New hours & Mini Easter TR

[snoskier]

Looks like new hours for this week. AFAIK They will be open tomorrow (Monday), closed Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then open Friday through Tuesday. If anyone is going up I would suggest calling ahead just b/c it seems hours have been in flux.

 

Ok so the little report.

 

Snow conditions --- wow wow wow wow wow wow. I love spring skiing and it was great spring skiing today. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the people were ... missing??? It was eriee skiing today b/c no one was there..... it was like I had my own mountain today. Having not lived around here long I guess people do not spring ski here. I understand it was a holiday and a sunday, but the conditions were the fantastic. Everything was groomed out perfectly and the weather was great. I would estimate that the most people on the slopes at once was no more than 40 people. Maybe 5-10 of those people were on NF. I would say the average was about 20 people. By around 3 pm the place just emptied.... At 3 there were maybe 10 people on the mountain and that is a big maybe.

Here are some crowd shots. These were taken around noon or 1 ish. The shot of the iron horse lift line was the most people I had seen (or went on to see all day)...

 

 

 

I didn't start skiing till about 11 today. I decided to tele so I wanted to let the snow soften a little bit. I wasn't disappointed. I had nice warm cord to ski all day. Fastrack and runaway were pretty much untouched today - the little hike was worth it. Conditions were great with a couple exceptions. Lower runway from ratter to the start of the top head wall was starting to get a little rocky, but once you it the head wall it was awsome. The connection between the top of phobe down to cannonball was slush. Hey, I'd rather have those two be bad than the trails.

 

The park was nice. They are finishing strong. They put in a new 100+ rail next to the 1/2 pipe see - below...

 

 

Everything was in great condition. 22', couple big booters, a bunch of rails and boxes, butter box, all were nice. I wouldn't suggest getting out of 13' given its condition, but it was probably good to just play in.

 

As this is my first season up in the Poconos i am AMAZED how after St. Pat's everyone shuts down. I don't know why people don't spring ski here... It's a shame the mountains aren't packed.

 

Hopefully we will get a bunch of people up next weekend for the winter carnival. Conditions should be very nice!!!

[snoskier]

I couldn't believe how empty it was yesterday. I mean ok, some people might have issues with the mountain, but come on 40 people???

 

Hopefully there will be more this coming weekend... we shall see.

[snoskier]

avatar = A dolly of boring documents I had to go through a couple months ago... kinda sums up my job at times...

 

I think marketing needs to be substantially improved for next year. I can't recall seeing one radio/t.v. ad for sno this year. Hopefully next year they do a little better in the local wb/scranton market. Maybe they only do ads in philly, but I doubt it b/c if they did I would expect more people.

[Melissa]

avatar = A dolly of boring documents I had to go through a couple months ago... kinda sums up my job at times...

 

I think marketing needs to be substantially improved for next year. I can't recall seeing one radio/t.v. ad for sno this year. Hopefully next year they do a little better in the local wb/scranton market. Maybe they only do ads in philly, but I doubt it b/c if they did I would expect more people.

 

I completely agree with you. I have NO marketing experience, but I do know how to throw and promote events. It isn't that tricky. New website that is updated with specials, conditions, and pictures. E-mail list with promo events and stuff like $5 off coupons. LOTS of advertising, especially in this area. Whenever I talk to people who live here, they tell me that they ski at Elk... um, great, but these people should be skiing at Sno (or rather, management should be trying to attract these people). Constant press releases, and media coverage... I don't remember reading anything in the paper about the Revolution Tour--was this promoted? Comp tickets to ski clubs and area people. There is even smaller-scale stuff that they could do. For example, people on here are forever posting their video edits of park stuff that they do... Sno could dedicate a team of people (riders/skiers) who could produce a video a week, and then get that around. Showcasing a cool park and cool riders/skiers who have skills I think would attract a lot of people. Finally, Sno needs to train its employees on effective customer service.

 

Maybe Sno just realizes that they have a lot on their plate, and they might want to get everything up to par before they start promoting hard. Or maybe they just need to hire Lizzie Grubman (or me).

