the WestS K I A N D S N O W B O A R D T O U R

The Best IN

P R O P O S A L

The Best in the West Ski and Snowboard Tour

The Best in the West Ski and Snowboard Tour is a multi-level media campaign that will follow Matt Gibson and Emilie Warden on a dream ski trip to eight of the best ski hills in the Western Hemishphere in Colorade, California, Wyoming, and Utah.

By promoting BITW in collaboration with sponsors, tour-ism boards, DMOs, ski hills, media partners, and local bloggers this project has the potential to put the best ski-ing, snowboarding, food, lodging, and winter activi-ties the West has to offer in front of more than 1.4 million Facebook users, over 145,000 Twitter users, and tens of thousands of online readers, all of whom love skiing, snowboarding, and the outdoors.

We want to help you to engage that audience.

OutlineThe Best in the West Tour (BITW) will visit 8 ski resorts over 8 weeks, and expose a targeted audience of ski-ers, snowboarders, and outdoors-lovers to your com-pany through social media, blogging, television, radio, newspapers, a contest, and face-to-face interaction.

Goals1. Increase your brand awareness on multiple plat-

forms2. Grow your email newsletter list and social media fol-

lowings with skiers, snowboarders, and outdoors lovers.

Target AudienceSkiers, snowboarders, and outdoors-minded Canadians and Americans aged 25 - 60 with a focus on people living in or near the areas visited on the tour.

The CostYou recieve• Exposure to millions of Facebook users.• Exposure to hundreds of thousands of Twitter users.• Exposure to tens of thousands of Matt-Gibson.org

readers.• Exposure in local media in the target destinations• Face-to-face brand ambassadorship with your market• SEO-improving links from a highly-ranked website• Unique engaging content for your website

The CostTwo sponsorship options are currently available:1) Black Diamond Sponsorship (limit 1) - Will provide a grand prize for the BITW contest.2) Blue Square Sponsorship (limit 2) - Will provide multiple small prizes for the Spot the Blog-ger Contest.

These sponsorship options are explained in detail in Sec-tion 2.

SECTION I: STRUCTURE

STRATEGY• SOCIAL MEDIA• TRADITIONAL MEDIA • FACE-TO-FACE

EXECUTION• PRE-TOUR• TOUR• POST TOUR

Matt-Gibson.org, relevant DMOs, and the ski hills involved have a combined social media following of more than 1.4 million Facebook users and 144,000 Twitter users, as well as 10 newsletters. All of the parties involved can grow their social media followings and newsletter lists by sharing their audiences.

If all parties share social media posts and link to BITW blog posts in their newsletters it will drive thousands of targeted readers to BITW where they will learn about your company and be given an incentive to subscribe to your newsletter.

That’s a lot of targeted traffic -- and that’s before even considering other possible partners for this massive traf-fic exchange, such as AFAR (who have agreed to help out), Outside (where some of blog posts may be syn-dicated), and others I’m in talks with.

Social Media

Traditional media will be approached through two chan-nels: local DMOs and press releases.

Five press releases will be issued using online wire ser-vices. One press release will be issued announcing BITW and the remaining four will be issued in conjunction with each destination visit.

Contacts in the local press will be obtained as much as possible from local DMOs and will be contacted directly for interview opportunities and stories related to BITW.

The story of BITW is unlikely to interest the local press much, however, so the Spot the Blogger Contest will be used as a hook.

Traditional Media

The purposes of the Spot the Blogger Contest are: 1) To act as a story hook for local radio, television, and broadcast media and, 2) to increase brand awareness on Facebook, and 3) to increase face-to-face interaction between Matt and Emilie and the target audience to develop a community of dedicated online social evangelists.

Emilie and Matt will wear ski jackets and toques (beanies) branded with your logo. Their photo will be prominently placed on the Black Diamond Sponsor’s Facebook page and the BITW landing page. Any person who spots Emilie and Matt, takes a photo with them, and shares the photo on Facebook will re-ceive a small prize (to be provided by Blue Square Sponsors) and to be entered into a draw for a grand prize to be awarded at the conclusion of BITW.

