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Once again I’m in the conundrum of seeing a bunch of creative campaigns out there but not having enough time to write a post about each one. So, like I did a few weeks ago, I’m going to do a quick rundown of these efforts in a single posts.

1) Red Lodge’s Any-Pass Days

The idea of offering a perk to passholders of other mountains isn’t totally new, but I’ve rarely seen it formalized like this and I’ve never seen it named. Rather than uses these perks as needed during a season or when other mountains are struggling and you’re trying to throw those pass holders some love, Red Lodge has outlined a specific set of days that any pass from any mountain gets 2-for-1 tickets and given it a brand/logo; Any-Pass Days.

Now, naming things can certainly be taken too far but in this case I love that they’re taken something that works and added a few more elements – like the name and logo – to help anchor this idea in folks minds. It’s a clever move and one that, at least for me, is already working. I know a lot of resorts have these sorts of perks floating around, but Red Lodge is the only one I can name off the top of my head.

2) First “Chair” Raffle

This could certainly be a tricky idea if, like some resorts, you’ve got a faithful crew of folks who camp out for first chair each year. But for those resorts who maybe don’t have the same frozen few expecting first dibs, I think the idea of raffling off first chair – or in Kicking Horse’s case, first gondola – is interesting. All hell could break loose if a resort simply sold the season’s first chair rights as a source of revenue, but the combination of luck and doing it for the greater good? I think it gives it a spin that the general market could get behind.

Again, if you’ve got that old-timer who has camped out for first chair every November for the last 25 years? I think you’ve gotta tread lightly with something like this (unless you still give non-winners a way to share the gondola or something), but as a fundraiser at a resort that doesn’t have this culture or person? It’s a really clever way to raise a lot of money for a great cause with an incentive that virtually every skier would get excited about.

3) Wolf Creek’s Anniversary Selfie Station

A few weeks ago we went to a local Christmas light display. Among the brightly lit trees were a handful of life size imitations of Santa, Mrs Claus, elves, and who knows what else. As you might guess each of these creations had a hole where the face should have been. And, if you have kids, you might also guess that each of these creations were very, very popular. Wolf Creek applied this concept in tandem with their 85th anniversary.

Created by a local artist, it’s a fun way to both celebrate their anniversary in a big, visible way at the base area but also perhaps harness that fun angle that gets folks to take a picture of this message and share it with their friends. I have no idea how many people have been using this selfie station, but I love the thought, creativity, and community involvement that went into the campaign.

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.