Real challenges. Unexpected connections. Practical solutions that can be repeated.
01 / THE CASE STUDY LIBRARY
Real challenges. Measurable results.
01Workforce Development
Turning Instructor Recruitment into a Revenue-Producing Pipeline
Challenge: Seasonal ski and snowboard schools need a steady supply of capable instructors, and traditional hiring and training is expensive and unpredictable.
Results: 300 paid training participants in year one and $125,000 in incremental revenue, with roughly 75 participants entering a paid pathway toward becoming trained employees.
Takeaway: When a training need also delivers real value to participants, workforce development becomes a revenue-producing service rather than a cost center.
02Institutional Partnerships
Making Weekdays Work: College Physical Education Partnerships
Challenge: Fixed-cost resort infrastructure sat underused on weekdays while nearby colleges needed compelling physical education offerings.
Results: 3,500 annual enrollments and more than $1 million in annual sales through partnerships with colleges and universities across the region.
Takeaway: Recurring institutional partnerships can transform idle capacity into dependable participation and revenue.
03Participation Growth
Mountains of Fun: Designing an On-Ramp for New Skiers
Challenge: Price, equipment, uncertainty and intimidation discourage first-time skiers and riders.
Results: Approximately 35,000 new skiers and riders annually through beginner offers with partners including McDonald's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Tops Friendly Markets and Upstate Farms — recognized with an NSAA marketing award.
Takeaway: Reducing friction at the point of entry serves both inclusion and commercial growth.
04Youth Participation
Activities-Based Training: Reinventing the After-School Experience
Challenge: Traditional instruction risked feeling intimidating or repetitive for children, while the resort needed an effective, scalable school-group model.
Results: 15,000 school-aged participants, an NSAA Best Marketing Award, and more than $800,000 in increased sales associated with new program partners and advertising strategy.
Takeaway: Design the learning experience around participant motivation, then build partnerships that help deliver and promote it.
05Digital Engagement
Desktop Snowball: Giving Guests a Reason to Check In Daily
Challenge: Guests wanted timely mountain conditions and weather information without having to search for it repeatedly.
Results: 15,000 downloads in seven days for roughly $500 in development cost — a direct promotional channel built into a utility guests actually used.
Takeaway: Solve a recurring customer need first. Engagement and marketing opportunities follow.
06Media Partnerships
The Webcam Partnership: Turning Media Inventory into Capital Improvements
Challenge: Real-time webcams were valuable to guests but required equipment investment the resort didn't want to fund.
Results: Two webcams valued at approximately $15,000 each, delivered through a Clear Channel partnership with no capital expense to the resort.
Takeaway: A needed infrastructure improvement can be funded by designing benefits for additional stakeholders.
07Experiential Tourism
Be a Winemaker for a Week: Making a Destination Participatory
Challenge: Regional tourism promotions needed to do more than generate awareness — they needed to motivate travel and lodging demand.
Results: A three-year campaign with I LOVE NY, Finger Lakes tourism organizations and the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail; occupancy associated with FingerLakes.org referrals increased 65%.
Takeaway: Build travel demand by turning a destination's distinctive activities into a story visitors can participate in.
08Public Relations
Run a Ski Resort for a Week: Selling the Experience Behind the Experience
Challenge: The resort needed reasons for prospective guests to engage during quieter periods beyond standard winter offers.
Results: A three-year promotion with I LOVE NY and Ski Areas of New York / I Ski and Ride NY, timed in the September-to-December shoulder period and delivering significant public relations value.
Takeaway: Give audiences an unusual role inside an organization and the story can travel further than conventional advertising.
09Event Strategy
Event in a Box: Making Complex Events Repeatable
Challenge: Events drive visitation and revenue, but each new one introduces staffing, safety, logistics and guest-experience risks.
Results: A standardized framework covering programming, partners, staffing, safety, assets and commercial terms — the system behind FASNY, Tough Mudder, Spartan Race and other resort events.
Takeaway: Systematize the predictable 70–80% of delivery so teams can focus on what makes each experience distinctive.
10Association Events
FASNY: Turning a Member Event into a Destination Weekend
Challenge: The resort needed larger, repeatable groups that could activate multiple revenue centers and support regional lodging demand.
Results: An eight-year event drawing more than 5,000 firefighters, with rooms throughout Cortland County reportedly booked for the weekend.
Takeaway: Build events that serve the audience while distributing economic benefits across the resort and community.
11Partnership Development
Sponsorship as a Business System, Not Logo Placement
Challenge: Traditional logo placement did not fully capture the value of a resort's guests, experiences, media and community relationships.
Results: Sponsorship revenue grew from $0 to $300,000 through tailored packages built around partner objectives, including Time Warner Cable, Tarson Pools & Spa and consumer packaged-goods partners.
Takeaway: Sponsorship becomes sustainable when all parties receive identifiable value, not just exposure.
12Live Entertainment
The Emmylou Harris Concert: Rebuilding Confidence in Live Events
Challenge: Past promoter experiences had made the organization reluctant to host another concert.
Results: A partnership with Dan Smalls Presents produced an Emmylou Harris performance drawing 2,500 attendees and $35,000 in food and beverage revenue during the preshow and show window.
Takeaway: A difficult prior experience should inform better deal structure and execution, not necessarily eliminate an entire opportunity category.
13Event Profitability
WYNOA Harescrambles: When Attendance Isn't Enough
Challenge: Large events can look successful by attendance while producing limited direct returns and unexpected security or staffing costs.
Results: Approximately 15,000 attendees in the first season, $4,500 in food and beverage revenue over two days, and a renegotiated arrangement of 15% of gate receipts.
Takeaway: Measure event economics across the entire operation, then revise terms using actual experience.
14Technology Innovation
From Point-of-Sale Data to Patentable Product Thinking
Challenge: Retail systems capture transactional information that may not be fully used to understand customer behavior or deliver relevant offers.
Results: U.S. Patent No. 7,028,894, "System and method for identifying a retail customer's purchasing habits," for targeting marketing messages using transaction data.
Takeaway: Practical operational knowledge can reveal valuable new uses for data and systems a business already possesses.
15Partnership Strategy
Circle of Benefit: Designing Partnerships Where Everyone Wins
Challenge: Many sponsorships and promotions underperform because they are designed around one organization's immediate objective.
Results: A repeatable three-party model — operator, partner and audience each receiving clear value — applied across school programs, webcams, destination campaigns and training events.
Takeaway: The strongest business development ideas are not one-way transactions; they are deliberately designed ecosystems of mutual benefit.
These projects reflect leadership experience developed before or outside Kensington Camber and inform the approach we bring to client work today.