[snoskier]

Maybe Sno just realizes that they have a lot on their plate, and they might want to get everything up to par before they start promoting hard. Or maybe they just need to hire Lizzie Grubman (or me).

 

 

Well I suppose driving a snowcat into a crowded nightclub would get the mountain some publicity...

 

I agree w/ your post 100%. They need to do more in the local area. Get people in the door and they will stay for good snow / grooming / a fun mountain. Start with the website and work up from there.

[Ski]

The original PR person for Sno used a couple of years worth of budget on all those TV ads last year, so the new PR person had just about zero budget when taking over this season. TV and radio ads will be back in full force next season, only a lot smarter. They'll be teaming up with radio stations for lots of promos and that sort of thing.

[Ski]

So they did almost zero marketing this season..

 

Sno needs to tap into the Philly market..it's really only 1.5 hours from the Northwest suburbs..

 

I'm just going by bits and pieces of what I heard and I'm pretty sure I'm not saying anything that isn't obvious...that said, Sno used this year to stabilize a shaky infrastructure and to see what events and programs they could manage. Consider that ski areas are going bankrupt around them and Al Gore has most people afraid we wont have winters in a few years.

 

So they built a crazy 22' pipe, held a USSA race and the mid-Atlantic high school alpine championships, did the jib academy thing, and brought in a former US Ski Teamer to hang out with the kids.

 

Doom and gloom was predicted by how many people on here?

 

Well, Sno hit all their projected numbers, and then some. With almost no advertising and only one person doing marketing.

 

If Sno was a publicly traded company, I know where I'd put my money. They do plan to market to DC and Baltimore and Philly---in fact, they did manage a few bus loads from, I believe, Baltimore.

 

I've said it before, but Sno is set up to run with extremely low overhead, compared to other Pocono resorts. CB had to make a million bucks to pay their board members before the first snowflake fell. Sno sank money into snowguns.

 

A while back I came to a conclusion: that after listening to all the employees and a lot of customers, there was one central idea in Carlson's plan for Sno. It's also, perhaps, why he picked the name Sno. He heard about lights and lifts and new trails and better food and cleaner bathrooms and water slides and tubing runs...

 

But he decided he wanted to begin with snow.

 

A simple idea.

 

We're skiers and boarders and all the six packs and great lights and chicken fingers in the world don't get us all talking and taking pictures and acting like Ass Clowns like it does when we see big piles of white snow. Heck, just a few flakes in October wakes this MB up every year.

 

All the haters and flamers can say what they want, but my loyalty goes to a company who brings lots of snow to where I live. Hating on snow is like hating on Santa Claus.

 

Let is Sno.

[Brian]

The original PR person for Sno used a couple of years worth of budget on all those TV ads last year, so the new PR person had just about zero budget when taking over this season. TV and radio ads will be back in full force next season, only a lot smarter. They'll be teaming up with radio stations for lots of promos and that sort of thing.

...With almost no advertising and only one person doing marketing.

 

Their marketing person is a workaholic. She spends like 14 hours up there a day, 7 days a week keeping busy.

Edited March 26, 2008 by Brian

[Ski]

Their marketing person is a workaholic. She spends like 14 hours up there a day, 7 days a week keeping busy.

Yep, that's for sure.

[Melissa]

I'm just going by bits and pieces of what I heard and I'm pretty sure I'm not saying anything that isn't obvious...that said, Sno used this year to stabilize a shaky infrastructure and to see what events and programs they could manage. Consider that ski areas are going bankrupt around them and Al Gore has most people afraid we wont have winters in a few years.

 

So they built a crazy 22' pipe, held a USSA race and the mid-Atlantic high school alpine championships, did the jib academy thing, and brought in a former US Ski Teamer to hang out with the kids.

 

Doom and gloom was predicted by how many people on here?

 

Well, Sno hit all their projected numbers, and then some. With almost no advertising and only one person doing marketing.

 

If Sno was a publicly traded company, I know where I'd put my money. They do plan to market to DC and Baltimore and Philly---in fact, they did manage a few bus loads from, I believe, Baltimore.

