Reno can never compete with the San Francisco job market. There are a lot of things they have, that we don’t have.

But over the years we’ve had the chance to come to terms with our woefully inadequate smog supply. We’ve become “ok” with the fact that we have four traffic cams and two traffic reporters dedicated to only one problem intersection. And while we occasionally have to get up @ 5:30AM to ski (or snowboard) before work to maintain our 61 day/year streak, we proudly wear helmet hair as a badge of honor! We’ve sacrificed our need for cramped over-priced apartments with a moderate organic gardening addiction.

So while in the Bay Area, people may worry about being a small fish in a big pond or vise versa, we worry more about the flow rates of the rapids, the afternoon hatch and the conditions of the singletrack in the mountains that surround town.

If you’re interested, and want to get a little more Reno-Tahoe in your life, join us for a Cocktail Party on:

Thursday, June 26th from 6pm to 9pm
One Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111
Google Map

Eventful
Upcoming
Facebook

Think you can make it? Please RSVP here: MyNevadaDreamJob.

Some cool Jobs in Reno:
Project Manager, Worldwide Credit Services
Program Manager, Compliance -Part-time position
Vendor Account Manager, OEM
Finance Manager
Application Support Analyst
Sr. Credit Manager, OEM
Physical Therapist
Business Partner Manager, AOC
Program Manager, Enterprise, AOC
EDAWN Business Development Director

Some interesting facts about Reno:
It’s 20 min drive to the closest Tahoe Resort. Farthest is 50 min.
We have all night (and all day) bars.
We have fixie bike geeks.
We have hipster bars.
We have 34% fewer cougars and those cougars are 67% younger than SF.
Reno 911 is (while admittedly awesome) is filmed in Bakersfield, California.
What happens in Reno, usually costs you $20 or less.
We have earthquakes too.
They film Modest Mouse videos here.
You can see the white water park from your office.
In Reno, we fight for YOU.

-Mike

Lake Tahoe Ski resorts have really stepped up their websites in recent years with social media elements like video, podcasting, and blogs. It’s no longer a novelty to have regular updates, rich media content and interactivity, it’s a requirement. Skiers and snowboarders are interacting with online content in ways they never have before, and Twelve Horses is proud to announce and show off the new Alpine Meadows Blog.

A blog can be a great tool for ski resort marketing. It’s the best option for centering the social media content that you distribute out to your various web venues. We think this one is really functional and looks super sharp. The designer, Scott Patterson, included some cool social media features like the YouTube window, profile links and twitter updates. He also created drop-down menus to keep the sidebar nice and neat, and a full resort info menu to seamlessly blend the blog with the website.

But when every resort at Tahoe has a blog as part of their online marketing strategy, the challenge lies in rising above the chatter to effectively convey the story of the mountain and the people who make it great. Alpine is doing a great job of it. We think the people who make Alpine Meadows work are awesome, and we’ve had a blast helping them create content and videos to represent their brand and interact with their visitors.

Their Flickr account has been getting great traffic from day one, and we have helped them create a great community around images from the mountain. Google and Yahoo image searches now index Flickr images, but still the traffic from Flickr searches expands by orders of magnitude the viewership of Alpine Meadows content.

The @skialpine Twitter profile is bridging the gap between home and the mountain by helping skiers and boarders stay on top of changing conditions such as avalanche closures, run and lift openings, weather and events in real-time right from mobile devices.

Their video channel is doing a great job of documenting events and operations at the mountain.

Now the SkiAlpine blog is bringing it all together in one place. Check out their blog, video channel, Twitter updates and Flickr account and look for more awesome photos and videos when the snow falls again!

-Mike

There’s nothing we @ Twelve Horses love more than sun, snow and gadgets! So this was the perfect event for us. Earl and I got out and shot some video, played around with the Nokia n95, Zune, JBL headphones and got a chance to chat with Brian Lam, Editor at Gizmodo.

(click on the pop-ups in the video then select “more info” to see the product demos.)

Bob Starks from Alpine Meadows was stoked to get a hand’s on demo of the Nokia n95. He wants to be able to post up photos to Flickr right from the Summit 6 chair! I almost smashed mine attempting a 360 @ the Kangaroo Park.

Thanks for bringing out the goods Brian! Can’t wait to do it again!

-M

In order to truly understand a brand it helps to experience it firsthand.

When we at Twelve Horses are not busy geeking out on the web, many of us here are charging hard somewhere in the outdoors. Whether it is around Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada range that rise above our Reno office, or the Wasatch Mountains that tower above our Salt Lake City location, a common means of experiencing these environs is on a pair of skis or a snowboard. Come visit us and you’ll find that the last powder day is a common conversation around the water cooler. Even as I type this blog post apres ski session, I am looking out across big, beautiful, snow-laced Lake Tahoe and looking forward to the next time.

This company culture is undoubtedly a major contributing factor as to why we service so many destination and sports marketing clients. Passion for these pursuits permeate our client work and online marketing endeavors such as brand building, web design and development, email and multi-channel marketing, social marketing, and search engine optimization. It works well because we are marketers and technologists that are a part of the target snow sport audience. 

