Wexley School for Girls, the Seattle agency whose name, we've already established, is pretty quirky, has come up with a quirky new campaign to match—for Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado. While most ski mountains fill up their ads with footage of people slashing through snow, these spots take place entirely on the chairlift, with stylized backgrounds that are more fantastical than realistic. This provides the backdrop for eccentric vignettes where a mom, dad, son and daughter sit around discussing the mountain's amentities—in what can only be described as blissed-out comedy. Adding to the surreal vibe, the teens are played by adults (another advantage of shooting against a green screen), and the dialogue is wacky enough to be borderline incomprehensible at times. It throws you for a loop at first, but the series grows on you—and many of the spots are actually weirdly hilarious.
The agency was trying to capture the "transcendental experience" of skiing, says Cal McAllister, CEO and executive creative director at Wexley. "When people realize they're on a chairlift and cannot get off, and you mix in a little high-altitude truth serum, the ride up can become almost as memorable as the ride down. We focused on making the art direction otherworldly because Copper is unlike any other ski area on the planet."
You have to hand it to the client: This is offbeat stuff. But Dwight Eppinger, senior marketing manager at Copper Mountain, felt it rang true. "Some of my most memorable skiing experiences happened on the lift," he says. "I was excited with how Wexley captured the lift ride interactions with a sense of humor and highlighted what makes Copper different from other ski resorts." (That includes close parking, short lines, back bowls, lodging deals and pass savings.) The tagline is: "Everyone deserves a snow day."
Check out seven spots, and credits, below.
CREDITS
Client: Copper Mountain Ski Resort
Agency: Wexley School for Girls, Seattle
Executive Creative Director: Cal McAllister, Todd Grant
Director of Production: Gabe Hajiani
Writer: Cal McAllister
Art Director: Stevan Chavez
Principal Designer: Stevan Chavez
Designer: Dane Herforth
Executive Producer: Gina Windemuth
Associate Producer: Alex Smith
Account Supervisor: Jordan Kinsler
Account Manager: MacKenzie Huff
Clients: Copper Mountain
Production Company: Futuristic Company
Director(s): Alex Grossman
Line Producer: Steve DeVore
Post Production Supervisor: Andrew Oppenheimer
Executive Producer: Brendan Kiernan, Justin Moore-Lewy
DP: Rob Hauer
Editorial Company: Hutch Company
Editor: Joaquin Machado
Audio: Clatter & Din
Sound Designer/Mixer: Eric Johnson
Talent: Pete Giovine, Emily Rued, Jamie Morgan, John Bozeman, Stevan Chavez
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