Since anyone within the community will be able to win the con-test, it should be considered newsworthy by local press. The face-to-face interaction and reward system should help to a community of dedicated followers who will follow and evange-lize BITW over social media. And, since Emilie and Matt will be wearing branded hats and jackets, your company will appear in all participant photos uploaded to Facebook.

Spot the Blogger

ExecutionThroughout the campaign, Matt and Emilie will:

Pre-BITW• Liaise with DMOs to arrange accommoda-

tions and meals.• Write five press releases: one pre-cam-

paign release, and one for each destina-tion.

• Arrange transportation to and from each destination.

• Provide all necessary equipment, including ski and snowboard gear, cameras, laptops, smartphones, etc.

During BITW Trips• Liveblog activities throughout each trip on

Facebook and Twitter. • Email all sponsors and relevant partners

each morning with a list of social media and blog posts to share.

• Perform interviews with all interested me-dia.

• Participate in the BITW ‘Spot the Blogger’ contest.

Execution cont’dThroughout the campaign, Matt and Emilie will:

Between BITW Trips• Spend four days at home in Salt Lake City

producing content for both Matt-Gibson.org and the Black Diamond Sponsor’s website.

• Content will include at least one blog post about each ski hill, as well as information about other activities, dining, and accomo-dations.

• Social media updates from the previous trip will continue to be posted during the work period and social sharing emails will continue to be sent to sponsors and rel-evant partners.

Execution cont’dThroughout the campaign, Matt and Emilie will:

Post BITW• Complete creation for Matt-Gibson.org and the Black Diamond Sponsor’s web-

site.• Final social media push for contest sign-ups and winner announcement.• Creation of an anlytic report summarizing the results of BITW.

Landing Page Mockup

Blog Post Mockup

• Google Analytics will be used to track outgoing link traffic from Matt-Gibson.org and other partner sites.

• Bit.ly links will be used in social media posts to track clickthroughs to all in-volved websites.

• The #BITW hashtag will be used on all tweets and followed using Twitter search.

• A Google Alert for “Best in The West”’ will be set up to moniter online mentions of the campaign.

• Matt-Gibson.org and Mountain Collective will all closely moniter website traffic lev-els before, during, and after the campaign.

TrackingTo gauge the effectiveness of BITW:

SECTION II: SPONSORSHIP OPTIONS

Black Diamond SponsorshipCost: $0 Since this is our first year running this campaign, we’re asking only that sponsors provide prizes.

Benefits• Most prominent logo placement on every page• Prime logo placement on the sponsor page• Unique BITW website content linked to from the BITW land-

ing page and every BITW post on Matt-Gibson.org, as well as promoted across all social media channels and in newsletters

• Face-to-face brand ambassadorship via the Spot the Blogger contest

• Local television, radio, and news coverage via the Spot the Blogger contest

• Targeted newsletter and social media subscribers.• Mentions in all BITW press releases• Sponsorship of the main BITW contest, which will run for the

duration of the campaign, with the winner announced after its completion

• A post-campaign analytics and effectiveness report.

Responsibilities • Promotion of the BITW campaign on social media and through

newsletters.• Provision of one grand prize for the main BITW contest

Blue Square Sponsorship

Cost: $0 Since this is our first year running this campaign, we’re asking only that sponsors provide prizes.

Benefits

• Prominent logo placement on every page of BITW on Matt-

Gibson.org.

• Logo placement on the sponsor page.

• Links within BITW posts to the sponsor’s website or, preferably,

related content on the sponsor’s website.

• Social media promotion across multiple platforms and in news-

letters.

• Targeted newsletter and social media subscribers.

• Possible local television, radio, and news coverage.

• Mentions in all BITW press releases

Responsibilities

• Promotion of BITW on social media and through newsletters.

• Provision of prizes for on-hill ‘spot the blogger’ contests.

