SIA and VERB announce national kids activation event program

SIA and VERB announce national kids activation event program{mosimage}MCLEAN, Va. (September 14, 2004) – SnowSports Industries America (SIA) and VERBâ„¢, a national government funded kid’s marketing campaign, is pleased to announce the creation of the first-ever VERB SnowSports Day on December 4, 2004. The event will take place in retail stores nationwide and will serve as a catalyst to introduce kids of all ages to snow sports.

Retailers across the nation will be invited to participate in this annual one-day event along with top performing brands in the snowsports industry. Kids will be provided with a “Snow Pass” access books motivating them to try different winter sports activities from December through March 2005. A variety of other promotions and motivators will also be available to kids visiting participating retail stores on this specific day. Retail stores will have access to branded point-of-purchase items and media kits to drive local traffic into the storefront.

The Snow Pass book will drive participants to verbnow.com and snowlinkjr.com for various activity alternatives, gaming, sweepstakes contests and more throughout the winter months. Prize packs will be awarded to a randomly selected site visitor each week from January through March.

“The goal of this event is to expose 250,000 new kids, children and parents to snow sports as a fun, healthy and exciting option for winter activity”, said Scott Mellin, SIA director of sales and marketing. “Partnering with VERB and the USSA to develop this program enables us to reach hundreds of thousands of children in a kid-cool way”, he added.

The integrated VERBâ„¢ campaign uses advertising, marketing, events and partnership activities to ensure that campaign messages reach children whenever they are looking for something physical to do. Through multicultural media partnerships, the campaign is designed to reach children in all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds – including specific outreach for African Americans, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and Hispanics/Latinos.

VERB SnowSports Day is one element of SIA’s Project Kids initiative aimed at increasing participation in snowsports among kids age 6-13. Snowlinkjr.com and Winter Feels Good are additional programs that are driving increased awareness of snowsports nationally.