Cool off from the Summer Heat in the Shadows of Winter

Out of the Shadows Trailer – 2010 HD Ski Film by Dendrite Studios from Dendrite Studios on Vimeo.

It may be thirty plus degrees out there and we are thinking about the lake but the new film, Out of the Shadows, coming up from Dendrite Studios gives us chills.

Proudly shot in the mountains of British Columbia, Out of the Shadows features the finest athletes who have been in the shadows for too long. This is their shot and their opportunity to break out on film. They bring their lives with them and shred the mountains with un-inhibited passion on a daily basis. We bring you their stories.

We are proud of where we live and we often talk about the lesser known but still ass-kicking talent that calls British Columbia home. This new film that will premiere at Crankworx features athletes that do not always get the spotlight they deserve.

In the heat of the summer, we start getting ready for the upcoming parade of ski and snowboarding films to fuel our stoke, and Out of the Shadows definitely looks like a cool one.

Recruiting: Client Services Manager

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

Is the travel brochure dead? – Resort Marketing and the Move to Online

As an advertising and marketing agency specializing in destination and resort marketing, there was a time where the travel brochure and vacation planner were at the cornerstone of our business. The brochure format has been a staple of resort destinations, tourism marketing associations and adventure and activity operators since their inception. Even as early as two years ago,  the travel brochure was the number one marketing tactic in our clients’ arsenals. But all that is changing (or in some cases has already changed), and the brochure has become the latest casualty in the migration to online channels.

This spring, a UK survey conducted by Total Media and reported on by the Telegraph.co.uk, confirmed what we’ve been seeing for several months: holidaymakers are now booking trips based on online travel reviews rather than glossy publications.

According to the survey, e-pinion reviews written by strangers on independent websites such as TripAdvisor, search results on Google and word of mouth advice from family and colleagues are more influential than brochures, advertising, media reviews and advice from travel agents when it comes to booking holidays.

The survey of 1,375 consumers found a quarter of potential travelers now use online reviews by strangers to determine their travel plans, compared to 13 per cent who used travel programmes and 11 per cent who used magazines and newspaper supplements. The results also found that almost 50 per cent of travelers over 45 are using websites to recommend or warn fellow travelers by posting a review of their travel experiences online. The survey states:

“The impartial online opinion of travellers who have firsthand experience of a destination is second only now to what you hear from friends, family and work colleagues. Almost 70 per cent of consumers use the internet to book their holidays, compared to 23 per cent by phone and just 8 per cent chose travel agents.”

Interestingly, we received these survey results right about the time our long-term client, Tourism Whistler, traditionally briefs us on their annual vacation planner brochure. The briefing never did come. A decision driven by a long-term and resort-wide focus on sustainability, increased pressures on marketing budgets, and anecdotal findings that supported a move to on-line channels killed the brochure that had been printed annually since Tourism Whistler’s inception in 1989. There was a brief memorial ceremony conducted in our studio, attended by a handful of staff. It lasted about a minute before our growing contingent of digital evangelists said, “Cool, let’s spend the money integrating online contesting in Facebook and do some fun video to seed in online communities.” The mourning was over. There was, after all, very little to mourn. The creative restrictions, the static images, the homogenized tourism content, the dead trees…all of it seemed so “last year.”

As an interesting side note, the report found Expedia was the leading online destination for UK consumers planning longer trips over 5 nights (25 per cent), followed by TripAdvisor and Lastminute.com (22 per cent). Lastminute.com however was regarded as first choice for short trips. – Danielle Kristmanson

Google ‘Me’ vs Facebook?

The rumour mill has been running on a supposed competitor to Facebook coming from the people of the highly successful [sarcasm] Buzz and Wave offerings. It seems that there might be an alternative social network in the works from web powerhouse Google and it might be called Google ‘me’. Other than adding to the
gossip, we thought we might run a little poll to see what you think of the very idea of a Google vs Facebook friendly showdown:

Would you use a Google competitor to Facebook?

View Results

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BTW – if you are already a Friend of ours on Facebook, Make sure you ‘like this‘.

Remember the Olympics?

Man that was a good time, eh? We love this town.

Whistler 2010: With Glowing Hearts from Adam Poel on Vimeo.

“Carte Blanche: The Freeski Summit” returns to this year’s International Freeski Film Festival

Freeskiers come together on growing the sport and business.

“Carte Blanche: The Freeski Summit” returns to this year’s International Freeski Film Festival


MONTREAL, QUÉBEC, June 23, 2010 — Freeski marketers, athletes, manufacturers, filmmakers and media will gather again this year to bring together the industry’s brightest minds for discussions surrounding the growth of their sport. Carte Blanche: The Freeski Summit, lead by Origin Design + Communications as part of the International Freeski Film Festival (IF3) will once again wrap up the popular five day event in Montreal on September 19th, 2010. The half-day, invite-only event, designed for senior marketing managers and directors,  brand managers, team managers, event and film producers as well as media working in freeskiing’s realm, will feature panel and participant discussions and will include an impressive line up of speakers and contributors. While speakers will be confirmed soon, topics have been released, and this year’s panelists will discuss:

•               Branded Entertainment, also known as branded content or advertainment, as an entertainment-based vehicle for action sports marketing strategies. Branded entertainment has become a key focus for action sport brands in the fight for “front of mind” with their consumers. This panel will review the concept, identify how it is relevant to the freeski industry, discuss case studies, successes and means for potential implementation.

•               Events of the future. In 2009, 20 billion dollars were spent on event sponsorships, and in the freeski industry, events remain a primary marketing vehicle. But, how has the digital age changed events?  Are ‘anti-comp’ events the way of the future? How can sponsors leverage events? How do brands decide which events to align with? What’s the role of social media and web tv? This panel will discuss how to keep our primary marketing channel fresh and evolving.

Increased interest for the Summit is expected following the success of last year’s event with speakers that included freeskiing phenom Simon Dumont; freeskiing’s godfather Mike Douglas; athlete agent Michael Spencer from EGO Sports Management; Mike Nick, Director of Marketing from Orage; Scott Jewett, Director of Marketing at Red Bull; and Martin Giroux, the Sales and Marketing Director for Mont Saint-Sauveur International.

The date has been confirmed for Monday, September 19th from 1pm at the Montreal Hilton Hotel. To request an invitation, contact Marie-Josée Legault of Origin Design + Communications at  (514) 842-5252 or mj@origindesign.ca.

Origin Design + Communications is a Montreal- and Whistler-based advertising agency specializing in mountain sports and resort tourism. An authority in skiing and snowboarding marketing, Origin operates as the creative agency of record for Whistler Blackcomb, Tourism Whistler, Jay Peak Resort and Salomon Canada. Origin offers strategic marketing, branding and creative services, including full-service web design and development, social media marketing and experiential marketing expertise. For more information go to www.origindesign.ca.

IF3—the International Freeski Film Festival has become known as the “Cannes Film Festival of Skiing,” bringing together athletes, filmmakers, industry leaders and fans for the exclusive world premieres of top ski and freeski movies, concerts, parties and meetings. The Festival’s goal is to showcase the talent freeskiing has been fostering over the years; to create public awareness of skiing’s new dynamic emergence and to grow awareness for the progression of the sport. For more information go to www.if3.ca.