Farewell from Origin’s fashionista Account Director Kevani Macdonald.
Everyone please raise a glass to Passion, as I embark on a new future in retail management and fashion collaborations.
Passion. For all of us who choose to call Whistler home, we know what it’s like to follow a dream because it feels right in your heart, (even if your bank manager would disagree. I mean, what do bank managers know about passion?) Five years ago I followed my passion for winter and mountains to the holy grail of skiing (as it seemed to me from my house in Scotland!). After a first epic winter of 96 days on the mountain and almost as many trips to and from the airport with excited guests, I was lucky enough to find Origin, a place where my passion for creative ideas, good design and smart marketing found a home. A home where I could also hit the bike park after work, sing along to the Hairfarmers after a big Sunday on the slopes, and work with inspiring clients and colleagues.
And now, there is that familiar feeling in my heart, my passion for new challenges and entrepreneurship is pulling me on, pulling me forward. But, as all of us who call Whistler home also know, passion is fuelled by a willingness to face risk – to venture out of bounds, away from the packed trail, to blaze your own way, to find your own fresh stash of powder or dirt. Those of you who know me, will know that no decision like this comes lightly and laying in my wake there is a blizzard of mind maps and risk calculating sessions that have lead me to this day.
As I head out for my last ski day with the Origin team, I am reminded of the feeling I’ve had, the thrill of carefully lowering over the sketchy edge of a cornice to reach a perfect bowl of snow. Dropping in!
We’re long-term advocates of the school of creativity that seeks beauty in unexpected juxtapositions -after all, we’re an agency with one leg in Whistler and the other in Montreal. Following the theme we kicked off with yesterday, sharing HEAD’s Skiers United concept, here’s another fresh juxtaposition that we’re loving right now.
Whistler’s home town girl Ali Milner shows that you can be true to your classic style and training, and be perfectly at ease jamming with a hip hop superstar. And that combination adds up to: Awesome.
Looking forward to seeing The Greatest Hits version of Didier Cuche and Jon Olsson schooling each other on the intricacies of jib and race culture. So, Didier can throw a 360 out of the pipe, Jon can flip his ski like a World Cup champ… what’s next?
What a fresh way to use their bench of elite athletes. We’re thinking it’s a hit. What about you?
We’re immersed in the Whistler Sabbatical Project for Tourism Whistler, exploring Whistler’s outsized passion to show why it’s such a perfect place to come to unplug and reconnect with the things that revitalise you.
One of those recharging experiences comes at the hands of restaurateur and sommelier Andre St Jacques, the ringmaster at the Bearfoot Bistro, who understands that Whistler is a kind of theatre, and that giving people a chance to push outside their comfort zone makes for memorable moments. The audacity of taking a bottle of champagne, and slicing the neck with a sabre? Well, you can’t beat the expression on someone’s face when that happens.
So yes, we’d do it. And yes, we’d take a sabbatical in Whistler.
And if we can’t have that, then we’ll take a cocktail hour with a bottle of bubbles and David Lynch, to talk with him about creative process.
“I love experimentation because you need to try something, see what it looks like, react to that, see if another idea flows from that and then take it to the next step. It’s a process of action and reaction, and trying different things until you get something thrilling… It’s so fantastic to experiment.”
And if that’s not on the cards, we’ll take this video.
While the media marketing industry is busy congratulating itself for its big ideas and big budget executions following Friday’s Media Innovation Awards, we’re drawn to commend a much more modest campaign closer to home.
No major ad buys. No full page takeovers. No billboards. No banners. No microsite. No app.
Just a modest quarter page advertisement in the local newsweeklies offering a $30 5 course dinner for 6 weeks in the fall. It ends on the 8 December, and most of the people in our Whistler studio have made a date of it. Most of the people at our partners’ workplaces have gone. Most of the staff at Araxi have even taken the opportunity to eat there with their own families.
Get as many locals and seasonal workers in to experience a dinner at Araxi during a quieter time in your business cycle.
Deliver the best quality experience. No strings attached.
Let the word of mouth recommendations generate your next 6 months of business with your target clientele, who are currently located on several different continents and could only be reached by traditional media with expensive global ad buys.
Sometimes, great marketing is as simple as stripping all the glitter away, and giving people a chance to experience the product.
Would you be a regionally-inspired chef’s apprentice for an evening? from Tourism Whistler on Vimeo.
We’re holding out for that perfect someone. We know you are out there, so send in your resume today!
Origin Design + Communications is looking for an ACCOUNT DIRECTOR with proven senior-level experience in leading agency accounts, managing client relationships and strategic marketing planning to join our Montreal team. A passion for action sports and mountain culture is a must, and bilingual fluency in English and French is an asset.
Interested applicants can send their resume and salary expectations to jobs@origindesign.ca.
We would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this position; however only those who are considered for an interview will be contacted. No calls please.
