Some of my favorite bits of content or campaigns as of late all have a simple theme behind them:

Take something I’m used to seeing / saying / doing / experiencing one way and inject some creativity to see / say / do / experience it differently.

It’s fun, it helps you see things in a new light, and it often comes in tandem with something I’m a huge fan of.

Challenges.

Rick Shiels
Challenges are, almost by their definition, taking something normal and trying to do it in an abnormal, difficult way.

• Take a 10k, add a bunch of bizarre obstacles, you have a challenge (Tough Mudder).
• Take a normal meal, make it 5x as large, you have a challenge (and the basis of Man v Food).

And that’s exactly what Rick Shiels (pro golfer / coach) has done.

For example, anyone can play a course hole-by-hole. But start at one hole and go to the furthest possible green? That’s a challenge.

And we all know how hard it would be make a 200′ putt, but how long would it actually take to do it? That’s a challenge too.

And new golf tech is amazing, but what would it be like to use the old stuff again? Another challenge.

Mix in the fact Rick is great on camera and they’ve clearly invested in the content itself, and you end up with some videos that are not just really fun to watch but give you a fresh perspective on the game itself.

Skiing
Sometimes the perception of what you are (brand) and what you sell (product) can get a little stale in the minds of your customers.

So why no mix it up with a few challenges? Things like:

• Ski every lift on the mountain in a certain amount of time
• Use a run tracker to see who can take the longest run down the mountain
• See how many 360s you can do in one run.
• Do your race course on new gear then repeat with 1940’s ski gear.
• Play “pictionary” by drawing an object from a hat and then trying to create shapes with your runs via a run tracker.

Notice that all of these things are fairly doable by normal skiers and that’s the really clever theme behind Rick’s content as well. Because it’s not just fun, it’s realistic for any ability level. And so being, it can inspire people to give it a try themselves.

The next time you’re looking for a creative take on the same story, maybe give challenges a few minutes of brainstorming time as 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.