This is part two of a post that originates here. Check it out.

After five months of careful planning, creative plotting and kickass production, The Origin Montreal team has put the finishing touches on the Jay Peak Magazine. Published annually by the good people at Jay Peak Resort, the magazine is one-part vacation planner and one-part editorial inspiration piece for eastern skiers and snowboarders.

This season, Jay Peak Resort asked us, their agency of record, to lead the magazine’s production. Drawing from the experience of our copywriter (and longtime ski magazine editor) Mike Berard, Origin Design pulled together a project we are all very proud of. Featuring articles and photos by celebrated writers like Leslie Anthony and amazing photographers like Skye Chalmers, the magazine successfully shows off Jay Peak’s greatest assets while speaking directly to its legion of fans.

Perhaps the greatest challenge in a custom publishing job like this one, is mimicking an editorial publication while authentically showcasing the branding of the client. Whereas most magazines have singular focuses (to entertain, inform, provoke, etc), a custom title must integrate the attributes of the brand while still achieving one or all of the above. In this case, Origin was tasked with representing Jay Peak’s unique space in the mountain resort marketing and advertising sphere while still attracting and entertaining skiers and snowboarders who only want a good story. To achieve this balance, Origin relied on its experience in ski resort marketing and our staff’s innate knowledge of skiing and snowboarding, not to mention the robust and appealing Jay Peak brand. The result is a magazine both client and agency can be proud of. Pick up your copy this November, or hit us up and we’ll send you a copy.

Quand tout tombe en place – 2^ème partie

Après cinq mois de planification méticuleuse, de foisonnement créatif et la mise en place d’une production à couper le souffle, l’équipe d’Origin Montréal a finalement réalisé le Jay Peak Magazine. Édité une fois par année par le monde de Jay Peak Resort, ce magazine est à la fois un outil pour planifier ses vacances et une source d’inspiration pour les skieurs et planchistes de la côte Est.

Pour cette saison, Jay Peak Resort a demandé à son agence en titre (en l’occurrence, nous) de prendre charge de la production. En se basant sur l’expérience du rédacteur (et rédacteur en chef pendant de nombreuses années d’une revue de ski) Mike Berard, Origin Design a réussi à mettre tous les morceaux ensemble pour créer un objet dont nous sommes très fiers. Avec des articles et des photos de rédacteurs aussi réputés que l’auteur Leslie Anthony ou l’incroyable photographe Skye Chalmers, ce magazine réussit à présenter les plus importants attributs de Jay Peak tout en communiquant directement et simplement avec ses nombreux fans.

La plus grande difficulté peut être dans la réalisation d’une publication sur mesure comme celle-ci est de parvenir à donner l’impression qu’on a affaire à une publication à contenu tout en mettant en valeur la marque avec authenticité. Alors que la plupart des magazines ont habituellement une tonalité propre, soit de divertir, d’informer, de provoquer ou autre, une édition sur mesure doit positionner les attributs de la marque, tout en intégrant un ou tous les éléments mentionnés précédemment. Dans ce cas précis, la mission d’Origin était de décrire la personnalité unique Jay Peak dans l’espace du marketing et de la publicité de la villégiature de montagne, tout en « parlant » aux skieurs et aux planchistes à la recherche d’une bonne histoire. Pour arriver à cet équilibre, Origin a puisé dans sa vaste expérience en marketing du ski et de la villégiature ainsi que dans la connaissance instinctive du ski et de la planche des membres de son équipe, sans oublier la solide et attrayante marque Jay Peak. Le résultat : un magazine qui fait la fierté du client et de son agence. Le numéro sera disponible à compter de novembre. Prenez-en une copie ou appelez-nous et nous vous la ferons parvenir avec plaisir.

In the world of advertising, deadlines are a constant reality. In this fast-paced existence, it often feels like that moment of appreciation for work doesn’t come until weeks later when you see your handywork on a billboard or in a magazine. As such, it’s good to try and stop and reflect on the work once in a while. At the moment, Origin’s Montreal office and Whistler editor Mike Berard are in the final stages of a project they’ve been working on for four months – the Jay Peak Resort magazine is literally days away from going to the printer. The crew is in that moment of trying to appreciate all the work they’ve put into this custom magazine publishing job, while waiting for final approval from the client. It’s a thrilling time, and we’re excited for the final product to be placed in our eager little hands. Stay tuned for more…

Origin designer Simon Roy overseeing the final stages of the custom magazine design.

