Swiss professional freestyle skier Andri Ragettli shows Gen Z how easy and sustainable getting to the slopes can be, thanks to public transportation.

Who doesn’t like to travel to the mountains frequently in the winter months to enjoy a few pleasant hours of sunshine while sledding, skiing or snowshoeing? For the first time, Switzerland Tourism ST has directly addressed Gen Z in its advertising campaign for the 2021/22 season. The goal? To inspire young people up to the age of 25 to try out snow sports and thus secure the next generation on the slopes.

To support this, the two offers “snow25” and “sleep25” have been newly created in collaboration with the SBB, various transport companies and the Swiss Youth Hostels. The decisive factor here was the good price-performance ratio: from 25 francs, young Swiss winter sports fans could purchase an afternoon ski pass as well as travel from their place of residence to the corresponding region. An overnight stay including a breakfast buffet in a youth hostel costs the same amount. Tickets were sold exclusively online via selective 48-hour flash sales and were promoted via TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

31 million contacts generated

The discounted ski passes and overnight accommodation options were available nationwide from 11 December 2021 through to the end of February 2022. Although the offers could only be booked on certain dates, SBB and the Switzerland Travel Centre reported a total of 5,600 bookings. The 2021/22 campaign also generated 31 million contacts and resulted in 36,000 clicks on the two offer pages.

Promotion with Andri Ragettli

The campaign for the 2022/23 winter season leaned on the success of the previous year with Gen Z, continued the “snow25” and “sleep25” offers and had the motto “ride&slide”. ST showed how easy and sustainable it can be to get to the ski slopes thanks to public transportation – a decisive aspect influencing the thoughts and actions of Gen Z. Andri Ragettli supported the campaign. The Swiss freestyle skier has an international fan base on social media channels and promoted these offers on Instagram (511,000 followers, as at December 2022) and TikTok (1.9 million followers, as at December 2022). ST promoted the campaign in Switzerland and selected short-haul markets (Germany, the UK, France, Benelux, Italy).

Facts and figures
Winter   2021/2022 2020/2021
Budget CHF million 22.2 23.7
Share of total budget % 23.2 24.2
Target markets   CH, DE, FR, IT, Benelux, UK, Nordics CH, DE, FR, IT, Benelux, UK
Page views of MySwitzerland.com* million – 7.2
Top advertising and marketing contacts million 502.7 177
Top media contacts (readers, viewers, listeners) billion 1,4 –
Participants in ST press trips   193 138
Top media articles influenced   1009 837 
*Only views of pages with specific winter campaign content are counted.