Two weeks ago I wrote about a story that, at least in my book, is exactly what this industry needs.

The other day, Joe Johnson shared another one. Let me share the gist and then I’ll try to get right to the heart of why I think it’s so powerful.

Quick Version
It’s not long, so the first step before reading on is simply watching the video.

Here’s the copy Powder used to set it up when they shared it on their site:

“With a vertical drop of 309 feet and an annual snowfall of around 60 inches, Caston tells it like it is—the skiing here isn’t good. But that’s the point. Skiers at place like Buck Hill aren’t thwarted by zero-degree temperatures or man-made snow. They wear jeans and speed suits and they don’t care you can see the highway from the chairlift.

These are the skiers who show up, day in and day out, all winter long where the lifts spin until 1 a.m. to make their turns and drink their beers just like the rest of us. Actually, they might be a lot cooler than the rest of us. In those temperatures, they’re certainly tougher.”

Once again, right in line with the messages I think are great for this message.

In a Sentence
Let me see if I can summarize this a succinctly as I can.

What these videos are doing is simply this: they’re giving skiers a green light to be just as stoked on small skiing as they are about big mountain skiing.

That’s huge. Again, small ski areas can solve so many issues our industry believes to be hurdles to our growth. But there are two other hurdles:

1. The marketing voices of these areas is dwarfed by the big guns
2. There’s a vibe that if you ski small mountains, you must be either, a) a beginner, or b) bored

Stories like these sweep away both in one fun, inspiring narrative. So, once again, I’ll repeat: our industry needs more of these.

They won’t solve everything, but I believe they can help.

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.