We are a dynamic creative, marketing and communications agency, with offices in Whistler and Montreal, specializing in mountain sports and resort tourism. Our Whistler office is looking to grow our team with the following full-time position:

ACCOUNT MANAGER

We are looking for a highly skilled client service specialist. Our ideal candidate has excellent customer service skills, a marketing background, a minimum of three year marketing project management experience and ad agency or in-house/creative studio work experience. Salary range: $45,000-$65,000/annum – dependent upon experience.

For more details on this job posting, please download the pdf. If you are interested in joining our team, please submit your resume with links to past/current projects and a description of your role and contribution to jobs@origindesign.ca

A year after launching the Telluride website, Origin is pleased to have sent current client and Godfather of Freesking Mike Douglas to the famous Telluride Film Festival with a brand new site of his own. SwitchbackEntertainment.com is now live.

Mike was looking for a web presence to showcase the film and media production business behind the hugely-popular Salomon Freeski TV and other film production projects Switchback Entertainment has worked on.

I went to Origin looking for a website and came back with a new business platform.  Smart, professional, and fun — I’ll definitely be working with Origin again.” Mike Douglas, Switchback Entertainment/Salomon Freeski TV

Knowing Mike’s aversion to boasting about himself, Origin proposed a simple site structure without reams of text and featuring dynamic integration of Social Media. Mike already had a devout Twitter and Facebook following so we employed those channels as mechanisms to keep the site updated with fresh content. Only needing to post news, updates and links in those places allows Mike and his team to spend their valuable time creating compelling content for their film and photo projects instead of managing the Switchback website.

Again, keeping things simple, Origin integrated Vimeo and Flickr to manage the multimedia showcase of Switchback’s work. At Origin we have a simple philosophy around using Social Media and 3rd party applications and platforms – you’ve got to do it. Mike and his team can now easily update the photo and video content on his site using the familiar and intuitive interfaces of Vimeo and Flickr (complete with documentation and support). This saves the overhead of developing a custom back-end to manage content on their site.

The importance of the social aspect of the Switchback Entertainment site was highlighted in the feedback received on Mike’s Facebook site the day the site launched. A fan commented on some functionality concerns and the site’s lack of description. We agreed with the user’s assessment and quickly went about making site changes to make the experience better.

Down the road, we have more ideas to expand the Switchback team’s ability to add more content to the site utilizing additional Social Media applications.

Stay tuned…

Last week, the Canadian Sporting Goods Association sat down with Danielle Kristmanson, Origin’s Principal and Creative Director and Marie Josee Legault, Origin’s Partner/Strategic Planning Director. The subject was social media and the shifting landscape of marketing. If you didn’t get the newsletter in your inbox, here is the first half. To read the whole interview, sign up for the CSGA newsletter, or email mike@origindesign.ca for a PDF copy.

1. How would you define social media?

Danielle Kristmanson: Like a giant cocktail party, minus the free drinks and hors d’oeuvres. It’s a place where people gather to meet, chat with other people, be informed and be entertained. Like every good cocktail party, social media provides a place for smart, articulate, and charismatic people to make friends while impressing others with what they know and who they know. Unfortunately, it also provides a place for the predictable pompous, big-mouth, dumb-ass who rambles on irrelevant topics or talks incessantly about himself without letting anyone else get a word in edge-wise. Yeah, that guy gets into the social media party too. Like a cocktail party, there’s rarely a doorman filtering out the riff-raff.

Marie Josee (MJ) Legault: Not sure how to wash a kid’s ears? Make shoes out of cardboard? Out in the social web, there’s most likely a video with the answer, a tutorial on how to do it, a blog post on whether or not you should, and a ream of people com- menting on all of it. That is social media: a shift from monologue to dialogue and a democratization of knowledge and information that transforms people from content consumers to content producers.

