I love the Ikon’s remote control ad campaign breakdown Pass. Let me say that upfront. It’s a phenomenal product — 70+ destinations, incredible variety, and real value for anyone who wants to explore. The “Seek Unique” campaign for the 26/27 season? Brilliant concept on paper. Every Ikon destination genuinely does have something different to offer, and leaning into that individuality is the right strategic move.
But here’s where it falls apart.
My Inbox Told the Same Story Four Times in One Afternoon
On April 13th, I received “Seek Unique” campaign emails from Steamboat at 11:07 AM, Winter Park at 12:56 PM, Arapahoe Basin at 1:55 PM, and Palisades Tahoe that same day. The subject line on every single one? “Only three days left to save on Ikon Pass.” Identical. Word for word.
Open them up and the pattern continues. Same body copy: “Hurry, there are only three days left to claim spring’s lowest prices. Purchase an Ikon Pass for as low as 0% APR and $0 down before prices go up and promos end after April 16.” Same pass comparison grid — Ikon Pass at $1,399, Base at $949, Session starting at $299. Same “SHOP PASSES” CTA button. Same yellow Ikon pass urgency marketing tactics banner across the top.
The only thing that changed? The hero image. Steamboat shows a skier in their powder. A-Basin shows their terrain. Winter Park shows their slopes. But wrap the same template around different resort photos and call it “Seek Unique”? The irony writes itself.
And this wasn’t a one-time send. Weeks earlier, the same resorts sent me nearly identical emails with subject lines like “Two weeks left to score the best price” and “One week left to get spring’s lowest prices” — all with “Seek Unique” branding, all with the same copy, just different countdown numbers.
The Segmentation Question That Should Keep You Up at Night
Here’s what really gets me: who are these emails actually going to, and is anyone thinking about who’s receiving them?
If I’m a Steamboat building a loyal ski resort audienceist who’s been riding there for 15 seasons, do I need the same pitch as a first-time Ikon buyer? If I’m a snowboarder, why am I seeing skier imagery in every single hero shot? If I live in Denver and A-Basin is my Tuesday afternoon mountain, why does the email read like it’s selling me on the concept of visiting a ski resort?
I approach all of my campaigns with a simple filter: “How can I help you?” If the email doesn’t genuinely help the recipient — if it’s just corporate brand amplification dressed up as resort marketing — it’s not ready to send.
The data to do this right already exists. Purchase history. Visit frequency. Home mountain preferences. Skier vs. rider. Local vs. destination guest. Renewing passholder vs. prospect. Platforms like Ascent360 make this kind of hyper-targeting straightforward — you can segment by product purchased, visit date, and even skill level. When you send a powder alert to your most active local passholders at 6 AM, that’s helpful. When you blast the same template to your entire database from four different sender names in one afternoon, that’s noise.
What CRM or CDP is your resort running right now? Are you still in Mailchimp handling everything manually, or have you moved to a platform that can actually segment based on real guest behavior? That decision alone might be the biggest marketing lever you’re not pulling.
What “Actually Seeking Unique” Looks Like
If I were advising these partner resorts on this campaign, here’s what I’d push for:
Let each resort own their voice. Steamboat’s brand is not Arapahoe Basin’s brand. A centralized campaign toolkit — assets, messaging framework, key dates — is smart. But letting a centralized team write the actual email copy for every resort? That strips the soul out of each brand. Your local marketing team knows their audience better than anyone. Trust them.
Segment by relationship. A renewing passholder should get a completely different message than a prospect. Someone who visited 3 times last season should hear “welcome back” not “discover something new.” The urgency copy works for prospects. For loyal passholders? Try gratitude and exclusive benefits.
Match imagery to your actual audience. If your resort has a strong park and pipe scene, show that to your rider segment. If family programs are your differentiator, lead with that for family audiences. One hero image swapped into a template is not personalization — it’s a costume change on the same mannequin.
Ask the real question before every send. Does this email help the person receiving it? Or does it just check a box for the campaign calendar?
The Bigger Lesson for All of Us
This isn’t just an Ikon problem. It’s an industry-wide tension between scale and authenticity. As multi-resort operators grow, the temptation to centralize marketing grows with them. And centralization isn’t inherently bad — it saves money, ensures consistency, and makes execution faster.
But your guests don’t care about your operational efficiency. They care about whether your mountain feels like home. And that feeling starts in their inbox before they ever click into a binding.
Here’s my challenge to you: pull up the last 5 emails your resort sent. If you removed the logo, would a subscriber know which mountain it came from? If the answer is no, you’ve got work to do. The tools exist. The data exists. The question is whether we’re willing to do the harder, more personal work that “Seek Unique” actually demands.
What are you seeing in your inbox from Ikon partners or other multi-resort campaigns? I’m genuinely curious how you’re navigating the tension between centralized campaigns and keeping your resort’s brand voice alive.
For a deeper dive on what behavior-first segmentation looks like in practice, Ascent360’s piece on building guest retention through smarter segmentation is worth the read.
