Equipped with more than a dozen vehicles, Jeep descended on Buttermilk Mountain from Jan. 23–25 on a mission to return to its roots as an adventure brand and push the boundaries of its 20-plus-year Winter X Games partnership. And across a heated Base Camp for fans at the foot of the mountain, athlete partnerships, ownership of the event’s slopestyle competitions, an awards program, vehicle placements throughout the course, and broadcast, linear and social extensions, Jeep was omnipresent, whether fans were on-site or watching from home.

“To say that you can’t go more than a few feet in the X Games area without seeing a Jeep logo or an actual Jeep, is not really an understatement,” says Wendy Orthman, vp-marketing at Jeep. “So the title sponsorship has gotten us to a place where we are, in a lot of ways, synonymous with the Winter X Games. And everyone who steps foot or watches a broadcast or watches on social will know that Jeep was an integral part of the event.”

The Jeep Base Camp experience featured some of the creature comforts the brand has provided in the past, given the locale, like cozy places to warm up and customized sweet treats. The activation this year included branded hot cocoa, and beignets from a small shop in town; vehicle demos; heating stations; a chance to test the heated and massaging seats featured in certain Jeep models; photo ops; and autograph signings with athletes.

What’s more, the location of the Base Camp offered fans clear views of athletes on the Half-Pipe, meaning they could still catch some of the action while taking a respite from the cold. And, naturally, swag, was rewarded to visitors who interacted with the brand, with useful items including blankets, hand-warmers, lip balm and sunglasses up for grabs.

“I think anytime you’re at an outdoor event, there’s always some level of practicality in giving people a little shelter and a place to warm up. And all event marketing is run, in some capacity, on, ‘If you feed them, they will come,’” Orthman says. “So we’re trying to make it the kind of space that people are going to want to make a base camp, where they’re going to want to hang out and grab a hot cocoa and sit for a minute and take it in.”

The strategic placement of Jeep models (and logos) across Buttermilk was another essential aspect of the presenting sponsorship, not to mention athletes’ first two tricks were captured through a Jeep cam. Vehicles like the brand-new Recon EV, Gladiator and Wrangler Whitecap were stationed across the broadcast footprint, including the top of the slope where athletes take off, and throughout the course. They were also parked next to the stage during evening concerts and located at the Base Camp for fans to check out. To boot, a Grand Wagoneer provided shuttle service around the mountain.

“One of the things we wanted to do in the interactive event spaces is give [attendees] a chance to actually see and touch and feel the vehicles that they may have now seen on the broadcast, so that it doesn’t feel like they’re only exclusive to that which the athletes can interact with, but that they can actually open the doors and engage and get their questions answered,” Orthman says. “So a combination of product sharing and interaction, with giving them some hospitality on behalf of the brand.”

On the social front, Jeep worked with ambassadors and X Games athletes Alex Hall and Jamie Anderson to create content on the slopes that amplified the brand’s sponsorship presence, and to engage fans during meet-and-greets at the Base Camp—“something exclusive they can get through Jeep and this partnership,” according to Orthman.

Rounding out the title sponsorship was the first-ever Jeep Golden Grille Awards. One female and one male athlete who were at the top of their performance at the Games, and are heavily involved in inspiring the next generation of snow sports athletes, each took home the seven-slot, gold-dipped trophy.

Ultimately, X Games Aspen 2026 Driven by Jeep was just one event on the 2026 calendar as the brand reclaims its heritage (look no further than a newly inked multiyear sponsorship of The Snow League).

“We have been coming back to our core as a brand, and with that, it just felt like it was time for us to reconnect with those roots of being part of all of the playgrounds where people can take their Jeeps, be that sand or rock or snow,” Orthman says. “So strategically, you’ll see throughout the year that the brand is really realigning with all of those places where you go to have adventures and to live your best life in your Jeep.”