2. Where should people in the sporting goods industry focus their social media efforts?

MJ: The question we ask our clients is not so much “where,” but “why.” Lots of clients call us saying, “I think I need to be on Twitter.” Our answer to them is, “Why?” Social media is a part of a marketing mix. So with that in mind, we need to start with objectives, determine some strategies, and then get down to tactics like, “I think you need to be on Twitter.”

DK: Yeah, MJ is right. There are a number of channels and communities to take advantage of within the social web, but where sporting goods businesses should focus their efforts depends a lot on how far they’ve already waded into the realm and the resources (both human and financial) they have available to them. With most clients, when we get down to tactics, getting your own social media channels up and running is important. It’s important to note, however, the difference between “up” (and by that I mean setting up a Facebook page and Twitter account), and “running” (which we describe as having resources dedicated to generating and posting regular content, engaging with fans, and providing valuable information and entertainment). Advertising your sidewalk sale and retweeting your suppliers’ tweets does not qualify as “running.” I’d be inclined to call that “coasting.”

3. Why, in your opinion, has there been such a shift to social media from traditional advertising?

DK: The access to information that the internet has provided to consumers, along with the rise of social media channels, has effectively turned the whole world of marketing and communications on its head. The consumer figured out that they could get the real goods about your business from places other than your brochure or catalogue or newspaper ad or even your website. Corporate trust began to decline, peer trust began to rise, and we saw the beginning of the end of the “push” marketing that we have all been doing for hundreds of years. “Pull” or “inbound” marketing began to emerge as consumers started demanding more from the businesses they buy from.

MJ: As the channel became legitimized, some businesses bought in and started the shift to social media to provide that engagement that their customers were looking for, while others stayed the course with traditional advertising. And then the recession hit. And suddenly, social media looked like a less expensive marketing option in a year or two when marketing budgets were drying up. That was when the big shift started, and most businesses have found in the process that it is a very important part of their new marketing mix.

4. When did social media truly move from fad to mainstream?

DK: In the last two years. We know this, because we rarely get called on to speak on the merits of social media marketing today. We hardly ever hear the question “is social media marketing here to stay?”

5. How has social media changed the way companies market?

MJ: They are understanding now that marketing is no longer about telling people what you think they want to hear. Instead, it is now about asking them what they want and delivering on the request. Social media was born to do this. Traditional advertising channels are going to be in trouble until they figure out how to deliver this same experience. They will…it’s just taking them a while to figure it out.

6. Why should sporting goods companies be interested in social media?

DK: For the same reasons companies in virtually every industry should be: consumer engagement. Beyond that though, social media is especially powerful when it is working for businesses that target “social” customers. Sports are inherently social. We do them with our family, friends, team mates, etc., and those groups are social mechanisms. They are driven by communication within the groups. It makes sense that sporting goods companies leverage the fact that their customers are social by nature.

To read the whole interview, sign up for the CSGA newsletter, or email mike@origindesign.ca for a PDF copy.

5 Peaks, la plus importante série de courses de trail running au pays, a pour but de faire connaître le sport de la course de sentier auprès des coureurs d’une façon attirante et qui démystifie cette activité. Origin travaille en collaboration avec 5 Peaks afin de créer un événement juste pour le Québec. En tenant compte des paramètres de la marque, Origin a bâti un plan marketing spécifique et une plateforme de communication ciblant le marché francophone. La course aura lieu le 18 septembre au Mont Sutton. Venez participer et joignez-vous à l’équipe d’Origin Montréal lors de la course. On est facile à reconnaître : on sourit quand ça fait mal.

Origin Design + Communications would like to introduce a new member to the Whistler account service team. Tarra Benham is an experienced account manager who began her advertising career with small to mid-sized agencies prior to joining MacLaren McCann in 2005, and then digital communications firm Sequentia Environics Communications in 2008, where she held the role of Client Services Manager.

Tarra began working with Origin on March 29^th after relocating from Toronto and can be reached at Tarra@origindesign.ca.

Mike Berard

Origin would like to congratulate our communications specialist and copywriter Mike Berard on his recently-acquired position as editor at The Ski Journal magazine. We are excited to have one of our team leading what we think is one of this industry’s best publications and believe it is the perfect fit for Berard’s extensive ski writing background.

