Archive for the ‘Podcast’ Category
Jan
29
Old school branding tactics simply are not enough anymore. Consumers are getting information all across the web, and they are touching brands in so many more places. But how do you control it? How do you influence it? And more importantly, how do you keep messaging inline across mediums that you don’t directly control? Alpine Meadows Ski Resort has found that answer.
Real. Pure. Authentic.
Three words that Alpine is known for. Three words that have helped mold a website, guide blog posts and continually increase web traffic to keep sales steady despite a slow economy and a late starting season. Of course, it isn’t just the words, but the translation of these words across multiple channels that are bringing them continued success.
Real Communications
Alpine maintains a constant stream of video, photography, blog posts, as well as events and promotions to help drive home those three key tenets of their brand and increase conversions through search engine optimization and stronger relationships with their customers. Many companies view social channels like Twitter and Facebook as marketing tools in the same way they view a print ad or TV spot. But the users of these social networks simply won’t allow it.
Studies have proven that people are tolerant of advertising in exchange for good content. The same goes for the Web. But no one is willing to follow a company on Twitter if the majority of their tweets offer no discernible value and are purely promotional. It is a tough concept for many to understand, and spending two hours a day keeping up with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr is a hard concept to swallow. If you do it well the results are quite rewarding, but you must first have a good base.
Pure Design
Every good online strategy starts with a home base, a place where all the information is stored and transactions can be facilitated. Because of this, websites and their accompanying databases serve as the most important interaction points in the online marketing mix. But many websites end up overflowing with too many promotions and special offers competing for precious real estate on the homepage. Not the case with Alpine. Instead, they use texturing, leverage terminology like The Blogosphere, The Haps and The A-list, and utilize image-based navigation with animation. The end results is a better use of graphics and messaging that support one another in order to produce the desired conversion. But how do you get new customers to the website, and once you do, how do you keep them coming back?
Authenticity
Many companies choose to portray only the best about themselves on the web. They remove negative comments from their blog and they push the same print and TV messages across all available channels. But there is nothing real or pure about that. Alpine embraces the negative and uses it to stay authentic. They don’t lower their voice when bad weather and lift holds hit, they don’t produce video that is just a smaller version of their TV ads, and they definitely don’t consider their website to be an online brochure. Instead, they inform their customer. They send twitters when the lifts are on hold, they tell you to sleep in and wait for the avalanche crew to blast the hill before heading up, and they let negative comments spark greater conversation on their blog. These tactics might make the average marketer nervous and feel as if they are not in control, but in many ways they already aren’t, and the only way to help guide the brand forward is by openly engaging with the consumer and interacting well.
The Stats
In the month of December, with much less snow fall and much harder economic times, Alpine has seen an increase in overall traffic to their website by 25%. Web analytics show that this increase in traffic has much to do with their Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and blogging activities. Since the redesign of the website, Alpine has also seen a 19% increase in email subscribers and a 22% increase in text messaging subscribers.
Of course, we can’t all be ski resorts. Design, messaging, and communication channels are going to vary for different industries. Nevertheless, Alpine serves a great example of how we can all benefit from a multi-channel marketing mix that stems from a well-constructed brand that delivers on its promises and keeps it real.
Posted in Blog, Las Vegas, Member Orgs, Podcast, Reno-Tahoe, Salt Lake City, Service Industry, Travel & Tourism, Web & SEO
Oct
28
In this episode of Horse Power I spend some time with Ryan Berman of Fishtank Brand Advertising out of San Diego, CA. Fishtank is doing some really cool work with Pony Shoes to bring them back from a fairly long hiatus from the sports market. Part of their new campaign involves using imagery and stereotypes from brands like Nike, UnderArmor (who actually make shoes now too) and Adidas to show their product right next to the familiar brands and get people to add Pony Shoes to their list.
Ryan also talked about one of his first projects in national advertising when he worked on the Jared campaign with Subway. Initially, the commercials featured Jared and a voiceover narrator. Ryan had the idea to let Jared speak for himself and that was when the campaign took off.
