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The ink was still wet on Monday’s post about the Snow Triple Play pass when I got the email from Doug Fish about Indy’s latest round of news. There was some great stuff in the release, to be sure, but the part that stood out to me was this line:

Indy Pass is also introducing a revolutionary Learn-to-Turn Pass that aims to introduce new skiers and riders to the sport at select Indy Alpine resorts. The new pass will offer three total days of lift access, and includes rentals and lessons for just $189.

To understand why I was so excited about this, we need to back up a little. Last fall at Snow Operating’s Immersion user group at Mountain Creek, I laid out a few ideas around growth. When I followed those ideas with the same mindset I took to my usual marketing campaigns, they all led to the same place: buddy tickets for beginners.

In fact, that’s the exact title I used when I wrote a post recapping that presentation: “What if your passholders got buddy tickets…for beginners?“

Now I know what you’re thinking:

Um, Gregg. They launched a pass for beginners, so why are you talking about referral programs?

Because, my dear reader, if you continued on to the next paragraph of their release you would see this sentence:

Every current Indy Pass holder will receive two referral codes providing an additional $40 discount, lowering the price to $149.

I completely love this.

Here’s the trick with non-skiers: they have no relationship with our resorts, our passes, our mountains, our brands, our heroes, and our influencers. They aren’t in our databases or our social media followings. They don’t know us. They don’t trust us. Which means that all of those marketing channels we love and rely on to sell stuff to skiers? They suck when it comes to growth. But do you know who they do know? Who they do have a trusted relationship with? Their friends who ski.

That’s why I feel our most untapped growth channel is turning our skiers into an army of salespeople for our sport and that’s why I think this idea is so fantastic.

Nice work Doug and the rest of the Indy folks.

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.