Origin and Switchback Entertainment create suite of summer resort videos

May 21st, 2013
by Danielle.
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In case you’re wondering if the video arms race is on in the destination tourism marketplace, we thought we’d post up our most recent collaborations with Switchback Entertainment  for both Tourism Whistler and Whistler Blackcomb. Last year, in the midst of brainstorming campaign creative, Mike Douglas and I found ourselves fairly drooling over Tourism Alberta’s “Remember to Breathe”  campaign video until our competitive juices kicked in. At that point we decided we needed to try to one up the piece with something for our own clients. And while we didn’t score the big budget for the Cineflex that delivers Travel Alberta’s incredible aerial scenics (not for any lack of begging and pleading with the client) we think we produced two really beautiful pieces that capture what is truly amazing about this place.

Whistler Blackcomb’s video reveals the mountain’s unique alpine experience as a place where ancient meets innovation: the dramatic volcanic landscape paired with the engineering feat of the Peak 2 Peak Gondola. Whistler Blackcomb: The Wonder Of An Alpine Summer is part of a larger integrated campaign for the summer featuring the headline: “It took prehistoric volcanoes, an ice age and some over achieving engineers to get it right”.

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The Tourism Whistler “So Much To Love” video will be used in online marketing initiatives to support the consumer generated campaign Whistler Unfiltered. The introduction this inspirational footage was key to completing the full brand story. The video drives viewers to the Whistler Unfiltered microsite whistler.com/unfiltered.
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Posted in: Marketing + Advertising, Mountain Sports, Shameless Self-promotion.
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Tourism Whistler keeps #WhistlerUnfiltered rolling for Summer

May 17th, 2013
by Danielle.
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Origin’s foray into using Instagram as a marketing campaign foundation got its validation this month, as Tourism Whistler rolled its extremely successful #WhistlerUnfiltered winter campaign on into summer. If you’re a reader of this blog, you’ll know that Origin’s campaign for long-time client Tourism Whistler involved a leap of faith that a still young social channel and a hash tag was enough to hang a campaign on. Turns out, we all kept our jobs and we let out a sigh of relief when Tourism Whistler came back asking that we keep the campaign alive for summer. The notion of course, is that summer in Whistler means a never-ending lineup of activities, events and entertainment all taking place within some of the most breathtakingly scenic landscapes the country has to offer. No matter how well us agencies and marketing departments do our jobs, there’s no one better to advocate for the experience than those who have had it themselves. 

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The #WhistlerUnfiltered campaign utilizes word-of-mouth marketing, building ambassadors who help raise Whistler’s profile by sharing their own Whistler stories, through Instagram images hashtagged #WhistlerUnfiltered.

 Our client, Tourism Whistler’s Vice President of Marketing Strategy, Louise Walker had this to say in a recent release: “We saw great success with our #WhistlerUnfiltered winter campaign. The use of consumer-generated images allows visitors to picture themselves in the moment. It made sense to continue to leverage the power of the people with our summer campaign.”  It was the stats she chose to release that are most compelling though, “Participation in the winter campaign in terms of the amount of user-generated content has completely exceeded our expectations. We had more than:

  • 196,000 visits to the campaign microsite, exceeding our goal of 160,000; we had almost
  • 25,000 unique contest entries, and were aiming for 19,800; more than
  • 17,750 Instagram images were hashtagged, which far surpassed our goal of 10,000. In addition, more than
  • 1,750 social shares of the campaign content generated almost 20,000 visits to the microsite

… all of this clearly demonstrates the power of social media.”

We’ll admit to the campaign needing a tweak or two for summer. In living and learning, we acknowledged our client’s need to still find a way to showcase the amazing professional photos and video (plus our friends at Switchback Entertainment, made us an awesome summer video that we were dying to get out to the customer).

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So, for the summer campaign, we evolved the photo collection themes, capturing – and sharing – all that Whistler has to offer  in the themes of: mountains, the Village, lakes, valley, adventure, relaxation and events and but we enhanced it with professional curated material. As in the winter campaign, the consumer-driven content is used on the campaign microsite and in additional marketing materials. The top three images will be featured prominently on the microsite each week.

In support of the winter campaign, Tourism Whistler launched the ultimate winter contest. The winner of the grand prize, including flights and ground transfers, seven nights’ accommodation, new gear, a number of winter activities, lift tickets and gift cards is Brian Richards, of Massachusetts, who plans to visit Whistler in January 2014 with three family members to enjoy the prize package, valued at more than $19,000 CAD. In support of the summer campaign, the ultimate summer contest has launched with awesome summer adventure prizing. Go check it out, we’d love to see you here this summer.

