The first version of the Sun Peaks Ambassador Team program was launched last winter and the summer iteration has been unveiled.
A program beneficial to both the resort and the chosen local ambassadors, the goal is to increase marketing content for Sun Peaks Resort LLP (SPR), with a focus on promoting local athletes, Sam Loxton, marketing and content manager for SPR told SPIN.
In particular, the athlete stream of the program comprised of high level bikers receive a $2,500 cash sponsorship, a gym membership and a season’s pass which contributes to their training and competing.
Four of the eight on the Sun Peaks Ambassador Team are on this stream, while the other half make up the ambassador stream.
Sun Peaks Ambassador Team program
Announced on June 24 at SPR’s community engagement session, the four athletes are Brock Hawes, Kyleigh Stewart, Kiera Melnechuk and Johnathan Helly and the four ambassadors are Kelly Kozevnikov, Jennifer McHugh, Noah Lara and Marcus Cant.
The resort has been working on and off with both ski/snowboard and mountain bike athletes for a while now, but without a formalized program.
“With this program, we’ve kind of improved that consistency and also opened up the opportunity to work with more athletes,” Loxton said.
To apply for the athlete stream, it was required that you’d be actively competing at a provincial, national or international level in mountain biking. Each stream required you to be a resident of Sun Peaks, Kamloops or a nearby community and be at least 16 years of age.
Weighing which applicants would be the best fit the program involved considerations around athletic achievements, experience in photo and video shoots, previous working relationships with SPR and social media account size and content.
“We had close to 50 applications for eight spots,” he said. “So definitely, there’s lots and lots of worthy candidates…that we would have loved to work with as well.”
With the goal of this project to be annual in summer and winter, there’s the chance for some of the unsuccessful applicants to join in the future.
“We’ve been lucky,” he said. “We’ve got strong support from the leadership of the resort.”
With this, the program can hopefully run for years into the future.
Mutual benefits
With the cash sponsorship given to the four on the athlete stream, they’ll hopefully have less of a struggle while gathering funds for competing.
The program can give these athletes extra exposure as well, and a portfolio of footage to show brands for potential sponsorships.
“We’re stepping on board as a sponsor ourselves,” Loxton said, adding that working with the resort provides these athletes/ambassadors the chance to become familiar working with some of the top biking photographers in the business.
Learning how to take part in photo and video shoots is an important skill for sponsored athletes to have in their arsenal.
On SPR’s side, they’re given access to a pool of talented athletes for photo and video shoots to promote the resort.
“Anyone that’s on the team, they owe us a certain number of hours of photo and video help,” he explained.
Some of the photos can be used in print or digital advertising. Cool clips of trail riding in the bike park can also be uploaded to the bike park Instagram page to showcase how the trails are looking.
Social media is a secondary requirement for the ambassadors, but they will be asked to tag SPR as a sponsor and create content when they can, Loxton said. Making face-to-face connections is also valuable he explained.
“We can help them reshare it, expand that reach and try and get more eyeballs on them on their social media accounts,” he said about their content, adding that this helps with future sponsorship opportunities.
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