Mike will also keep his home in Whistler and work with Origin, allowing him to continue to bring his innate and inside knowledge of the ski, snowboard and mountain bike communities to the Origin team. His new job at The Ski Journal will likely also see him skiing and traveling more, a necessary element of his survival. Contact Mike at Mike@OriginDesign.ca.

Stella Burch

In a long overdue congratulations, Origin is happy to announce the birth of Stella Burch. Stella is the daughter of Origin Studio Manager Lindsay Burch and her husband Dave. Stella was born December 5, 2009 and is inevitably going to add yet another Burch to the podium of every local mountain bike and trail running race in Whistler.

Official Carte Blanche invites will be sent this summer—in addition to the invite list, ski industry marketing VPs, directors and managers are welcome to attend. If you would like to be a part of the fun, email MJ Legault to get involved. Otherwise, stay tuned to Outside Voice; The Origin Blog to stay on top of any Carte Blanche developments. You don’t want to miss this all freeski, all marketing event. For a recap of last year’s event, read the Origin blog post.

Le retour de Carte Blanche – le Sommet du marketing Freeski

Carte Blanche, le Sommet du marketing Freeski fera un retour remarqué au Festival International de Film Freeski, le 19 septembre à Montréal. Dans la foulée du succès de l’année passée, ce sommet sera l’occasion de rencontrer les sommités du freeski et de participer à des panels réunissant experts et spectateurs autour des sujets les plus « chauds » de l’industrie.

Les invitations officielles à Carte Blanche seront envoyées cet été. V.-p., directeurs et gestionnaires marketing de l’industrie du ski sont invités à se joindre à l’événement. Si vous voulez vous aussi participer à cette célébration, communiquez avec MJ Legault. Sinon, restez à l’écoute d’Outside Voice, le blogue d’Origin qui vous communique tous les développements sur Carte Blanche. Ne ratez pas cet événement entièrement dédié au freeski et au marketing.

Pour un résumé des activités de l’an passé, consultez le billet du blogue d’Origin.

When Ontario-based microbrewery Creemore Springs needed to expand on its cult-like following in the neighbouring province of Quebec, they tapped into Origin’s innate understanding of the niche market. The challenge—to break down the Quebec market’s perception of Creemore Springs as an Ontario beer and to build on a strategy and messaging that aligns with la belle province’s audience. In addition to cracking the market, the importance of maintaining the unique attributes and assets of the Creemore Springs brand was paramount to the campaign. With the microsite in beta now, the full Quebec campaign will be live throughout the province this summer.

Lorsque la microbrasserie ontarienne Creemore Springs a senti que c’était le moment de profiter de sa popularité « culte» et de prendre de l’expansion dans le marché voisin du Québec, elle s’est tournée vers Origin pour bénéficier de sa connaissance de ce marché. Le défi : contourner la perception dans le marché québécois que la Creemore Springs est une bière de l’Ontario tout en bâtissant un message et une stratégie en accord avec la sensibilité des consommateurs de la Belle province. En plus de pénétrer ce nouveau marché, il fallait aussi respecter les caractéristiques et les atouts uniques de la marque Creemore Springs. Le microsite est actuellement dans sa version bêta, et la campagne québécoise sera déployée pleinement à travers la province cet été.

Bike Parks BC

La Colombie-Britannique est un paradis du vélo de montagne, cette province proposant entre autres cinq montagnes accessibles par remonte-pente parmi les plus incroyables au monde. En collaboration avec la coopérative Bike Parks BC, Origin supervise actuellement l’organisation du concours The Ultimate Summer of Free Ride. De la conception à la réalisation, en passant par la planification stratégique, Origin a mis en œuvre cet événement avec les réseaux sociaux et les résultats quotidiens sont spectaculaires. Avec pour grand prix un billet de saison pour les cinq parcs de vélo de randonnée, hébergement, articles promotionnels, cours, 1000 $ et billets de remonte-pente supplémentaires pour les amis, ce concours est annoncé via le blogue de Bike Parks BC, Facebook et Twitter. En utilisant la plateforme de concours Wildfire, Origin a réussi à faire transiter ce concours annuel de Bike Parks BC du domaine traditionnel des médias imprimés à un événement accessible par les usagers en ligne à travers le monde. Vous pouvez en savoir plus à BikeParksBC.com ou en visitant la page Facebook ici.