It’s funny, sometimes simply saying not to do something only makes us want to do it more. I’ve noticed this lesson with my neices and nephews: tell them not to do something and you might as well say, “Your goal is to make as much eye contact with me as possible as you quietly do the thing I asked you not to do.”

It’s worked for all sorts of stuff, including Photojojo. According to Aarron Walter in “Designing for Emotion”, he says:

“The mysterious lever with its reverse psychology gets more people to read the description, and, according to Photojojo founder Amit Gupta, actually improves their conversion rates. Brilliant!

So, what did Powder Mountain come up with? A series of clever billboards that tell people not to come. Here’s the full line-up from the SLC Egotist:
http://www.theslcegotist.com/news/local/2012/january/23/more-pow-mow-billboards

I love it. It’s clever, simple, and tells the message without have to be obnoxious and salesy. Whether everyone will get it is debatable, but I like the attempt.

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.