 

I've said it before, but Sno is set up to run with extremely low overhead, compared to other Pocono resorts. CB had to make a million bucks to pay their board members before the first snowflake fell. Sno sank money into snowguns.

 

A while back I came to a conclusion: that after listening to all the employees and a lot of customers, there was one central idea in Carlson's plan for Sno. It's also, perhaps, why he picked the name Sno. He heard about lights and lifts and new trails and better food and cleaner bathrooms and water slides and tubing runs...

 

But he decided he wanted to begin with snow.

 

A simple idea.

 

We're skiers and boarders and all the six packs and great lights and chicken fingers in the world don't get us all talking and taking pictures and acting like Ass Clowns like it does when we see big piles of white snow. Heck, just a few flakes in October wakes this MB up every year.

 

All the haters and flamers can say what they want, but my loyalty goes to a company who brings lots of snow to where I live. Hating on snow is like hating on Santa Claus.

 

Let is Sno.

 

I don't disagree with any of this, and I do think it's a good idea to hold off on some promotion until you can deliver. BUT, I get frustrated that Sno doesn't hype some of the great resources/events that they have. For example, this week was the first time that I, as a passholder, had received an email about the events going on at the mountain. I wish they would do more to communicate with their customers other than just posting stuff on their webpage--I know a lot of the time I have missed announcements because I navigate right to the conditions page, and not the home page. I'm pretty sure that having an email list is not expensive.

[Ski]

I don't disagree with any of this, and I do think it's a good idea to hold off on some promotion until you can deliver. BUT, I get frustrated that Sno doesn't hype some of the great resources/events that they have. For example, this week was the first time that I, as a passholder, had received an email about the events going on at the mountain. I wish they would do more to communicate with their customers other than just posting stuff on their webpage--I know a lot of the time I have missed announcements because I navigate right to the conditions page, and not the home page. I'm pretty sure that having an email list is not expensive.

 

Ha, at least you didn't get kicked of their email list. I agree, Melissa---even before getting kicked off, I got 10x more emails from Stratton because I filled out a 'get a free lift ticket' form at their website two years ago.

 

I think you have to make your passholders feel like they have some inside knowledge...maybe disguise a little spam/promo with weekly mailings that also include things like "we'll be blowing extra snow on Boomer this Wednesday night, so maybe head into work a little late". And even some pics of the day...give people a reason to let it through their spam filters while getting a chance to promote a menu item.

[Melissa]

Ha, at least you didn't get kicked of their email list. I agree, Melissa---even before getting kicked off, I got 10x more emails from Stratton because I filled out a 'get a free lift ticket' form at their website two years ago.

 

I think you have to make your passholders feel like they have some inside knowledge...maybe disguise a little spam/promo with weekly mailings that also include things like "we'll be blowing extra snow on Boomer this Wednesday night, so maybe head into work a little late". And even some pics of the day...give people a reason to let it through their spam filters while getting a chance to promote a menu item.

 

OMG, I get sooooo much email from Stratton, and I never even won the free ticket!

 

Yeah, an inside weekly email (or timely email) to the passholders would be awesome. I'd love to know what activities are going on, what the weekly specials will be in the Sno Grille, any special happy hourish type of things they are going on, giveaways, etc. That information is not available on Sno's website.

 

It would be great for there to be general email announcements to people who subscribe and buy lift tickets--like for family night, those Wednesday discounts, etc. I can't help but think that if Sno had done a little bit of mass promotion, we'd have more skiers, and then we'd be open into April too.

[method9455]

But he decided he wanted to begin with snow.

 

A simple idea.

 

That is it in a nutshell, anyone not seriously investing in fan guns is making a making a poor decision especially as the price of energy goes up Sno/JFBB are going to continue to ou tpace Blue/Shawnee/Mountain Creek and to some extent Camelback because of their snow making equipment.

[toast21602]

That is it in a nutshell, anyone not seriously investing in fan guns is making a making a poor decision especially as the price of energy goes up Sno/JFBB are going to continue to ou tpace Blue/Shawnee/Mountain Creek and to some extent Camelback because of their snow making equipment.

 

yup.