The Skiing Campaign

This one actually stumped me for a few days. "Pick a current social media campaign and critique it with an eye on your niche goals". What do I pick that can be connected to my niche? At first it seemed too broad. Do I focus on one particular company that manufactures skis? What about a specific resort? None of these options gave off the right feel.

Then I realized, it's not about the product. It's about the sport; about the upcoming season. That's the campaign right there. In order to have the consumer buy your product or come to your resort, you first need to get people "pumped up" for the season. They need to have the desire and want to go skiing. Then, and only then, can you start selling your product.

So, how is this done when it is only the first week in October? We just got out of what seemed like an endless string of days of 80 degree heat, and now it's beautiful outside. You'd never think people would start considering skiing at this moment, right? Wrong.

This is just the time to start thinking about it. We may only be in October, but for those who need new gear or are just starting to learn to ski, this is when the sales are starting. Retailers want to clear their racks of old skis from lat year to make room for new models. Resorts are starting their end of summer sales. "Book now for anytime of the season and save up to 30 %, even on holiday weekends!". How does this word get out you ask? What stirs people to start making use of these sales? Check the weather reports in the West and see what you can find on Facebook.

Remember, I said that the key to the social media campaign of the sport of skiing is not to reel people in with sales, but to first get them in the mood; to show them what they will be skiing in. In the past week alone, I've seen numerous Facebook groups attributed to different companies and mountains (Skiing Magazine, Ski Magazine, Banff National Park, Whistler Blackcomb, even friends located in the West, etc) post pictures of the snow that has been coming down over the past few days.

The season will be starting before anyone knows it. The basis of the campaign is word of mouth, of making use of visuals and using terminology in those visual captions to get people excited. Here's an example from a post by Skiing Magazine about Lake Tahoe: "First Snow of the season and it's a doozy. A foot of snow and snowing! WINTER IS BACK! Oct. 5th, 2011.". I don't know about you, but I'm already looking at how much it would cost to fly out to Tahoe.

Not to steal Professor Kalm's thunder, but I did like his example of Inception in his lecture. That in mind, think of the skiing social media campaign this way. The idea of Inception is the implantation of a foreign idea into someone's mind (the establishment of a starting point). For me, when I see an image of a snow covered mountain, I don't think "wow, it must be cold" or "this is going to another bad winter". I think "let's go skiing". That is the main idea. From their, everything spirals out: "what kind of gear do I need to replace, where can I get the best rates at which mountain". It all adds up, very quickly.

Have I gone off topic here? I feel that energy flowing through me again; the same energy I feel on the slopes, but maybe I've gone a bit too far already. So, let's try to tone it down a bit. Above, you have the media campaign, the main aspect being the presentation of the first snowfall of the season to get people excited. It's a great campaign in my opinion, because I've seen it work time and time again.

Now, how would I go about executing my own voice and niche with the same tools. These companies have used facebook pages and groups to express their voice. Their conversation exists in the form of images and video posts. Personally, I'd probably do the same thing. My own nice is not only the fundamentals of skiing, but the thrill of it as well. Instructional videos are perfect for the basics (how to turn, stop, what the different trail markers mean). Visual posts of images for the thrill aspect and where to ski are fine as well, similar to what Skiing Magazine is doing right now.

Turning the script assignment into an actual video would be the ultimate step in expressing the voice however. Film director Warren Miller is the prime example of why this would work, having produced 50 ski movies since 1950. His work has given people that idea; has made them tell themselves "I want to ski". The most important thing to remember though is that it's not just about having an idea, but rather an idea that is worth presenting and talking about. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. How much is a ski video with the perfect scenes worth?