I sometimes feel I do too much critiquing and too little suggesting. Like, somehow, I’m the 400 pound, mullet-sporting guy on his 3rd beer at the baseball game yelling at the 2nd baseman to hustle. So, every once in a while on a Wednesday I’ll try to balance the scales a bit and put my own ideas up for display, analysis, and critique. (view all “WID” posts).

There’s been a lot of research on anticipation. The idea that the build up to an event, at times, is better and lasts much longer than the event itself. For example:

“Beforehand, they looked forward to it with eager anticipation, and within a few days of returning, they remembered it fondly. But while on it, they found themselves bogged down…Anticipation, it seems, can be a more powerful force than memory.”
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/art…

“The study, published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.”
http://psychologyandjune.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/do-vac…

“Vacations do make people happy,” Mr. Nawijn said. “But we found people who are anticipating holiday trips show signs of increased happiness, and afterward there is hardly an effect.”
http://blog.bt-store.com/do-vacations-make-you-ha…

So, what does this have to do with you? Quite a lot. In fact, much more than we’ll talk about here, but I’ll save the rest for another day.

Powder Day Anticipation
If you aren’t from Colorado, you may not know who Joel Gratz is. Joel is a meteorologist, but, more specifically, he’s a powder forecaster.

A very, very good powder forecaster and the guy that started OpenSnow (every day during winter I check three things when I turn on my computer: email, social media, and Joel’s Daily Snow forecast on OpenSnow). Here’s a recent talk he gave on that very subject:

The problem with snow forecasts is that they rarely focus on the mountains and, lacking such specificty, fail to account for all the factors that make or break a powder day in the mountains.

Interestingly enough, when I talked to Joel on the phone recently about some of the stuff he’s working on, this is what he said (according to my notes that, as usually, were impeccably recorded in perfect handwriting).

“There is some activity the day it snows. But, the biggest surge in interest occurs a few days out. Our site sees a massive amount of activity around the anticipation of powder as we lead up to a storm, rather than the powder day itself.”

So, normal forecasts don’t talk much about the mountains and powder but there is a huge wave of interest and anticipation around forecasts that discuss this very thing. Hmmm, what to do…what to do.

Be the Source
Joel, and his growing team of kick awesome pow forecasters, are working on some really cool stuff. Like an embeddable powder forecast (note, the difference between a weather forecast Joe Weatherman at KXYZ puts out and a powder forecast) and an API to build those forecasts right into whatever your creativity can come up with. And even custom daily snow forecasts (here’s an example) for resorts all over the country.

To me, the opportunity for resorts is that fact that you could be THE source for powder forecasts for your region with the right approach and his help.

Instead of turning to the Weather Channel or the local news, they’d come to you. To your site. With your offers and start down your funnel. And they’d do that over and over and over and over again, riding that wave of anticipation right onto your email lists, into your hotel rooms, and through to your bottom line every time a storm approached. Not a bad niche to fill, eh?

Steal His Expertise
If I were you, I’d steal (borrow) some of Joel’s expertise by tapping the API, getting setup with an embeddable widget, etc. and trying to become the go to site for powder forecasts in your area.

Your snow report and webcams are already some of the most popular content on your site because they ride the wave of interest in how conditions are right now. By using powder-specific forecasts, you can start to ride the wave of interest in how conditions will be before the storm ever arrives and make those most of the love your skiers have for snow.

So, that’s what I’d do.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.