On a final note on this campaign, we wanted to give a huge shout out to the Tourism Whistler Marketing Department for always being willing to try new things, take risks and push the boundaries. We’d especially like to thank their dedicated social media team of Feet Banks, Ainsley Barlow, Phillipa Campbell, Tania Music and Chantal Limoges (promotions)  for all their hard work executing this campaign all season long…and being willing to keep the conversation with their customers going. You guys rocked this.

 

Posted in: Marketing + Advertising, Mountain Sports.
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National Geo Turns Park Building into Reality TV

May 15th, 2013
by Danielle.
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An interview with Snow Park Technologies’ Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson on building terrain parks, snowsports participation and “Moving Mountains”

National Geographic’s reality TV show—Mountain Movers—focuses on the terrain park building crew at Snow Park Technologies (SPT). SPT is responsible for some of the most innovative terrain parks in the world, including Winter X Games, the Burton U.S. Open and the Winter Dew Tour.

Curious about how Mountain Movers make terrain park building look so damned exciting, we caught up with Chris Gunnarson and grilled him for some answers.

Mountain Movers is National Geographic Channels’s newest addition to its reality tv lineup. You can catch the trailer at https://www.facebook.com/SnowParkTech?fref=ts

O: You must be really excited to be in Mountain Movers, what inspired you to have a show on National Geographic?

Chris: After looking at the reality shows currently on TV, it seemed that a season on the road with the SPT crew had a lot of aspects that would make it worth watching, even to viewers who don’t get on snow. After running the idea by our agents, we brought the show concept to a few TV networks, and found a solid partnership with the National Geographic Channel.

Having the opportunity to showcase what Snow Park Technologies does to a national audience has been an exciting process; Mountain Movers brings viewers behind the scenes of some of the largest, most innovative projects in winter action sports, this is an area that most people normally don’t get to see.

O: We think of terrain park building as quiet, technical work done away from the eyes of resort visitors; what effects do you think this behind-the-scenes footage will have?

Chris: As you mention, terrain park building is more or less done behind the scenes. At resorts and events, skiers and riders show up and the features are fully built and freshly groomed. Mountain Movers gives viewers the opportunity to see the planning, work and dedication that goes into building these venues. And, while Mountain Movers is primarily focused on the building side of the sport; we hope that our passion for snow sports, living and working in the mountains is clear to viewers.

At SPT we all got into this business because—plain and simple—snowboarding is FUN, we hope this message is present in each episode. With Mountain Movers, viewers will see how much effort goes into creating the venues, as well as the amazing athleticism from top-level snowboarders these days.

O: The show gets pretty intense at times, do you think this could affect the way viewers see snowsports in general?

Chris: In our job there are dramatic circumstances, but on the whole these moments are about meeting deadlines, as well as dealing with the stress of mechanical failures and rapidly changing weather.

Knowing that we play a part in progressing snowboarding is important to us from a lifestyle, career and personal standpoint. Everyone in our company shares that passion, and the payoff is amazing when you can watch a friend win a gold medal on a course you built. It’s the same as watching a kid learn to ski or ride and become a life-long participant.

It can be hard working with big personalities and ever-changing weather conditions, but at the end of the day we truly have amazing and unique jobs. We hope Mountain Movers allows the people at home to experience this.

O: Do you think the show will affect the number of new snowsports participants?

Chris: Growing snowboard participation is one of the pillars Snow Park Technologies was founded on. So yes, this was absolutely an underlying factor in starting the show.

Most people are only ever exposed to snowboarding through major televised events such as the X Games. We hope that bringing a snow-focused show to a major network will inspire more people to go up to their local mountain to try snowboarding, especially the teaching terrain efforts we are working on with our resort partners.

O: What made you think your business could be good reality TV material?

Chris: The world that SPT works in is unique: we work with some of the largest resorts in North America, building courses for the biggest events in winter action sports, and we interact with skiing and snowboarding’s most elite athletes. Throw in working in some of the most scenic, remote and beautiful locations in the world, and we feel we have a recipe for an exciting narrative viewers will truly enjoy.

Mountain Movers airs at 8pm E.T. on May 16th and May 23rd, in the next episode SPT visits our friends at Sun Valley, Idaho.

To see the episode teaser, as well as to get more information about Mountain Movers, visit: https://www.facebook.com/SnowParkTech?fref=ts

Mountain Movers on location at Sun Valley, Idaho.

Posted in: Arts + Culture, Mountain Sports, Trend Watching.
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How to Amp Up Your Social Video

May 5th, 2013
by Danielle.
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This past week, my partner MJ Legault and I attended the North American Ski Areas Association annual convention in Palm Springs. It was three days of great discussion on the future of the industry and we contributed with our presentation on how ski area operators can amp up their marketing efforts with social video. The presentation is here for download NSAA_Social_Video_Presentation (note: clicking on the video screen shots in the PDF will send you to the video on YouTube/Vimeo).

