Pushing “schedule” on this post leaves just one thing on my to-do list: send a collection of resort marketing highs and lows to the good folks at SAM for inclusion in the 2014/15 “Best/Worst” list.

It’s a fun process and one I enjoy being part of each year.

But I think it’s important to remember what “best” means in this and many other situations we find ourselves as marketers.

Defining Best: Part 1 – Favorites
Almost every day we marketers see some reference to “best marketing” in one industry or another. For example, Skift publishes a weekly “best travel ads” list…

5 Best Travel Ads to Watch This Week http://t.co/jDrwiTLC6Q by @SamShankman pic.twitter.com/5GFnftjdXo

— Skift (@skift) February 21, 2015

Best Travel Ads This Week: Brands Push the Concept of a Life Well-Traveled http://t.co/4cQIy2Ri3T pic.twitter.com/gYRu6zv5cB

— Skift (@skift) January 31, 2015

…and while the wording doesn’t always reflect it, sometimes the true nature of this list is revealed when an author talks about how he/she “loved this ad.”

In other words, “best” means favorite.

Defining Best: Part 2 – Perspective
A while back the Atlantic jumped on this trend with a whole series of “bests” from marketing professors, CEOs, and artists all over the world.

What is the best advertising campaign of all time? (via @TheAtlantic) #Advertising #Marketing | http://t.co/LJW0FqwxeH

— American Management (@AMAnet) February 27, 2015

But if each truly identified the best, wouldn’t they all have pointed to the same campaign? This illustrates the second part, our individual views on what makes marketing great. Some believe it’s as simple as a catchy tagline, others looks for stuff that directly impacts the bottom line.

In other words, “best” depends on personal perspective.

Defining Best: Part 3 – What I Can See
Here’s another thing to remember. We’ll use the Oreo Super Bowl tweet as our example example. It’s been named to dozens (if not hundreds) of “best” lists…

Power out? No problem. pic.twitter.com/dnQ7pOgC

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 4, 2013

…but unless you were following Oreo or someone who wrote about it, it wouldn’t have been on your list because you couldn’t see it. Nobody can see all marketing, so a superlative has to come from a tiny fraction of the whole that any one person can observe.

In other words, “best” depends on what i can see.

Defining Best: Part 4 – Mass Scale
Finally, keep in mind that unless the marketing is directed at a large enough group, there’s a good chance nobody but the intended audience will see. In fact, the best marketing going down right now is on a highly personal, one-to-one scale. Here’s a simple example:

@CurtHokanson Tucker Cat? Running from 10am to 2pm today!

— Copper Mountain (@CopperMtn) February 28, 2015

Going back to point 3, unless I follow both Copper and Curt, I’m never going to see this (unless I nerdily scour Copper’s “Tweets & replies” feed looking for an example for this post) but that one-to-one interaction can have a huge effect on skier behavior.

In other words, “best” usually misses personalized, one-to-one marketing.

A Reminder
So let me tie those four pieces together as a reminder for what I mean when I say something is “best” or “worst” (or neither) on SAM’s (et al) list this year:

“Based on the small percentage of marketing I saw and how I define great marketing, these were my favorite broadly-targeted campaigns.”

Again, it sounds worse than it is and there’s still lots of value in studying such marketing (hence the value, however small it might be, of the site you are currently on), but it’s an important thing to keep in mind.

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.