SECTION III: WHO YOU’RE WORKING WITH

CONTENT• MATT GIBSON• EMILIE WARDEN • MATT-GIBSON.ORG

INDUSTRY• DMOs• SKI HILLS• MEDIA

MATT GIBSON

EMILIE WARDEN

Matt is an award-winning adventure travel blogger, writ-

er, and photographer from British Columbia, Canada.

He writes the About.com Snowboarding Guide, col-

umns for Transitions Abroad and Travel + Escape, and

has worked with numerous outdoors and travel publica-

tions includign Outside, AFAR, Action Asia, Kootenay

Mountain Culture, and more.

Emilie was raised in Salt Lake City and learned to ski at a young age. After University Emilie moved to Taiwan where she learned Mandarin Chinese, which came in handy when she later worked as the only white flight attendent on Cathay Pacific Airlines. She’s returned to Salt Lake City where she is pursuing photography and social media management. She can often be found setting Matt straight about these activities.

Matt-Gibson.orgOverview

• Online since 2009

• Has won several awards and commenda-tions including placing as a semi-finalist in Austin-Lehman’s Best Travel Blog Contest.

• Has been mentioned by numerous publica-tions including USA Today, Canada.com, and The Atlantic.

• Is syndicated on Raveable and Weekend.sg

• Select posts also appear on the Magellan GPS Outdoors Community and the Outside Magazine website.

We’ve worked with

Matt-Gibson.org StatsSeptember 2012 Traffic Stats *Traffic stats from Google Analytics and demographics from Alexa

Visits/month: 27,000

Pageviews: 44,000

Average Visit: 1:20

Location: USA 66%, Canada 9%, UK 5%

Age: 18-24: 18% | 25-34: 22% 35-44: 9% | 45-54: 27% | 55-64: 23%

Gender: Female: 53% | Male: 47%

Income: $30 – 60K: 47% | $60 – 100K: 32% $100+K: 21%

Social Media Stats

Facebook Likes: 5400

Facebook Friends: 775

Twitter Followers: 4000

Klout: 67 Influential in Travel and Tourism, Photography, and Writing.

Matt-Gibson.org Stats cont’d

Colorado Tourism BoardFacebook: 379KTwitter: 44KNewsletter: YesContact: Carly Grimes

Utah Office of TourismFacebook: N/ATwitter: N/ANewsletter: N/AContact: Clayton Scrivner

Utah Travel IndustryFacebook: 2.4KTwitter: N/ANewsletter: Yes

Ski UtahFacebook: 25.7KTwitter: 3.6KNewsletter: YesContact: Brandon Ott

Wyoming Office of TourismFacebook: N/ATwitter: 6.6KNewsletter: YesContact: Chuck Coon

Visit CaliforniaFacebook: 47KTwitter: 17.2KNewsletter: Yes

Contact: Rachel Veu

DMOs

Ski ResortsColoradoAspen/SnomassFacebook: 37.7KTwitter: 13.5KNewsletter: Yes

VailFacebook: 119KTwitter: 13/kNewsletter: Yes

Wyoming Jackson HoleFacebook: 90.5KTwitter: 11.7KNewsletter: Yes

Grand Targhee ResortFacebook: 14.5K Twitter: 4KNewsletter: Yes

CaliforniaSquaw ValleyFacebook: 53.9KTwitter: 7.9KNewsletter: Yes

Alpine MeadowsFacebook: 22.3KTwitter: 5.7KNewsletter: Yes

UtahAltaFacebook: 6.5KTwitter: 3KNewsletter: No

Park City Mountain ResortFacebook: 21.8KTwitter: 12KNewsletter: Yes

A Final NoteWe’re excited about working with you, and don’t want you to think of this as a one-time offer, because It’s not. It’s meant to open a dialogue for innovative and unique ways that we can work together to move us both closer to our goals.

Travel blogging is still maturing as an industry. Its leaders are working on projects similar to this, but everyone is learning as they go.

If you have any ideas how we can help you to reach new audiences, or if you’d like to hear more of ours, we’d love to talk to you.

We can be reached at xpatmatt@gmail.com or at (408) 717-3729.

We hope to hear from you soon!

Matt & Emilie