Powder partnerships

Island Lake Resort partners with The North Face and Rocky Mountain Sherpas

Professional skiers Callum Pettit and Ian McIntosh are two of the poster boys for the three-pronged partnership with Island Lake Resort, The North Face and Rocky Mountain Sherpas. — Photo courtesy Island Lake Resort

Island Lake Resort in Fernie, B.C., has always done things differently, and with flair; this is a large reason for its appeal and for being named one of the top resorts in the world by National Geographic Traveler. So it’s only natural that the first-rate cat-skiing operation take a unique approach to marketing as well. Mike McPhee, the director of sales and marketing for Island Lake, said the recently announced partnership with The North Face outerwear will boost the resort’s name recognition throughout North America.

“Basically, we went out looking for a company that could provide technical outerwear to the level we need for our outdoor staff,” said McPhee, “but we also wanted someone who had the ability to partner with us from a marketing sense. There were a few others that came to the table and the technical outerwear part of it was there but they just didn’t have quite the appetite or the ability to take our marketing partnership to the next level.”

The North Face is one of the most prominent outerwear brands in North America, with a retail presence that extends around the world. The company is renowned for quality and style, and it’s a rare day in the mountains—no matter what the season—that one doesn’t see a North Face logo. McPhee believes the partnership will increase the resort’s brand recognition as well.

A better view from the top

One aspect of the partnership revolves around creating a movie that will be filmed by Rocky Mountain Sherpas.

“(The Rocky Mountain Sherpas is) a young but very critically acclaimed movie company from the West Coast,” said McPhee. “They’re making their own movie called All I Can, a two-year project that The North Face is also involved with . . . They’re very well known for kind of cutting-edge cinematography, including a lot of time lapses and wire-cams, and they even rented this crazy slow-motion camera.”

The Sherpas are making the movie All I Can in partnership with The North Face, and have agreed to film two shoots at Island Lake Resort and Mica Heliskiing; the company will also help the resort film its half-hour TV segments that air in the U.S. The increased exposure can only benefit the resort, said McPhee.

“Visual eye candy is more powerful than any other advertising,” said McPhee. “We’ve been doing this for a couple years already—syndicating in the U.S.—and we get more comments on it than any other marketing piece that we do . . . We’re basically looking to take it up to the next level and do something that nobody has really seen from a marketing perspective before.”