Thank you to everyone who attended, and we hope to see you next year!

 

Posted in: Marketing + Advertising.
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The Intern Chronicles: Part 2 Putting the fun back in snowboarding

Mar 22nd, 2013
by mjo.
1 comment

Origin’s intern Ryan Terry is back with another blog post, this time he’s looking at the future of snowboarding.

When you examine the National Ski Areas Association stats, interest in snowboarding is going downhill. 15 years ago snowboarders were described as “a more hard-core, badass, dedicated bunch than skiers”, a segment that hit the slopes an average of 7.6 days a year. These days the number is only 6.1 days. The percentage of visits to resorts by snowboarders has declined over the last two winters, to 30.2 percent in the winter of 2012 / 2013. Interest in lessons is fizzling too, as well as the number of new participants. What happened to “the fastest growing sport” of the 90s?

Most people are pointing fingers at the economic downturn, sub-mediocre snow quality (especially on the East Coast), and rising costs of the already outrageously priced essentials. Seriously, how is anyone expected to spend $1,000 on a board set-up, $500 on outerwear, $200 on additional accessories like goggles, tuning supplies and a lock? You’re looking at close to $2,000 and you’ve barely left the store! Then you still have to worry about travel costs to the mountain, and lets not forget the icing on the cake; that wonderfully hefty fee waiting for you at the ticket window. And I’m a college student! Even though these are valid, I feel there is a greater reason for the decline in interest. I think the industry has lost sight of it’s most important asset: snowboarding is all about having fun.

Most kids have a favorite television show, and mine was Rocket Power. Rocket Power was a cartoon about four friends doing extreme sports and getting into crazy situations. My favorite episode of all time was when the gang took a trip to their local mountain to rip up the halfpipe and freestyle park. Can you guess what they were “ripping” on? Every member of the group was on a snowboard. Even though it was just a cartoon, I knew they were all having the time of their lives, what freedom and innovation!

I needed to have that much fun. I rented a board for a few hours and gave it my all on some puny hill. I guess Dad figured it was a fleeting impulse, so he didn’t arrange any instruction. The first time on a snowboard is almost always the same for every rider. It’s incredibly discouraging and like most seven year olds, my patience ran out. Defeated, I returned to two planks for the rest of the season.

But I just couldn’t shake the feeling I was missing out on something amazing. Just before my third winter of skiing, I changed my mind and set my sights on learning to ride. This time around nothing was going to stop me. An instructor got me past the early discouragement and kept me focused on my goal. When I finally made my first toeside turn across the trail: I fell in love with snowboarding. It was the same emotion I’d imagined when I watched the cartoon characters ride. From this moment on, snowboarding was my absolute passion.

Everything I do in life revolves around the snowboard industry. Almost every single job I’ve held has been within the industry. Whether it was working at a ski/board shop for five years or for Burton Snowboards, I have seen many of the sport’s peaks and valleys. Currently the industry is in a valley; it has forgotten what fueled the fire in the first place, it’s only running on fumes of the fun fuel that got us here. If the snowboard industry worried less about their wallets and more about the fun factor, we would see a much-needed increase in participants. More fun = more interest.

Some companies have began to introduce fun back to the snowboard community. Burton has designed an incredibly fun way to introduce children aged three to six to the sport of snowboarding with Riglet Parks. These themed parks allow kids to snowboard at a really young age, rather than starting on skis – this appeals to snowboarder parents who want to ride as a family. The Riglet Parks engage kids in a fun way with animation and using gear that makes snowboarding easier for kids. The parks even have themes such as the Toy Story themed park at Jay Peak or the Star Wars themed park at Sierra-at-Tahoe.

 

Neff Headwear is another company doing things right. This season Neff created “Neffland” – a terrain park devoted to having fun. This project has the slogan “The funnest place on Earth”. Neffland doesn’t conform, it isn’t another monster terrain park only a fraction of resort guests can use. Instead, Neff designed a park for all skill levels; this allows rookies to progress and veterans to showcase their talent. The unique features scream fun – I mean come on, who doesn’t want to jump over a giant ice cream cone or slide an elongated candy-cane? What better way to do this than encompass the spirit of snowboarding?

Having fun is the core of snowboarding, it’s the way to make the sport more appealing and it’s certainly the reason I ride.

Links: Neffland is Open movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQB6DX5Jtiw
Neffland Episode 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdW25xQ91CE
Neffland Episode 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi6i04md3-E

Posted in: Marketing + Advertising.

