In my decades-long quest to master storytelling, one of the things I’ve tried to do is strip away this art to the most simple description I could. I wanted as simple a principle or concept as possible to use as a starting point.

The one I’ve been going with for a few years now is simply this:

“Stories give things – people, moments, places, etc. – more meaning.”

With that in mind, you can find the moment to which you want to add more depth and then find the things around that moment that will help infuse it with purpose and insight and triumph.

Those are the elements of your story.

Boreal
There’s a recent video from Boreal that’s a perfect example of this.

At about the 1:24 mark – approximately 80% of the way through the video – you get the first shots of someone riding.

They’re simple and smooth. No flashy tricks, no powerful turns or high-speed charging.

Yet they’re full of meaning because of the 80 seconds that came before.

See the difference?

Meaning
The narration and clips in that video worked together to give more meaning to the snow the rider is carving.

That’s a story.

And that’s the thing to remember: when you have something you want your guests to appreciate more, to understand on a deeper level, to feel an emotional connection to? Find the stuff that gives that thing meaning and weave them together.

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.