Butterflies, Branding, and The Art of the Resort Sticker Tag
Gregg Blanchard /
My sister is scared to death of butterflies. Moths too for that matter. Crippling is a good word to describe her reaction to these hellish demons. Confident interior designer one second, pale-faced paralytic the next. Lucky for her she no longer lives in Colorado because a monarch infestation is beginning to spread…one sticker at a time.
Stickers have always been used as a symbol of who you are. If you want to be a cool kid around town, stick the logo of your favorite mountain in the back window of your Outback. Wanna rep your local hill on a road trip? Slap a decal on your helmet for all to see. Heck, sticker placement on a snowboard is borderline artwork.
I’ve always found it ironic that I see Sugarloaf stickers on Powder Mountain’s lift towers and Snowbird logos on Canyon’s high speed quads. One clever thing that Monarch Mountain does is simply collect photos of “monarch sightings” and post them on Facebook. Their logo-emblazoned stickers have shown up is some pretty random corners of the globe: on dinosaurs, newspaper boxes, and yes, even lift towers at fellow Coloarado resort, Sunlight Mountain.
Tagging random places with your favorite mountain’s logo is the rebel version of sticker use. When you see your resort’s logo around town, why not follow Monarch’s lead, snap a picture and post it on Facebook or Twitter? This does a few things:
- It shows there are lots of other skiers loyal to your mountain (social proof)
- It encourages more and more sightings, once you see something once, isn’t there a universal rule that you will instantly start seeing that thing everywhere? (top of mind awareness)
- It gets your fans to share more and more pictures of their sightings (engagement)
Tagging a police car might be a bad idea, so reminding your fans to be smart taggers could be a wise move. Otherwise, have fun with your stickers and don’t let giving them away at a ski movie be the last time they make an impact.
Random Idea: Why not stick a little call to action on your sticker that encourages sharing on social media. Something like, “Am I stuck to something yet? Upload a picture of how you spread the Monarch love at facebook.com/monarchmountain.”