Most folks get the snow + planks + mountains combination. The market, to a large degree, gets that.

But how does your messaging change if you take away two of those but still call yourself skiing? What if you don’t need snow or mountains, to ride?

What if you’re Liberty Snowflex?

Education to Learn From
Well, you’ve gotta start where most resort marketing doesn’t. You’ve gotta teach people what the heck you are, how it works, and why they’d want to do it.

That video is a fairly straightforward promotion, but because it’s far enough outside the norm of what skiing means to most folks, there are a few really interesting angles within it.

#1) “We wanted a surface that’s…”
First, they teach the viewer about the surface. When it’s not snow, there isn’t a reference point. So they talk about the cushion and edge and whatever.

Interestingly, the snow we ski on? It’s nothing like what folks sled on or in many cases shovel in their driveway. How often do we teach non-skiers about our snow, why it’s safe, so easy to turn on, the purpose of corduroy, etc.?

#2) “I just tried it for the first time last night and…”
This is the classic before/after story. This quote is coming from a professional snowboarder who is used to snow and is trying this new experience for the first time.

Our mountains are full of before/afters. Maybe the before is the couch or skateboarding or golf or video games. The before/after is a simple, powerful story but it’s not one we see a lot in resort marketing.

#3) “Because of _________ I __________…”
Which leads elegantly into another people-centric angle. Ending a before/after with a “because of…” makes the resort the hero in this story.

Whether that’s a story about addiction or weight loss of family bonding or whatever, it’s another angle we don’t use that much in our industry.

Simple
This stuff isn’t ground breaking, but it’s a great starting point for unique and effective marketing messages.

Sometimes it’s harder to see the parallels between us and totally different sports. But Snowflex is similar enough to get it, but different enough to force a style of marketing that doesn’t come naturally for folks who have spent their careers in the mountains.

Nice work, Liberty.

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.