Piste Off: Vail Resorts "Embraces" the YouTube Revolution

Mar 03, 2007  ·  10:22 AM  ·  permalink

Yesterday, VailDaily.com reported on Vail Resorts’ launch of “MySnowTV.com Beta.”

“It’s a bit of ski YouTube,” said Rob Katz, chief executive officer of Vail Resorts….”

You have to give Vail some credit for trying. At least they recognized that there’s something happening in the world of online video. But there’s one small problem: it’s not YouTube. [Not even close: I was going to embed a video from MySnowTV right here, but it only give me the code for a Vail promo video. I’m pretty sure I could hack it, but why bother when it take two clicks to embed a similar YouTube video?]

What makes YouTube work is that it’s an open community where people can trade videos of all kinds and reuse them in ways they devise—and have free-wheeling discussions.

By contrast MySnowTV.com is just a glorified video upload site with a bloated-Flash™ interface. It tries to look kind of like YouTube, but provides very little of the underlying substance such as that site’s (mostly) uncensored forums, community-building tools, and convenient sharing tools.

If you go to YouTube right now and search on “vail” you’ll find about 1,400 results (including the non-skiing results). The most popular of these videos on YouTube has had over 50,000 views, MySnowTV’s most popular video has 500. If you search on “ski”, you’ll get about 40,000. MySnowTV.com seems to have about 55. Don’t even get me start on MySnowTV’s interface.

What an opportunity Vail passed up. They’ve reinvented the wheel instead of using their time and money to engage a robust community that already exists. There’s a big world out there and skiers and boarders are interested in things other than skiing and boarding. My favorite videos on YouTube include swing dance, furniture, humor, cars, and architecture in addition to skiing. In other words, Vail’s customers have connections radiating out in all directions—into communities Vail could never dream of addressing directly. Companies that recognize and value that fact can create far richer and more integrated marketing and communications efforts.

This self-imposed myopia isn’t particular to Vail—it’s a malaise across the industry—but Vail is a big, obvious example.

It’s possible for a big company to start opening up and to engage communities that surrounds it—acolytes and detractors alike. My consulting company has been helping do just that by launching blogs for companies like Intel and helping them become engaged in authentic conversations. But Intel is a rare example—fearful, approval-seeking marketing is the norm among many vaunted corporate juggernauts.

And that, in my opinion, is the fundamental problem: if you spend your career worrying about what other people think of you, you just end up a lame, second-hand version of what you think they want you to be. Innovation and creativity require un-borrowed vision and a willingness to have and face detractors.

I will reiterate: I love skiing at Vail. The mountain staff are great, the mountain itself is mind-blowing, and I have frequent epic days. But I wish they would grow a set when it comes to their marketing and communications.

We’re found of saying “We’re Huggers, not haters” but every once in a while, even we like a good rant. “Piste Off” is an occasional column in which we rant, complain, and criticize.