One of the Most Impressive Resort Videos I’ve Seen Released in 2013
Gregg Blanchard /
I think my brain has developed a sort of radar that mentally tracks certain resorts for certain types of content. Yet, one of my favorite videos of 2013 came from a resort that wasn’t anywhere near that radar for video.
Stowe.
At 7 minutes, this video was a bit longer than others coming out (which I’ll get to in a sec), but the story, editing, and footage were more than enough to keep me watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xT6M1OnEpg
So why is it great? I think it succeeds on a few, key points:
- Faces: it gives names, personalities, and faces to the crew behind the scenes
- Teaching: the video teaches the viewer how a resort runs and satisfies those bits of human curiosity
- Showcase: at the same time, this teaching shows the viewer how great the conditions are at Stowe and why that happens
- Quality: the quality of the video is sharp with nothing that distracts
It’s good, solid video. With over 3,300 views and lots of positive feedback, I hope they run with this in other distribution channels.
The Other Path
But there is a point about this video that doesn’t fit the mold. As I mentioned, it is much longer than recent resort video trends.
For example, Aspen/Snowmass’s OurStory could fit three of their videos into this video alone. At writing, those videos (plus the teaser) had a combined 18,500 views. While those are two isolated numbers in a complex distribution question, I think it does indicate the way users do like these short, bite-sized bits of content.
So should Stowe have broken up their video into episodes? Maybe, maybe not. As is, I think it hints that although shorter works well, it’s not impossible to find success with longer videos.