If there’s one marketing principle that my brain will never be satisfied with, it’s telling stories.

I’m constantly trying to distill this art into a simpler, more repeatable package. Not just for marketing, but for every situation when you need to get a point across.

My latest attempt in this evoltion is simply this:

“Stories give moments meaning. So take the information you want to convey, find that one key moment, and design the rest of the message to support and enhance and give that moment as much context as possible.”

Building a lift is a perfect example.

Arapahoe Basin
New lifts are a fairly common thing. But Arapahoe Basin took that simple moment and added a ton of content and meaning to every aspect through stories like this one.

So instead of just another red line on a map, they’ll see an evolution of a resort. They’ll see the role that lift plays in the experience they’re enjoying. They’ll see the care taken to not disturb nature (something they may no see in lifts at other mountains).

You feel differently about a close friend than you do about a stranger. It’s not because one or the other is less human, it’s because you only know your friend’s story.

Find the Moment
In every message there’s a key moment or line. Find it. And then create a sequence of information that leads up to and makes that moment unique, special, and memorable. Stuff that makes it different. Stuff that gives you a reason to care.

Don’t just say, “We just approval to build a new lift.” Say, “Since the first day we welcome skiers to our mountain, we’ve been dreaming of skiing these slopes. [reason’s why it was hard to do] [how we were able to overcome and do it]. Now that is possible because, after decades of trying…we just got approval to build a new lift.”

Same words, one just has context. That’s telling a story. And that’s what Arapahoe Basin did extremely well.

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.