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Marketing
Peek ‘n Peak launched a social media campaign last
season that was as much about appealing to guests’ sense
of nostalgia as it was about their inclination to take selfies.
The resort decided to use social media to “throw it back”
to the good times, that is, offer significant discounts with
Throwback Thursday promotions. Every Thursday, the
Courtesy Peek ‘N Peak
resort offered a Facebook and Instagram #TBT discount,
reverting lift ticket prices to different times gone by: 1987,
1992, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2005.
To incentivize people to share their oldie-but-goodie #TBT
pics, the resort offered “share to win” contests for a chance to
win free lift tickets in exchange for the best and oldest pictures. marketing messaging for key audiences.
(The contributions were so good that Peek ‘n Peak plans to use
the pictures for the #TBT promotions in the upcoming season.)
The posts and the promotions were a hit, said Maggie
Parsons, Peek ‘n Peak’s marketing coordinator: “People
started to message us days in advance about the discounted
ski lift tickets, and regularly shared their #TBT photos and
asked if we’d share them on our page.”
Peek ‘n Peak’s 4,400 Instagram followers gave the #TBT
posts as much as 3.6 percent organic engagement (the national
average on Instagram is 1.7 percent per post). On Facebook,
the resort used strategic advertising dollars to boost some of its
#TBT posts. The best of these earned 6,800 impressions and
354 post engagements as the resort gathered the user generated
content (old photos) from the comment thread.
“We feel the #TBT social media posts built brand
awareness and garnered interest in a mid-week ski lift
discount program,” Parsons said. “It also allowed our social
media fans to engage with our brand via the in-comments
ski lift ticket contests, which also curated user generated
content for future promotions.”
44 | NSAA JOURNAL | SUMMER 2016
BEST DIRECT MARKETING PROGRAM
Stowe Mountain Resort, VT
Courtesy Stowe Mountain Resort:
This past season Stowe raised the guest convenience factor
to the next level with its new Stowe ByPass program—an
optional payment platform that guests load onto their
hands-free RFID lift access card, the Evolution Stowe Card.
In addition to the customer service benefits of the new
program, the feature is contributing valuable information
to the resort’s database, enabling Stowe to create specific
When guests purchase the Evolution Stowe Card online
or at resort ticket outlets for a nominal one-time fee of $5,
they provide information to create a unique profile on their
card. The card provides access to all the lifts at the best pos-
sible rate each day—a great option for customers who don’t
have a season pass. Now, with Stowe ByPass, guests may
also use the card for any transaction at various on-mountain
shops, restaurants, and pubs.
While the resort still offers traditional lift ticket and
season pass products, Stowe Bypass is showing impressive
results, resulting in a 90 percent guest profile capture online
and at the ticket outlets last season. Stowe supplemented
that data with a weekly electronic survey utilizing the card’s
database to gather immediate feedback from every aspect of
the guest’s visit. Overall, Stowe is able to customize ticket
and pass offerings based on guest categories and needs—
well beyond geo and spend data—with specific messaging,
photography, and graphics.
“For the first time we were able to take our guest segment
information and target communications to the top three guest
segments who represent 65 to 70 percent of the overall resort
revenue,” said Michael Colbourn, vice president of marketing
and sales. “This approach led to a more personalized