucial. In addition to helping
execute the Deep Winter campaign, Whistler Blackcomb’s social
media strategist needed to fulfil her primary, ongoing responsibilities as
community manager for all of the resort’s social profiles, as this crucial
form of guest relations could not be put on hold.
Furthermore, the resort ran two Twitter and Facebook contests at this
time, which offered fans a chance to win tickets to the finale event of the
Deep Winter Photo Challenge.
The Solution
To pull off a smooth execution of all of these efforts, Whistler Blackcomb
relied heavily on the scheduling features in the HootSuite dashboard. The
resort queued up all pre-determined content in advance, making space
for real-time engagement, guest relations and allowing them to push key
news and event updates occurring throughout the day.
Whistler Blackcomb also promoted the campaign hashtag #deepwinter,
which they saved to a Search Stream in the HootSuite dashboard. This made
tracking and responding to the campaign conversations highly efficient.
The Results
For the period of the Deep Winter campaign (December 19, 2010 -
January 16, 2011) Whistler Blackcomb saw a Twitter follow increase of
4.7% and a Facebook fan increase of 5.2%. On Twitter, they were able to
track 168 retweets on their tweets specifically related to the Deep Winter
campaign, 664 mentions of the #deepwinter hashtag, and 5754
click-throughs to the event main page. Meanwhile, the Whistler Blackcomb
Facebook fan page received 770,041 total page impressions during the
campaign, with 4030 ‘likes’ specifically on Deep Winter content.
Campaign Learning
By using HootSuite’s Search Streams to track the hashtags associated
with the campaign, the Deep Winter team was able to monitor all of the
athletes and photographers who were live-tweeting throughout the three-
day event. They were able to leverage participant photos, video clips and
tweets by re-posting them on Facebook and Twitter, bringing audiences a
behind-the-scenes feel, all from within the HootSuite dashboard. Building
upon the success of this campaign, the Deep Winter team will be able to
further optimize their strategy for future events, such as using
geo-location tools like Foursquare to enhance the experience.
Bulk Scheduling
Set up your campaign in
advance. With the HootSuite
Pro plan, you have the ability
to schedule your messages
in bulk ahead of time.
Take the 30 day trial.
HootSuite has a team of
Social Media Coaches ready
to help you learn more about
the Pro dashboard. To help
you get started, attend one of
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