When I came across this blog post titled, Seasonal SEO and Online Marketing for Ski Resorts, I couldn’t resist beating our own drum. Not only is it an informative and well-written post on online marketing for ski resorts, but it also touches upon one of our clients that we have serviced for more than 12 years - Heavenly Mountain Resort. It is a great compliment, but it also gives you a window into what we have been doing for them. Here is an excerpt.

Heavenly Resort in Lake Tahoe is perhaps the best example of a ski resort with an effective online marketing strategy. They are relatively well optimised for search and have good visibility in the search results. They have developed a MySpace profile and their website offers a range of initiatives including videos, daily podcasts and RSS feeds for their interactive blog, mountain condition updates and their own TV show.

Our work for Heavenly has also garnered several awards including a Web Award, ADDY, and California Travel & Tourism Award, and this success stems from a well-designed website that relies on the right online tools to reach and resonate with a global customer base. But I also believes that it comes from a deep and personal understanding of their brand.

See you on the hill!

tags: destination snow ski resort online marketing branding web design search engine optimization

With the proliferation of online video there is no question that it has become a preferred method for communicating a message. How many of you would prefer to spend 4 minutes watching a video as opposed to 4 minutes of reading straight text? {Except for this of course! ;~)}

We recognize the importance of it and are actively blending video into various social and interactive marketing campaigns for our clients; for example, websites, landing pages, mobile devices, and social networks like YouTube and Facebook.

This content can also be extended to sales teams to help illustrate a particular product, service, or the unique value of the company they represent. It can be used at a tradeshow, powerpoint presentaion, or live on your iPod for that perfect moment when it can compliment a particular point you are about to make.

It might even be something that serves to personalize your brand and communicate something a little deeper, as this video shows.

Well, now there is another way. Google recently announced they are beginning testing for video ads on search results pages. For now it is no more expensive than the usual CPC you would make. This marks a new means of delivering targeted, measurable messages in a rich format, and it is something you should consider as part of your SEM campaigns.

Let ‘em see it!

tags: video branding search engine online marketing

Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, and less than 30 minutes from the nearest ski resort means quite a few of us here at Twelve Horses like to ski and snowboard. In fact, two of Twelve Horses founders, David LaPlante and Martin Gastanaga, were professional ski racers back in the day before they got a wild hair and decided to start a web design and development company.

Obviously, their passions have an influence on the office culture, as well as the type of clients we have. As an indication, Heavenly Mountain Resort, Mountain Sports International, and Reno-Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place are just a few clients we have that are involved in promoting snow sports.

It is the latter client, along with a merry band of high altitude hucksters and several other sponsors, that somehow managed to convince the city of Reno to:

The video speaks for itself. You can also watch more on this YouTube channel. Can you say, Cool!?

Also, here are some awesome Ski Base Jump photos of Shane McConkey doing his thing courtesy of the RSCVA.

As tired horses feebly found their way into the office this morning, there was little surprise as to why they were a bit sluggish. Yesterday, Twelve Horses was honored with the “2007 Technology Company of the Year” award in Las Vegas by the Technology Business Alliance of Nevada (TBAN).

It was a great event, and a huge thanks goes out to the Officers, Directors, and Members of TBAN who nominated and elected us. Furthermore, none of it would be possible without an awesome team of talented employees, customers who have been with us since 1994, and an array of partners who have supported Twelve Horses going back to the early days when we were Aztech Cyberspace.

We are not only honored, but thrilled, excited, proud, stoked, fired up, and above all - humbled. The fact is there are many cutting edge technology companies in Nevada that are doing impressive work and collectively elevating the tech environment of the state. They are here for a myriad of reasons, but suffice to say, it is because Nevada is a great place to do business.

So, why did we win? Well, you can read what the president of TBAN had to say in the press release. Clearly, it has a lot to do with the type of web development Twelve Horses is doing, as well as the length of time the company has been in business. But from my perspective, there is more.

Part of TBAN’s mission focuses on “supporting and expanding technology in Nevada.” Twelve Horses is involved in numerous community organizations that center around technology, marketing, design, education, and economic development, but one organization in particular, which has really grown in significance in recent time, is the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (NCET). David LaPlante, CEO of Twelve Horses serves on the Board of Directors as chairman, and I know he has put a lot of personal and company time and energy into seeing the organization flourish.

David LaPlante is what I would call an extreme advocate of technology in Nevada, and you would not believe the amount of energy he puts forth in driving it. Between myself and social marketing manager, Leilani Schweitzer, we have an incredibly difficult time just keeping up with him and his schedule. It is INSANE. He is not the only one either. His partners, Steve Spencer and Martin Gastanaga, take on their fair share of community involvement and support as well. But it really and truly comes from a great love for what they do, and while I am biased, it looks as if it is really achieving really great things for the state of Nevada. This brings me to one final point.

Does Twelve Horses do all of this for semi-selfish reasons? The answer is, yes. Because we are headquartered in Reno, Nevada, and yet, service clients all over the country and beyond, we are aligned in many ways with the Reno-Tahoe brand and business environment. The better the region looks and functions, the better we look and function. It is no different when tech companies establish themselves in Silicon Valley. They know there is a certain brand perception that comes with that geographical area, and they know there is a certain level of infrastructure and employee potential.