He also gave some good SoCal insight on Reno and Tahoe as brands and how they interact with each other in the minds of travelers in other parts of the country. Basically, our Sushi is good even by SoCal standards, and the $18.99 All-you-can-eat doesn’t hurt either!
It was great to get the chance to spend time with Ryan and talk branding and advertising with an expert who has worked on major brands like Subway, Olevia, EAetna and Unicef. Their work looks tight and spot on to me.
The local professional associations are stepping up the game in recent months with the AIGA, AMA and A2N2 putting out some national experts like Ryan. Be sure to keep up on the latest speakers and events for the Advertising Association of Northern Nevada.
All of these horsepower podcasts are available and downloadable to your iPod as well. Be sure to click the video subscription button above and get it on your iPod or mobile device for the next time you’re on a car trip, buss ride, or waiting in a long line on Election day!
-Mike
Posted in Horse Power Podcast, Podcast, Reno-Tahoe, Social, Uncategorized, Web & SEO
Oct
9
In this episode of Horsepower I get to talk to a software developer who helped to change the way communication,
interaction and sharing is accomplished over the web. Some might argue that blogging isn’t fundamentally
different now than it was 15 years ago. While you could have built your own blog with html or php,
the cool thing is that I can go to wordpress.com (or blogspot.com, typepad.com or moveabletype.com)
and sign up and get a blog in less time than it takes to pick a title and a tagline. No credit card
necessary.
Though that has been around for a number of years, the impressive thing about wordpress is the open source
model and the cool features and updates that keep coming out, incorporating the best of what the community
comes up with.
The cool thing that open source paradigm allows guy like Mullenweg to do is, exactly what they want to
do, for their own reasons and scope. They innovate in creative ways and create products that inspire
culture, are widely popular, and are in the end profitable for the creators and the community. My own
introduction to blogging came from my love of writing and my need to have a format that would allow me
to think in small chunks. Blogs are fairly freeing. They let you focus on the craft of creating content,
not the grit of navigating the digital landscape. As such, the Wordpress motto, “code is poetry” is both
representative and prophetic. Matt, Joseph and the Wordpress team won’t become the Steve Jobs or Bill
Gates of their generation, because what they created and will create will be as much ours as theirs.
The intellectual property is their vision, and their spirit of cooperation to create community driven
software with the end user in mind. Hope you enjoy the video from Matt’s Keynote Address to the group
and the interesting info below about WordPress…
Interesting wordpress facts:
- blogs get 50 to 60 % of traffic from search
- 11.1 million downloads so far in 2008
- 35million new posts this year on wordpress.com
- 4 million per month
- 6.5 billion pageviews
- 230 million unique visitors
- 5 billion spasm were blocked by Akismet and it is 99.925% accurate.
Top Ten Wordpress Plugins:
- cforms
- wp-polls
- WP automatic upgrade
- wp-cache
- wp-db-backuo
- wp.com stats
- nextgen-gallery
- google sitemap generator
- all in one seo pack
- akismet
Great to meet you Matt and see all my SLC peeps, @libel_vox, @Thomallen, @bradbaldwin, @ashbuckles, @cspencer, @thedruidxpawx, @whyisjake, @lauramoncur & @robertmerrill. -Mike
Posted in Geeky Stuff, Horse Power Podcast, Podcast, Salt Lake City, Social, Uncategorized, Web & SEO
Sep
27
In this episode of Horse Power Leilani Schweitzer talks with Jeffery Conger, Chair of Graphic Design Montana State University, about cars, design and photography of muscle cars. Conger spoke to the Reno-Tahoe Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the Nevada Museum of Art Theater. He brought up the idea of American ideals and how they influence the design and aesthetics of cars, hotrods and the ultra customized RatRods.
It was no coincidence that Jeffrey came to reno during Hot August Nights. He’s known for photographing cars, muscle cars, motor cycles, “anything with a motor.” See some of his stunning work @ www.congerstudio.com.
-Mike
Posted in Horse Power Podcast, Podcast, Reno-Tahoe
