We all need ideas. It’s the one resource that has both a neverending demand but also one of the most fickle, hard-to-predict supplies.

So it’s important as marketers we always keep our eyes open for little ideas within ideas and lessons we can glean from officially documented case studies as well as the marketing that always surrounds us.

Today I want to share three examples of marketing that I really, really liked and propose a few ways they could be tweaked to fit your resort’s strategy and product.

#1) New Interviewing Old
One of my favorite new podcasts is The Distance, an effort driven by the good folks behind Basecamp.

And one of their best pieces of content is a two-part conversation between a pair of new small business owners and a seasoned veteran.

The small tweak of having a real, front-lines entrepreneur interview another entrepreneur creates a stark difference between the typical journalist-entpreneur dynamics. The former talks about real issues because they understand what are real issues. The latter talks about what they think are real issues, but often lack the specificity required to be truly valuable.

THE TWEAK
What if you got a first-time guest to sit down with a long-time, loyal fan of your resort and let them talk. You wouldn’t get a canned interview, you’d probably get some really interesting, nuanced discussions around cost and PTO and work-life balance and family bonding.

#2) Total Transparency
People love to live vicariously through others’ stories. We do it at the movies, at sports events, and when we watch TV.

It’s why “transparency” has become such a powerful marketing idea simply because it lets people who have dreamed about being in your shoes come along for the ride. One of the best examples of this idea is GrooveHQ who is documenting their “journey to $500k in monthly revenue.”

Not only does this effort generate a ton of PR and coverage for their product, it earns a bit of understanding and patience with their clients as well who sign up knowing full well this isn’t a giant, massively-profitable company with 1,000 employees.

THE TWEAK
Many skiers have entertained dreams of the romantic notion of starting a ski area. Few have done it. You happen to work for a company that has. I would love to see a ski area go big on transparency to the point of showing the books, going behind the scenes of tough decisions, etc.

#3) Say Something Nice
This is something I’ve learned from a sandbox project as I’ve tried to slowly revive my personal blog a bit.

What I’ve found is something I already know but had forgotten: people like to have nice things said about them.

This has become especially true in today’s content landscape of sensationalized, negative, divisive headlines. Turns out, one of the easiest ways to stand out is to be kind.

THE TWEAK
I’d love to see someone take Jay Peak’s “On the way to Jay” concept and make it a recurring, year-long theme in their content. Find some face or brand that makes your destination what it is and find three nice things to say about them.

Then, say them and tell the world.

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.