That's the thinking of state tourism officials, whose winter promotion campaign featuring a group of snowflakes eager to fall in Utah made its debut Thursday on national cable television networks.
The 30-second ads also will begin showing Monday in Los Angeles, the mostly highly targeted market of the Utah Office of Tourism. In addition, a package of interactive and static ads have been developed for Internet sites frequented by people who have been identified as likely to be interested in a ski vacation in Utah.
"There are a lot of advertising campaigns for skiing where you see the latest color of ski parka skiing through powder - not the great powder we have, but powder - and it doesn't differentiate us from our competitors," said Leigh von der Esch, the Tourism Office's managing director. "This breaks us out of the clutter."
Two commercial spots will be shown on television. One, called "Tryouts," shows seven snowflakes standing around on clouds, a sign saying "Utah" pointing at a downward angle. Four snowflakes have perfect shapes. The others are dirty, misshapen or look like little ice balls.
"Listen up people," says a snowflake acting like a casting agent. "Baltz, Driggs, Harrison, Rawlins, you're going to Utah." The four snowflakes cheer and squeal as they jump through a hole in the clouds, descending into the Wasatch Mountains. The camera then focuses on one of the ugly flakes, obviously disappointed, as the casting agent adds "the rest of you guys, seriously . . . "
The second commercial shows the snowflakes landing on a snowy slope, with two saying "Utah. Oh, I made it. It's the single greatest moment of my life." Just then, as one flake says "It's go time," a hard-charging woman skier is shown blasting through waist-deep powder.
In both commercials, the snowflakes then give way to a traditional powder-skiing shot with the message "Come ski the greatest snow on earth, just 30 minutes from the Salt Lake International Airport. Plan your ski vacation at utah.travel."
Initial public response to the snowflakes has been encouraging, said von der Esch, citing previews provided at the University of Utah Ski Archives' annual dinner and the Utah showings of Warren Miller's new ski movie.
"My favorite [response] was seeing kids 14- to 16-years-old at the Warren Miller show, crowded around a flat screen TV and laughing," she noted.
Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty appreciates standard deep powder pictures as much as anybody. While he knows it sounds counterintuitive, he said "I love ski ads with little or no skiing in them . . . These ads are creative, intelligent and fun while still speaking to our core strengths of snow and access."
Steve Driggs, creative director at Struck Creative, the Tourism Office's ad agency, feels the snowflakes work because they evoke an aura of fun.
"Having a good time works with skiing and taking a vacation," he said, expecting viewers to remember these unconventional characters. "A memorable commercial can be twice as powerful because people pay attention and make your money go further."
mikeg@sltrib.com
To see the Snowflakes, go online to http://utah.travel/snowflake.
