Here we review our progress during our launch season and summarise our plans for the next nine months…
Download a PDF of our Launch Season review in English.
Our Motivations:
- Tragic accidents in other ski resorts across the Alps
- Witnessing bad on-piste behaviour here in the Portes du Soleil
- A desire for skiing to be regarded as a fun, fulfilling and ultimately safe sport for families to enjoy
In the third week of January we came together for our first meeting, frustrated that it no longer felt safe to ski with our small children and knowing that a huge volume of skiers were about to arrive in our resorts following pandemic travel restrictions. It was essential to launch this campaign before the beginning of the school holidays on 5th February.
Launch Activations:
Establishment of social media channels in dual languages Financial support from 47 local businesses
Creation of our launch safety video in dual languages
We had just two weeks to launch the campaign and we’re incredibly pleased with the end result and the feedback from our followers.
Social Media Progress:
Launch Video Stats:
86 shares during the live launch
28,460 views on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube combined
Loads of great feedback each time we share the video
Partnerships:
Following the launch we sought out partnerships with local ski resorts. Les Gets were quick to offer support, adding our launch video to their website, mailers and social media. The Grand Massif also contacted us proactively with a view to becoming our first official partner. They’ve shared our content and we’ll be working on a more established partnership this summer.
Ambassadors:
The launch campaign inspired others in various French ski resorts to contact us with offers of assistance. We’re therefore putting together an Ambassador package to support key people in various other resorts to launch the Piste X Code. We’ll work on that this summer for launch next winter.
Sponsorships:
We’ve links into two different winter sports specific safety equipment brands and we’ll be working hard on establishing one lead sponsorship partner for next winter.
Finances:
Revenues:
Donations from supporters: €4650
Expenses:
Paypal fees: €166.67
Sticker production: €182
Video production: €1900
Poster Printing: €57.63
Balance: €2343,76
Ideas for Winter 23
We launched the campaign on the hop in Winter 22 but it became obvious fairly quickly that it would snowball. This campaign has huge potential to make a real difference so we know we need to plan and prepare far in advance of the next winter season.
- Continue to look at the feasibility of launching piste patrollers in ski resorts. This is our long term goal.
- Establish a database of those interested in our progress and send a magazine-style update to them bi-monthly
- Increase the presence of Piste X Code visuals, such as having our posters in lifts and at lift stations, in toilets, etc
- Campaign to involve more local businesses, especially chalets in the sharing of our information on their websites, on social media, etc
- Reach out to experts in the field of equipment safety, piste design, accident litigation, insurance and more to prepare useful content
- Film and launch a child-specific video at the start of the season using local children and highlighting how to keep families safe on the piste
- Encourage more local ski schools to join our campaign
- Establish a French association to deal with all the admin and finances
- Host a meeting (online / in person) with potential ambassadors from other resorts
- More ‘behind the scenes’ content from our local resorts
- Create a coveted ‘Piste X Code’ award badge for ski schools to award to they students, recognising that they’ve been educated in safe on-piste behaviour during their lessons.
