In the last couple of years I’ve found the difficulty of finding good, valuable content to have increased 10 fold.

The level of noise is incredible and is only exacerbated by the fact that sometimes the best gems are hidden inside long, time-exhausting posts or small snippets that are overlooked by the flood of “shareworthy” titles.

So, I’ve been gathering stuff I like and waiting for a time to share some of it. Consider this the a test round for this idea. Here are six.

Golf is Too Hard
“Golf Sucks, So Does Sailing”
Key Quote:

“When people say, ‘Yeah, I used to golf. It costs too much. It takes too long,’ those are convenient excuses. What they can’t admit is that they failed. So they never became comfortable and they never really became competent to the point where they can enjoy it.”

One of the most simple, insightful pieces I’ve read on the relationship between the difficulty of a sport and attracting new participants. Lots of interesting parallels and takeways for ski.
Read thist post →

Prism
“Simplicity”
Key Quote:

“The dynamics of weather and their affect on color provide the daily possibility of any single image being the best to be captured. The composition stays the same because it is the right one. It is a composition that can be used to tell your story over time through seasons, time-lapse and the most beautiful images each week.”

I’ve had this conversation with some of you, but if I think we’re missing the potential of a web cam when we insist it moves or pans or zooms. Prism took some time to address this and I think they did it very well.
Read thist post →

MERCURYcsc
“Research May Bring Comfort, But Inevitably Must Lead to Risk”
Key Quote:

“No amount of research can successfully launch a company, just as no amount of research can guarantee the success of your next marketing initiative.”

MERCURYcsc constantly impresses with their insights into marketing and consumer behavior, but this is one that really highlighted their insight into marketers’ minds as well. This one is a great read but don’t be afraid to explore their writing.
Read thist post →

USA Today
“2016 Ad Meter Results”
No key quote but pay attention to not just the ratings, but the gaps between the best and worst from last year to this year:

• 2016 – Best: 6.9 – Worst: 3.2 – Gap: 3.7pts
• 2015 – Best: 8.1 – Worst: 3.1 – Gap: 5.0pts

It’s a trend I’ve seen that there doesn’t seem to be the unanimous goods or bads. The parity between ads is increasing, for whatever reason, as is the challenge of truly standing out.
Read this post (2016) →
Read this post (2015) →

Liftopia
“Liftopia Now Selling Bike Park Tickets”
Key Quote:

“Many resorts are looking to ways they can maximize the great summer weather and augment their winter activities with new experiences for customers. Lift-served mountain biking is a growing sport and a natural fit for resorts during warm-weather months.”

I’ll have a deeper review of this soon, but this is a very cool and big move.
Read this post →

SAM Magazine
“The Challenges of Being Small”
Key Quote:

“But in general, we’ve found working with larger resorts to be daunting. Most of them just don’t get it, and I think they’re being penny-wise and pound-foolish. The whole industry is saying we need to grow the sport, and it’s amazing some of the silly things large resorts bring up when you ask about these things.”

Lots of great insights but especially on the marketing side and what happens when small ski areas want to work with large resorts.
Read thist post →

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.