Related:

• Jeep Treats X Games Attendees to a 4D Film Experience
• Q&A: Sonic’s CMO Talks Tapping into the X Games Fanbase

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The brand offered specialty menu items, exclusive merch and swag (“Live Free Gear Up”), and a quarter-pipe photo op (“Live Free Skate Hard”). At an airbrush station, participants could choose from four designs, ranging from a skateboard to a cup, to customize t-shirts and hats. Brand ambassadors around the footprint sported blue short-sleeve, button-downs designed with cup and mouth icons.

This event marked the third X Games Sonic sponsored, having kicked off the partnership last summer in Ventura, CA, and continuing it with X Games Aspen 2025 in January before the June edition at the Utah State Fairpark. X Games is being reborn, as it announced that the Salt Lake City event delivered “double-digit growth across ESPN platforms, a 12-percent increase year-over-year,” with a particular surge in youth viewership that grew 328 percent year-over-year.

Ahead of X Games Salt Lake City 2025, we spoke with Sonic cmo Ryan Dickerson to learn about how the drive-in restaurant brand is tapping into this engaged audience, tailoring and evolving its sponsorship strategy with each event, and amplifying the X Games energy to connect fans and athletes.

Event Marketer: How did Sonic get involved in the X Games, and what has that partnership been like?

Ryan Dickerson, CMO, Sonic

Ryan Dickerson: Sonic is very much cold beverage forward, so it naturally lends itself to being a brand that’s part of people’s minds when it gets really hot. We, of course, have that seasonality curve, so we’re thinking about how we can have fun, cool, unique partnerships and activations in the summer months. But when it comes to TV programming, inventory and availability, it’s a pretty tough time of year to find something [sports related]. We have a partnership with the SEC. They’re anchored in the fall and winter, so those are kind of shoulder months for us.

I grew up watching the X Games. It’s a brand I’m extremely familiar with. As a kid, I used to skate, got into BMX and followed a lot of the athletes. When we were approached with the opportunity to be a part of this amazing time for the X Games brand, when the events are smack dab in the middle of the summer, it was one of those perfect opportunities to connect our brand, which is all about living free, having fun, with X Games athletes who are the epitome of living free and having fun doing it.

It is harder to do something bespoke. You have to show up with a little bit of creative thinking and a lot of “let’s see.” A cookie-cutter approach is not something that I’m excited about, to put our brand as part of a logo soup. X Games allowed us to come in the summer of last year and create an amazing experience, everything from working with the actual athletes to branding the skate parks in a unique and creative way. We had a Cherry Limeade cup right in the middle of the skate park last year and also had the tailwinds of a lot of those athletes going to the Olympics.

EM: What learnings did you pick up from the last two X Games events that influenced how you’d show up in Salt Lake City?

RD: We did some fun, limited, X-specific products last year, but very few this year. We’re leaning into the extreme lemonades and the extreme tots, like Sriracha-flavored tots and jalapeño-flavored lemonade. Last year, we did a Sonic VIP tent for folks with a certain kind of badge and a lot of the athletes, and this year, it’s going to be for everybody, which is really exciting for us because our customers just happen to be everybody at this event.

It’s learning as you go, and I think we’ll continue to ideate on these types of activations. When you lean into the art of the possible, you’re always going to find things that didn’t come together quite as beautifully as you would have liked for it to and probably a couple of things you would do differently. We’ve got an entire airbrush station this year, so we’re doubling down on bringing more of that Sonic “living free, having fun” mentality to the areas where we’re going to be interacting with fans. We’re getting better and better at how we position the brand at the event, as well as thinking about athlete partnerships and creating content with them.

EM: What are some unique characteristics and considerations for activating at the X Games?

RD: The X Games is a little different than traditional sporting venues. These athletes are very excited to interact with fans and the public and have these opportunities to engage with brands. And so we want to be able to leverage that as much as we possibly can. If we can host an amazing environment where we get to bring some cool merch and beverages for the event, you’ll see us continue to lean in on that.

