I talked about Vail Resort’s pre-roll ads and highlighted a local one I’m digging from Snowbasin, but I’ve found myself served ads now for both the IKON Pass and Mountain Collective.

So, in true resort marketing nerd fashion, here’s a quick overview.

IKON Pass (18.5k views)
IKON went full ski porn on this edit. Powder slashes and long, fast turns on untracked turns are only occasionally interrupted by a lifestyle shot. Some nice music is all the audio you hear, no narration or text overlays have been added. The only message is right at the end:

“Sweet days await us. Adventure Assurance comes with every 2020/21 pass.”

Here’s the edit.

In a way it’s a very similar message to Vail Resorts’ angle that highlights Epic Coverage. The difference is simply less focus on the bullet points and more focus on the experience.

Probably not the only video they have in their quiver, but a nice addition.

Mountain Collective (17k views)
This ad is Northeast-themed and takes a storytelling approach where they tie visiting resorts on the pass to the tradition of window stickers. This does a nice job of planting the seed that this could not only be you skiing, but also building a collection. The only words aside from the URL are:

23 resorts, 46 days, no blackouts

No narration, no clever taglines. At 40 seconds long, it is a the longest of the pre-roll ads I’ve seen this fall, but the story does hold you attention better than most.

I really dig the story-based concept of this one. It’s as much about how you might use the pass as it is educating you on what the pass is.

Which, in my book, is a nice little 1-2 punch.

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.