Burton SVP on Burton Mountain Festival

I was intrigued by a recent news release from Burton Snowboards about the Burton Mountain Festival, and all of the activities the company is offering on its 10-stop tour.

I followed up with Senior Vice President of Marketing Sam Paschel to find out more about the thinking behind the comprehensive series of events.

The Burton Mountain Festival includes Burton 2012 product demos, live music, sponsor giveaways, mini parks for kids and amateur snowboard contests at some of the stops.

The Burton Mountain Festival is presented by MINI, which Burton has been partnering with quite a bit lately. I asked Sam about that as well.

How did the Burton Mountain Festival come about?

Burton has a long history of putting together high quality, on-snow product demos where consumers can test products before they buy.

This season, we wanted to completely re-invent our longstanding demo programs by combining our on-snow events into a full-on winter festival that sets up shop for three days at 10 resorts around the U.S.

How did you decide on the key components?

The whole goal with the Burton Mountain Festival is to offer something for everyone – from the youngest kids to the most seasoned riders who want to test our latest gear.

A family could literally come to the Burton Mountain Festival for the entire weekend and find something for everyone to do. The preschool set can learn to ride in the Riglet Park. Amateur snowboarders can test their skills in halfpipe and slopestyle competitions at the Pro-Test events. Everyone can demo product. And the après crowd can enjoy live music and concerts.

Can you tell us about the product testing component and the thinking behind it? 

The thinking here is pretty simple – the easiest way to get someone to connect with Burton is to get them onto our product. We want people to have a chance to try our different 2012 products before they buy.

So for example, a rider can try different boot models to see which ones feel best before they invest in a new pair. They can try the Nug, the Lipstick… all of our different boards in different conditions to see what they think. Product is one of the areas where the brand is just so strong. So offering people the opportunity to try our gear for free is one of the most powerful marketing tools we have.

See Page 2 for more, including how Burton is introducing groms to the sport