It could be all downhill from here for apple marketer Kiku, which has this week appointed one of the leading lights from the world of skiing to be brand ambassador for its red-skinned, white-fleshed variety Crimson Snow.
Double World Cup winner Peter Fill, who hails from the north-east Italian region of South Tyrol where Crimson Snow was first grown, has enjoyed a close and long-standing connection with Kiku’s owners the Braun family and earlier this month featured in the Kiku Sports Academy, a special series of talks taking place as part of the International Mountain Summit in his home town of Brixen.
“Things have come full circle,” Fill explains. “Our families have enjoyed a close friendship for many years. Kiku has supported my fanclub since the beginning and together we did a lot for charity. When I heard that the skiing federation was offering athletes new spaces on their jackets, straight away I thought of asking the Braun family about their new brands and varieties.
While supporting a local business like Kiku was important, Fill added, he also implied that an apple was precisely the kind of product with which a skier or other sportsperson should be aligning themselves.
“It’s very important for me to support local companies in its promotion. On the other hand, as a professional athlete I am very aware of the theme of healthy nutrition.“
Kiku managing director Jürgen Braun expressed his delight at having the opportunity to work more closely with the star skier.
“Peter is the perfect ambassador for the new apple brand Crimson Snow,“ he commented. “The fact that the brand includes the word ‘snow’ when talking about sponsoring a skier is really funny, isn’t it? With Peter we share important values as sense of family, friendship and hard work.”
The timing of the appointment seems perfect. “We are busy picking Crimson Snow right now across Europe,” Braun noted.
In the past few years, Kiku has built a strong alliance with several Italian companies: Rivoira and Sanifrutta in Piedmont; and Fratelli Clementi, Bio Meran and, most recently, Vog in South Tyrol. It also has grower partners in Switzerland and Serbia.
Kiku’s Thomas Braun added: “These partners are selling Crimson Snow to the whole world, so we need global attention to communicate [the product’s] strengths like nature, physical well-being and healthy nutrition. Peter is just the perfect #vitaminpartner and we believe we are on a successful common path.”
