I love the analogy Ikon used to illustrate resort variety.
Gregg Blanchard /
This will be quick, I’m wrapping up a compressed week before taking a few days off, but I wanted to share a simple, fun bit of marketing before I check out.
Brands like Ikon have tried dozens of ways to showcase the variety that is accessible to the folks who buy their pass. Maps, lists, infographics, logo grids, etc. are all tools they’ve turned to in this quest to visualize just how many resorts skiers have access to.
This year, however, Ikon also sprinkled in a fun little analogy to one of their video ads: a remote control with a boatload of buttons.
You can see it in the image at the top or by clicking this link (embedding is disabled for their ad), but the idea is simple and effective. We’re used to having a bunch of buttons on a remote, but that many? That must mean a lot of something is available. That “something”, in this case, is ski resorts. It’s unique, eye-catching, and delivers the message really well. I feel like they could make a whole series of ads based on the same idea of giving everyday things a ton more options (someone opening their garage and seeing 70 cars, a kid waking up Christmas morning to 70 presents, etc.).
I’ve had this on my list to write about for a while, but the other day my son saw the ad and said:
“What the heck? Why does that remote control have so many buttons?”
I explained the intricacies of Ikon branding, resort marketing strategy, and the meaning of life with a response like:
“It’s an ad for a season pass that’s good at lots of resorts, each button represents a resort.”
And his response was simply:
“Wow, that’s a ton.”
Whether his surprise was a failure on my part to educate him on the current state of pass wars or he really was blown away by the idea of a pass good at that many mountains, I’m not sure. But the fact remains that we we’re both impressed with this clever, fun little way to tell this story (and the number of resorts), so either ways it’s mission accomplished.
Great work, Ikon.