Colorado Company Putting Ad Screens On Ski Hill Chairlift Safety Bars

August 7, 2017 by Dave Haynes

Via In The Snow

The endless quest to put advertising screens in front of theoretically captive audiences has now reached the snowy slopes of ski resorts – with a Colorado company called Alpine Media Technology planning to have LiftDigital screens running on chairlift safety bars by the time some resorts are operating this winter.

The company has so far raised $150,00 and signed deals with a pair of Colorado ski hills.

The screens will double up as WiFi hotspots and phone charging stations, and along with advertising will have trail maps, safety messages, weather and local roads reports.

The business model is the often tried, often failed “build it and they will come” idea of putting the tech in for free, and sharing a portion of the ad revenues with the venue.

Five things:

• Advertising sales is really, really, really hard;
• WiFi and phone charging stations ensure the “captive” audience in those lifts and gondolas can use their favorite screen instead of looking at the lift bar screen;
• This idea has been tried numerous times with golf cart ad screens and failed as many times;
• Chairlifts are unoccupied in snow-free months;
• There’s a chance some people might actually prefer to take in the beauty of their surroundings.

I could be proven wrong, but this looks like a novice media company about to push off down a double black diamond run. Watch out for trees.