Last year, it was wild because we were sitting in our VIP area, eating some popcorn chicken bites, and I looked out and saw a couple of the athletes that I just talked to, one of whom was a really young skater, on the half-pipe with Tony Hawk, casually. There’s no audience; it’s literally two people on the half-pipe, skating and having fun. It’s not this huge, formal environment, where you would traditionally think of these athletes being; it is very organic.

And so we’ll be doing social content throughout the entirety of the event, everything from teasers leading up to it, all the way down to content that we’ll shoot with the athletes while we’re on-site, including some behind-the-scenes stuff because the followings that these athletes have is huge, so we want to be able to tap in and show off a little bit of the content that you don’t always see.

What I love about it is getting to see these athletes cheering each other on, like when someone pulls something off that’s mega or super epic, the whole gambit of athletes loses it, and it builds in the audience, too. That type of excitement and passion for the sport is rabid, so we want to be able to capture that and amplify it any way we can. There’s so much great momentum, both within the sport that X Games houses and with the athletes.

Photo credit: Copyright Sports Content Creation, LLC; dba X Games and/or their respective rights holders

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For those watching the event at home, the X Games app, powered by Verizon, provided a completely new way to be immersed in the event through AR- and VR-powered experiences. But we’re taking it right to the slopes, where sponsors engaged a sports-loving crowd in the flesh with sampling, swag and photo moments.

From the X Games Archives:

• Jeep Treats X Games Attendees to a Mountainside 4D Film Experience
• Full Story: Brands Battle at X Games Austin

MONSTER

Monster Energy’s athlete partners snagged 23 medals at X Games Aspen, and fans could catch all the action at the brand’s outdoor deck and lounge. The branded space included a dj spinning tunes, free Monster product sampling and large TVs with live feeds of the competitions and exclusive brand content. There was also on-mountain branding and plenty of product distributed across the entire X Games footprint for athletes, staff and fans at multiple touchpoints. Agency: In-house.

JEEP

Jeep, a 19-year X Games Aspen sponsor, returned as the event’s official automotive partner with a fleet of vehicles, fan engagements and extensions across broadcast, linear, social and digital. On-site, the brand shined a spotlight on three particular models: the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392, the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe Hybrid and the Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve. Fans who opted for a test drive in one of the vehicles snagged a branded giveaway and were automatically entered into a drawing for a $400 Rossingol gift card. Two gift cards were distributed each day of the Games. Attendees could also register to win $100,000 towards a new Jeep, and spin a prize wheel for the chance to earn some swag.

Photo credit: Rich Storry/ESPN Images

PACIFICO

Pacifico beer had footprints in two beer garden locations within X Fest that provided fans with shareable experiences as they sipped ice-cold brews, mountainside. A branded Airstream trailer was on-site serving samples, and attendees could participate in a ski simulator experience, snap a shot in a branded gondola photo booth and earn prizes and giveaways all weekend long.

Photo credit: Eric Lars Bakke/ESPN Images

WENDY’S

Wendy’s, which recently debuted its Hot & Crispy fries, served as the official fries of X Games Aspen, and its presence at the event wasn’t exactly subtle. At X Fest, for instance, attendees were drawn in by a giant, illuminated Wendy’s Fry Box. Anyone could walk up to the installation to receive free French Fry gloves and Frosty key tags, which they can use to get a free Wendy’s Jr. Frosty with purchase through the end of the year.

The Hot & Crispy product was also on display at the Wendy’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck nighttime event, where the brand showed up with a Fry Box-themed ski rack filled with one-of-a-kind Wendy’s French Fry skis, and incorporated content integrations with X Games hosts Jack Mitrani and Victoria Arlen. Agency: The Marketing Arm.