Martin Gastanaga is a fifth generation Nevadan, and David is very much rooted, along with his family, in Reno, Nevada. Many of Twelve Horses’ employees were born, live, and love it in Reno-Tahoe. So what you have is a partnership. Local community organizations, governments, businesses, and citizens and stakeholders help Twelve Horses by creating and fostering the type of business environment we need to be successful, and in turn, we do what we can to help Nevada become even better.

Twelve Horses will keep striving to develop new technologies and applications, open up new office locations, and also support the communities in which we operate. It has been a ton of work and a ton of fun, and we have met a lot of great people and enjoyed many new and exciting experiences along the way.

Again, a huge thanks to TBAN for the award, and our promise is that we will do what we can to live up to it.

David LaPlante, CEO of Twelve Horses will be speaking on, “Building Brand and Destination Character Through Social Marketing” tomorrow at the 7th annual SMG Tourism Conference at Lake Tahoe. The event will be held at Embassy Suites Resort in South Lake Tahoe, California.

He will be providing a look at how destinations are using all things Web 2.0 to connect and engage with their audience in a meaningful manner.

The following article ran in the Reno Gazette-Journal today:

Tahoe Tourism officials to discuss strategy

Lake Tahoe-area tourism executives will gather in South Lake Tahoe on Wednesday to share strategic information at the 2007 SMG Tourism Conference.

This eighth annual event, which is themed “Sustainability & Authenticity: Marketing Your Destination’s Unique Character,” will address issues critical to tourism, including geotourism, social media and brand building, California tourism trends, and how Indian gaming and economic development trends are impacting destination character, officials said.

Speakers at the event include Jonathan Tourtellot, director of sustainable destinations at the National Geographic Society; Dave LaPlante, CEO of Twelve Horses; and William Eadington, gaming expert at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The conference will be at Embassy Suites Resort in South Lake Tahoe from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will include an exhibition area.

Also included will be the Geotourism Dinner Cruise on the Tahoe Queen, featuring a panel discussion moderated by the National Geographic Society, after the conference.

The conference fee is $140 for one or two people or $115

for three or more attendees. The fee includes registration, lunch and all materials.

Spaces on the Geotourism Dinner Cruise are $58 each.

For more information, visit www.smgtourismconference.com or call (530) 541-2462, ext. 102.

tags: lake, tahoe, smg, tourism, conference, social, marketing, branding

Every now and then certain benefits of having clients like Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort arise, and employees of Twelve Horses have the chance to get out of the office and head out to the ski slopes.

Last week was the “TransWorld SNOWboarding Team Challenge” at Heavenly, so a few of use headed up from Reno to South Lake Tahoe to see some young men and women GO BIG in the terrain park.

It was an absolutely beautiful day and the snow conditions were spring-like. Several of the competing riders took the liberty of dressing up in costume, so you would often see Elvis, a Blues Brother, or a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle doing a fat rail grab many gravity defying feet above the ground.

Heavenly’s unique location affords some of the most incredible views of the surrounding mountains and Lake Tahoe that any other ski resort in the area can offer. After a day of riding and soaking up the scenery, it is off to town and into the many different restaurants, nightclubs, and casinos that make up South Lake.

I thought the ski season was pretty much over, but with more than a foot of new snow forecasted tonight it looks like there is still time to get in a few turns. 

Several team members from Twelve Horses attended the Reno-Tahoe Young Professional Network (YPN) Launch Party, which was held at 210 North in downtown Reno, Nevada on Thursday, April 5th.

Check out a little video of the event.

There were more than 500 people in attendance, and the party featured dancers, flame throwers, and a fashion show. The organizers and volunteers of the event did a great job, and a special shout out goes to the Board.

• Erin Kuo – President
• Nick Butler - Vice President
• Erin Lankowsky – Treasurer
• Dominic Brunetti – Secretary
• Malena Satre - Finance/Development Committee Chair
• Stephani Foust - Event Marketing Committee Chair
• Bryan Landaburu - Creative & Website Committee Chair
• John Sande IV - Member at large
• Jesse Jenkins - Member at large
• Stacey Crowley - Member at Large
• Michael Pennington - Chamber of Commerce Liaison
• Michael Thomas - EDAWN Liaison

Why is all of this important to Twelve Horses? We have done a few blog posts on the mission of YPN, which in short is, “to cultivate an informed and involved young professional community in the Truckee Meadows in order to retain and attract young and diverse talent.”

Reno is undergoing a fantastic renaissance in regards to redevelopment and repositioning as, not just the historical gaming town of old, but as a vibrant city offering a plethora of community events and cultural activities.

Of course, this is especially exciting for Twelve Horses because the evolution of Reno that is occurring attracts new people to the area and helps with our recruiting efforts for our corporate headquarters.

If Reno’s close proximity to Lake Tahoe and more than a dozen world-class ski resorts isn’t enough for you, then maybe you should come check out everything else that is going on. You will be pleasantly surprised.