West Virginia Ski Areas Association

The West Virginia Ski Area Association is a non-profit marketing association comprised of the major ski areas in the state.  For 32 years, it’s been a unified voice to the public, generating awareness of the ski industry in West Virginia.

Company Story:

As a small non-profit, the association is largely dependent upon marketing grants from the state of West Virginia.  Executive Director Joe Stevens explains, “Our funding is based upon a one-for-one matching grant (from the Division of Tourism).”  Sales of mountain passes (for use at all five ski areas) combined with the matching funds provide the entire operating revenue for group.

Bricks Without Straw

Stevens asked Jamie Summers-Brown to help the association develop an advertising campaign for its website,  goskiwv.com.  Based on his past history with Jamie, Stevens knew he could count on Jamie for quality results. “He’s responsive, easy to work with, doesn’t need to be babysat.  He’s reliable, if he says it’s going to be done, it’s done in a timely fashion.”   Stevens also knew that Jamie understood the association’s limits as a non-profit. “He’s  affordable; he understands, that at times, a non-profits lacks resources, and is willing to work with clients.”

As part of the campaign, Jamie designed the banner ads for the website.  He made the website more mobile device friendly,  by changing the items that were Adobe Flash to a format that could render on non flash compliant devices like the iPhone or iPad.

Summers-Brown also took care of the campaign follow up.  He collected the data that measured the exposure of the ad placement, helping Stevens fulfill requirements of grant recipients set forth by the state.   As Stevens explained, “I have. . .to show that we’ve made progress, that the awareness campaign was successful, and if it wasn’t successful , how are we changing so it will be successful.”   By calculating the data, Jamie and his staff help Stevens maintain the funds so necessary to the non-profit’s existence. 



Website campaigns, data collection; mobile sites—these are areas of technology that can be daunting to individuals and organizations.  As Stevens shared, “That’s why I hired Jamie. . . It’s easy, it’s turnkey.  He responds quickly to any type of need and works closely with the clients so that the needs are taken care of.”

Bricks Without Straw is a digital agency and design agency based in South Charleston, WV United States and Ota, Tokyo, Japan.

We offer a range of web design services including: web development, e-commerce services and email marketing. We also offer a range of graphic design services including logo design and exhibition stands.

We love working with clients of all sizes in a range of industry sectors, creating and implementing inspiring and hard working concepts and campaigns for business-business and business-consumer clients.

Valicia Leary

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Carol Fulks

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Patti Hamliton

Bricks Without Straw is bringing our association into the 21st Century! He brings us ideas and innovation for our web site and other tools of technology that help us enhance our image and our message.

Rebecca McPhail

Bricks Without Straw has continued to exceed our expectations with their design work, support and attention to detail. We would highly recommend their services. They have a wonderful team and we enjoy our working relationship with them.

Bill Raney

Jamie is one of the most committed and energetic professionals we have ever worked with over the years. He seems to work all the time with full 24-7 accessibility and immediate response. Bricks Without Straw has raised our collective confidence for maximizing opportunities in today’s world. We simply could not have done it without them.

Jan Vineyard

The demands and responsibilities to our members mandate that the online presence of our associations and our internet capabilities are reliable and seamless. Add creativity to that mix and one gets the complete package with Jamie Summers-Brown and his staff at Bricks without Straw.