When Features Don’t Sell, Time To Sell Story

From the beginning, ACE Adventure Resort has been an innovator in rafting. They were the first West Virginia Gauley River rafting outfitter to pioneer and champion the self-bailing boat. They introduced 3 different sizes of rafts. Multiply that by the different half-day and full-day trips, combination packages to go along with their off-river activities like zip lines and horseback riding, and you’ve got a thick catalog for customers to choose from.

And choose they did, because rafting was in its peak growth state, looking at a product life-cycle chart. That was the mid-90s, though, and these days rafting numbers are trending in the opposite direction. We’ve got a mature product. There aren’t enough new features to add to persuade an audience that thinks they know everything about you already.

What to do? We say put the focus on them. WELDology says make the story about the customer.

Even though there are customers in a lot of outfitter videos, the clips are all about the company and the product. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, in and of itself; don’t get me wrong. You need clips like that, a visual catalog description. But here’s a clip, just 2 weeks old, looking in the other direction.

This video is about the customer’s experience, why it’s important for her to paddle the Gauley, and how that fits in to her definition of what it means to live fully. It’s not about the lunch that’s served, the safety talk or the guides. It’s about her, and it gets right to the emotions we all want to feel as a result of how we decide to spend our day and our money.

You tell me: Does this clip make you want to get outside?