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It’s been fun to follow Mountain Gazette’s journey as both an fan-of-print observer and as a love-great-stories subscriber. I initially snagged that subscription to support what Mike Rogge was doing with the idea that maybe I’d cancel once he had momentum, but every issue is so stinkin’ lovely…I’m hooked.

But, as you might expect from a guy who has written 2,000+ posts about resort marketing, I’m hooked for two reasons: the content and the ads.

Resorts have taken advantage of the absurdly large format to deliver some pretty incredible bits of advertising. After receiving my latest issue yesterday I quickly added another example to that list.

Jackson Hole

Let’s just get the good stuff out of the way and show this gem of a campaign.

Done drooling? Let’s talk about why I love this campaign so much.

1) The Wide View

I love shots that zoom out and give you that wide, expansive view that is such a powerful, unique feature of resort experiences. We use to often say that “skiers are visual people” which is true, but in the age of social media engagement luring people out to have experiences just for the chance to take (and share) a photo of that experience, leading with powerful imagery is brilliant.

2) People & Perspective

Second, I love that there are people in this shot. Having people in the shot helps us human realize that, wow, yeah, we could do that same thing. There are lots of incredible views, but not all are accessible to mere mortals. When we see people like us in the photo, enjoying the view it helps us imagine that we could be those people. And by putting them on an overlook in the foreground of that glossy photo we just mentioned? That’s a smart combination. It also gives us a sense of scale and perspective.

3) Simplicity

Most of all, I love that Jackson Hole didn’t get too heavyhanded with graphics. Even the activities they wanted to showcase were cleverly woven into the primary word in a way that felt like an extension of the image rather than an intrusion. When you have an image as beautiful as this, you can let the image do the talking and Jackson Hole did exactly that.

Next Step

One last note before I wrap up. If you haven’t yet, scan the QR code on the bottom right. This code – created and tracked using Uniqode it appears – takes you to a thoughtfully created page that ties all of these activities and possibilities together in a nice, clean flow from high level hero imagery, through lists of activities, details for each, and dates for how everything works during the warmer months.

This is fantastic marketing, start to finish. Great work, Jackson Hole.

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.