If you’re not going to be the first to do something, you can at least do it better. Usain Bolt wasn’t the first guy to win two gold medals in the 100m, but Carl Lewis’s times don’t look quite as impressive when compared to 9.68 and 9.63 seconds.

Last year, some resort (and I honestly can’t remember which) made an infographic about season pass pricing broken down by various resort stats. Soon after, Park City followed their lead with this quick example.

The idea was a simple, clever twist on showing value in a season pass by combining the price with things like:

• Length of season ($500 pass / 100 day season = $5 day)
• Acreage ($500 pass / 1000 acres = $.50 acre)
• Runs ($500 pass / 200 runs = $2.50 run or $500 pass / 10 runs per day / 100 days = $.50 run)

And then comparing those costs to other forms of entertainment of things people spend money on like gas or a movie ticket. The response to the graphic Park City created wasn’t too bad – 15 likes and 2 shares – plus some positive feedback on this price perspective:

“Wow…puts it in perspective!”
“Most people are sticker shocked and don’t realize how affordable skiing is.”

Joe Johnson at Canyons hadn’t actually seen the Park City inforgraphic, but had a similar idea. This time, with some solid design help from Brooks Shelton, they put some extra effort into it. If likes and shares on Facebook are any sort of barometer, the feedback for this piece of solely promotional content was pretty solid with 56 likes and 21 shares.

Here it is:

It’s a simple take on season pass pricing but it seems to have the right effect on the way skiers perceive it as a purchase. Comparing any one of those metrics – $40/week, $6/day, $0.21/acre, $2.40/inch of snowfall – frames it in terms that relate a bit more directly to the experience of skiing rather than the dread of shelling out $850 at once.

It’s like buying a house. If you think of it as a $250k purchase, you’re paralyzed. Luckily, monthly payments and long-term vision helps you swallow that rather large pill (doesn’t hurt that it’s typically not your own money initially changing hands). Same thing with season passes, little things like this can help take the edge of a big purchase and put the value of a season pass into perspective.

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.