A few months back I wrote about names. About the balance between how useful giving something can be in a marketing sense while not naming every single thing and overdoing it. My key takeaway was:

“You can absolutely overdo names. I know I have and perhaps that’s why I’ve waffled on them in the past.

But if you’re wresting with a message that you really need to make a bit more sticky, asking yourself whether there’s a name for that product or event or chapter in your story can be a great tool to turn to.”

I used Vail as a supporting example at the time, but since then I’ve seen more and examples of how well they play the name card.

The Context
So let’s set the stage a little.

The larger, destination resorts in the Vail family have consistently made a push to open by Thanksgiving. It’s a chance to start the ski season with lots of guests, rather than on a quiet weekend weeks before a spike in bookings and revenue will arrive.

It’s also the motivation behind many of Vail’s recent snowmaking upgrades.

Our cover for Saturday: "Vail’s new early-season experience earns rave reviews from skiers, riders who praise massive snowmaking upgrade." pic.twitter.com/pvglVic44T

— Vail Daily (@VailDaily) November 16, 2019

But there’s another thing Vail rolled out that, despite my unhealthy affection for snowmaking, impressed me even more.

Introducing, Revely
Here’s the overview from a Vail blog post about it.

“Thanksgiving Week will debut this winter as a new week-long celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday season known as Revely Vail and an official kick-off of the 2019-2020 winter season at Vail.

From November 23-30, 2019, Revely Vail, Thanksgiving Week will offer family-oriented activities throughout Vail Village, including cooking classes, ice skating celebrations, Explosion of Lights and the Kris Kringle Market.”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s all great stuff, but the biggest change isn’t adding a few activities. The biggest change is giving it a name. Is using this little device to tie it all together into one big thing instead of lots of little things.

So Smart
You have to imagine that somewhere at Vail HQ last year someone said, “hey, we need to strengthen performance around Thanksgiving.” And this combination of:

• Better early season skiing conditions
• More activities in the village
• A name to reframe the conversation around this week

In my book is a brilliant move.

And because it’ll happen every year, it’s a great way to layer in the “make this a tradition” element of loyalty as well. Really good stuff from Vail.

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.