Photo credit: Wendy’s

SKREWBALL WHISKEY

First-time X Games Aspen sponsor Skrewball Whiskey hosted a fan activation outside of X Fest’s Beer & Wine Garden. Touchpoints included photo ops, a live dj, giveaways, peanut butter whiskey sampling and warm Skrewball beverages like boozy hot cocoa and coffee. Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White joined the activation as a friend of the brand to serve up shots and present Skrewball’s $25,000 donation to nonprofit organization STOKED. Funding will be used to help STOKED fulfill its mission to bridge the opportunity gap for low-income, BIPOC youth. The donation was tied to Skrewball’s larger commitment to supporting those in need, which in the early days of the pandemic included traveling across the country in a “Sheep Wagon” to deliver random acts of kindness to communities severely impacted by the pandemic. Agency: Hatch.IM.

Featured photo credit: Monster

The post Get a Quick Overview of Sponsorship Activations from X Games Aspen appeared first on Event Marketer.

The Jeep Champion of Adventure experience featured a 4D film, s’mores and vehicle displays.

As a 17-year partner of ESPN and the Winter X Games, Jeep knows that the weather at the base of a mountain resort is predictable—predictable in the sense that it will be cold and there will be snow. For some brands, that might mean facing limitations on how a sponsorship is activated. But for the last two years, Jeep has pushed boundaries like the athletes do in the Games, and at the event this year, Jan. 23-26, in Aspen, CO, the brand hosted a high-tech, Jeep Wrangler off-road experience at Buttermilk Mountain.

Contained in a branded 30-foot dome that served as both a warming shelter and a stimulating visual in the X Games environment, the Jeep Champion of Adventure experience featured a 360-degree film viewed from 18 actual Jeep Wrangler Rubicon heated leather seats that were motion-activated with a rumble feature to enhance the viewing experience.

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Once attendees were seated, an emcee introduced the film and talked about the off-roading capabilities of Jeep vehicles. Then, the four-minute film experience began, projected onto the interior façade of the dome, which placed viewers in the driver’s seat of a Wrangler as it crawled over boulders, climbed mountain trails, crossed a dry lake bed and cut fresh tracks across a California meadow. As the film progressed, the seats rumbled as the vehicle went over rocky roads, and the scent of pine and cedar wafted through the air. To highlight one of the Wrangler’s key features—the one-touch power roof offered on the Wrangler since 2018—attendees experienced blasts of air during certain scenes.

After the 360-degree film experience, consumers could check out the all-new 2020 Jeep Gladiator and Jeep Wrangler vehicles on display, enjoy warm Jeep-branded s’mores and enter their names to win Rossignol sports gear. Before they departed, attendees received a Jeep-branded keychain engraved with their initials.

The four-minute film was projected onto the interior of the dome, which placed viewers in the driver’s seat of a Wrangler.

“What we’re always trying to do for the Jeep brand is find ways to get consumers into the vehicle and experiencing all it has to offer, which for some is off-roading, or others, daily driving,” says Jason Russ, head of experiential marketing at FCA US. “For the longest time we, frankly, had a static footprint [at the X Games] where we had some fun engagements, but they weren’t really moving the needle on getting people into the vehicles and experiencing Jeep, so that’s where the immersive dome experience came to light.”

Jeep was able to collect leads through RFID wristbands attendees received upon entering the space after registering with Jeep brand ambassadors. At multiple points in the footprint, they could “check in” with their wristband, whether it be at the entrance to the dome itself, at one of the vehicle displays after speaking with a product specialist, or cashing in a token for a s’more.

“We’re able to monitor the volume of people that come through, so we can collect good stats on the numbers and dwell time. It’s really an invisible experience to the consumer for them to know that, ‘Hey, we just want to check in here with you, at your speed, and do anything we can do to make your experience here at the Winter X Games more enjoyable,’” Russ says.

The film experience was about 15 minutes from start to finish, and with 18 seats available, Russ estimated that the brand would engage 2,300 consumers over the course of the Winter X Games weekend. Agencies: Inspira Marketing Group, Norwalk, CT; Lumen & Forge, Las Vegas (360-degree content).

Before they departed, attendees received a Jeep-branded keychain engraved with their initials.

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