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I’m at the laundromat while I write this. Our dryer broke and we haven’t been able to get it fixed or replaced quite yet, so here I am. But when it comes to writing about resort marketing, this is actually a special place. It was in the laundromat each week 14 years ago that I’d scribble SlopeFillers post ideas to the soothing sound of massive dryers.

More than 100 posts were born in those white-noise-infused moments when life had a little more…simplicity.

There have been many themes on this site across 2,000+ posts that have been published in the years since then, but if there is one that speaks to me now as much as it did then it’s that word I ended the previous paragraph: simplicity.

Killington’s News

The other day POWDR announced that they were selling off a few of their resorts. Only one had a buyer, Killington / Pico, so while the wait begins to hear where Eldora, Bachelor, and SilverStar land, I want to just take a moment to highlight what Killington did that, in my mind, was a beautifully smart, but simple, move.

They turned the camera toward Mike and gave him a simple script and in a simple setting where he used a simple vibe to send a clean, thoughtful message around a potentially big moment.

Yes, this is built on the back of years of building up Mike as a trusted voice and face for the resort. And don’t confuse simplicity with laziness. They clearly worked hard on the message and the product quality is second to none.

But notice what they didn’t do. They didn’t over complicate the production and they didn’t get bogged down trying to address questions they simple don’t have answers for.

Quality + Simplicity

I love this combination of quality and simplicity. Maybe that’s the best way to sum up my feelings on this. Simplicity isn’t always about only doing less, sometimes it’s about doing less so you can do a better job on whatever is leftover. Or doing less because you’ve taken the time to recognize that it doesn’t need more.

This is the 83rd post I’ve written that has mentioned simplicity. It won’t be the last. Heck, I’ve even got a category named “Simplicity” in WordPress because I was writing about it so much. I can’t think of another principle that has gotten me out of more jams, helped me make better decisions, kept me focused on the right things, and avoided costly mistakes than that little moment where I take a step back and ask:

Does this need to be the way I have it? Or can it be just as effective with fewer parts?

Sometimes those extra parts are needed, but sometimes they’re not. You won’t know which is which, though, unless, like Killington, you ask the question.

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.