Like runners crouched at the starting line, Tuesday last week was the proverbial starter’s pistol for the season and resorts have sprung forward to start the 2019/20 season.

Which means all sorts of new passes and deals and names and experiments are now out in the open. It’s a good time to be a resort marketing blogger, and this little example I want to share today is exactly the reason why.

Spring/Winter
Just before the gun went off, a few resorts did roll out some pass products. Snowbasin was one of them and before 24 hours had passed I’d already had some interesting conversations about the results.

Anecdotal insight into these "buy now, ski rest of season free" passes. Talked to a guy last night who skis @snowbasinresort daily. He saw the email yesterday and "so far I've forwarded to about 10 friends who didn't buy a pass this year so we could ski together this spring!" https://t.co/hdbOJbu4fQ

— Gregg Blanchard (@slopefillers) March 1, 2019

Let’s quickly recap the benefits to resorts of “buy now and ski free this spring” passes:

• They work
• They work
• They work

So, yeah, the reason ski areas keep doing them is because people love (and buy) them.

A Small Naming Tweak
Now, when we talk about these passes it can be a little tricky to find the right words or succinct marketing wording for them. Usually it’s some variation of “ski free this spring” like Snowbasin used. But then how does that relate to other passes? And does it stand on its own?

Wachusett had a similar situation with their passes. Their solution?

The Rest/Next Pass

For a pass with the aforementioned perks, that’s gotta be the cleanest way of describing it I’ve ever seen.

And it works especially well when it’s paired with a pass that’s only good for spring.

Not to mention making the shift from Rest/Next to just Next once the season ends. Nice little approach.

Good Stuff
So, yeah, that’s pretty much it.

The spring/winter passes work, but some of the nuance can be tricky to communicate in just a few words. Wachusett found a really nice, clean way to do so.

Maybe they were first, maybe not, but I love Rest/Next and wanted to give it some love.

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.