You don’t have to head to the hills to go mountain biking anymore

Mar 12th, 2013
by mjo.
1 comment

When it comes to mountain biking and urban biking in Québec, Jérôme Pelland knows what he’s talking about. Before starting Sentiers Boréals—eastern Canada’s leading trail-building and bike park company, he was a co-founder of the ADSVMQ [provincial trail advocacy organisation], co-author of the book “Guide d’Aménagement des Sentiers de Vélo de Montagne” and worked at IMBA Canada for 5 years. Jérôme and his team are responsible for planning and building some of the best mountain bike trails on the east coast. Some of their most recent projects include 40km of single-track in East-Hereford (http://www.bikemag.com/gallery/the-birthplace-of-quebec-mountain-biking/#4ec4882210), The 2013 Canada Games XC race course in Sherbrooke, and an overhaul of the Mount Arthabaska park in Victoriaville.

Sentiers Boréals will also manage the 5-years project to convert Owl’s Head resort into a year-round destination for outdoor lovers. We recently had the opportunity to ask Pelland some questions regarding the growing popularity of mountain biking, particularly in urban areas.

What do you think is fuelling this growth in mountain biking?

JP: The fact that mountain biking is now recognized as a solid tourism driver and a great opportunity to turn ski resorts into 4-season operations helps a lot. Having accessible trails and bike parks encourages kids to have fun playing outside. Bikes have also become much more enjoyable to ride, more affordable and are a better fit for a wider range of users; from little kids on runbikes to lycra-clad racers to weekend warriors looking for a challenge. Mountain biking is becoming the new golf in that it’s becoming more and more accessible to everyone.

What are you seeing as the key challenges in urban mountain biking?

JP: By definition, mountain biking sounds like it has to involve mountains, which doesn’t necessarily have to be the case—fun trails can be created on virtually flat ground. But that’s not the biggest challenge. The type of person that participates in the sport is often thought of as the mud-covered racer, or the crazy stunt guy, which is not the reality 99.9% of the time. 30-year-old regulations banning biking in municipal parks is a result of this image. This is where organizations like Vélo-Québec (www.velo.qc.ca/montagne), IMBA (www.imbacanada.com) and the PTBA (www.trailbuilders.org) help by giving decision makers a better understanding of what mountain biking is really about.

What can you tell us about the current Montreal Mountain Bike Park projects and the plans? Are things happening bike-wise?

JP: The City of Montreal is working with some partners on upcoming bike park near the Plateau. This park is especially important since Montreal is the last major city in North America without any mountain-bike specific infrastructure. Hopefully, this will serve as a pilot project and will help the city accept the fact that the many mountain bikers in Montreal need a place to enjoy their sport. Some discussions were started over nine years ago to provide a training facility on Mount Royal, but to this day not a lot has happened in regards to this facility.

Which cities have you found to be most progressive when it comes to making mountain biking accessible? Can you give us some examples?

JP: From downtown Park City, UT you can find signs with directions and distances to all majors trails around the city. With over 400 miles of trails, bike parks, incredible scenery and an enthusiastic outdoor attitude, Park City has gone above and beyond. They’ve even instituted a local restaurant tax to fund trails. Talk about commitment! While B.C. in general is very pro-bike, Whistler deserves a special note for having the highest bike club members to resident ratio anywhere in the world. Moab (UT) was probably the first town to shift its economy to tourism by building world-class trails, but other places worth mentioning are Bend (OR) and Boulder (CO). And keep your eyes on the east coast as it’s been steadily raising the bar.

What do you see as trends in urban cycling in general?

JP: For heavily populated areas where green space is limited, having a variety of bike parks is key to getting people to ride. It will never replace a good trail, but playing on dirt instead of going to spinning class is priceless. Indoor bike parks are being constructed everywhere right now. Ray’s Mtb Park was the first in the States, Joyride 150 the first in Canada, and we are now seeing projects pop-up in many areas, including smaller towns such as Burke (with a brand new 90,000sq.ft building housing their bike park). Some cities are lucky enough to have a land manager that understands a paved bike path is not a trail. The feeling of riding your bike under a green canopy cannot be compared to riding on concrete. We need to see more trails in urban areas, and this is a long term commitment of IMBA.

With the huge popularity of BIXI Bikes and the city’s investment in cycling lanes,  have you noticed if this has impacted an interest in mountain biking culture in Montreal over the last few years? 

JP: While road biking and commuting are strong in Montreal, mountain biking is still banned on all public spaces and parks. Nearly 10 years ago, the city agreed to find a place to build trails. After a decade of not much happening, Velo-Quebec might be able to get a pilot project in place within 5 years, the fear is that it might be too little, too late. In the meantime, countless other towns are building high quality mountain bike infrastructures and we’re proud to be part of this.

Posted in: Mountain Sports, Trend Watching.

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