I’ve often described my marketing style as a cycle of principles, data, and creativity.

I’ll start with principles, look at the specific data around that principles, and then crank up the creativity. One of my favorite examples of this is something I covered in the Stash today.

The Principle
Let’s start with a principle: the more someone uses their season pass, the more likely they are to renew the following season.

If we both buy passes for $1,000, the window rate is $100, but I use mine 20 times and you use yours 5, we can break down some of the logic as to why this happens.

The Data
Now let’s look at the specific numbers to see if there is something that will greatly increase the chances of renewal. In the case of the data behind this principle, we’re looking for the steepest part of the graph which sits around 4-6 days.

This is the point where ever day on the mountain leads to the highest increase in renewal rate.

The Creativity
Let’s get creative by imagining 100 people who have each used their passes 5 times. If the trend holds, about 44% of them will renew for, lets say, $1,000 or a total of $44,000 in future revenue.

Now, let’s imagine that somehow we are able to get all 100 of those people to ski just 1 more time. Instead of a 44% change, there’s about a 50% chance. Again, if the trend holds then 50 of them will renew for $50,000 in future revenue: $6,000 more than if they skied just 5 days or about $60/person.

The chart above is how it looked when I applied average pass prices to the first analysis.

The Application
That’s why I love a campaign that Squaw Valley shared at Destination Summit last year.

After looking at their own numbers, they simply offered a free gift card to on-mountain dining (the only way to use it was to come skiing) to passholders in that low-use range. The cost of the card to the resort was well below the value of someone coming skiing to use it. Skiers used the card and in so doing increased their likelihood of renewing at seasons-end.

This is what I love. Start with a principle, look at the specific data, turn on your thinking cap and let the creative juices flow.

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.