One positive thing going for Sessions is that the prizes / points levels are far more attainable than the prizes in the Rossignol Search + Win contest, there just aren’t as many prizes available.

As for the Rossi contest, perhaps the biggest complaint by initial players in my network was that it seemed (near) impossible to get points by searching yourself, and at the very least, it was rare to get over 3 pts as a search reward. Players became frustrated. Now that we’re into the contest a little further, the larger points amount seem to appear more often on the leaderboard.

It seems as though the most effective way to earn points  is by getting the word out and getting others to sign up as well – then you earn points on your network. Makes sense, it’s a social / WOM app, essentially. In fact, >95% of my +1000 pts have come from “friends” I invited.

When I first spread the word about the contest, it had just come out, and I had been pretty up front about the fact that I wanted to check it out as more of a social experiment. Along the way though, I’ve seen some pretty blatant spam attempts to get others to play the game. While they may be targeted somewhat relevant (ski & snowboard) forums, they’ve done so at a cost annoying the established members of those communities. Basically, taking a step backwards in SMM. I’m not sure if that’s avoidable, it just seems to be the natural lifecycle in web marketing.

Post from: Adventures In Search & Social Marketing

Sessions Snowboard Co. Copies Rossi Search & Win w/ Ask

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I wanted to give Mt. Snow a few more props (hey, they don’t get it often) to build on what I said about them in today’s SEW Article, 5 Tips for Travel Search Marketing in a Down Economy, with kudos to their creativity for  a pretty solid Mount Snow YouTube channel. They’ve created a series of two ongoing shows – “Right Arm” and “Mount Snow Minute”. Check out this sample video:

I’d actually seen Mount Snow’s channel a couple months ago (before ski season started), and shared a video of my friends who raced at the 2008 mountain bike championships there, but hadn’t really taken the time to look around at what else they’d done. Another action sports marketing blog I’ve been checking out lately though, recently commented about why these viral videos work for Mount Snow.

For the most part, I agree with doubleb’s comments about it helping to creating the affinity for the brand, attracting the right audience, and ducttape marketing through YouTube–in traditional New England style, leaving out just enough bro-brah to make it appeal to an older audience as well. I would just disagree with the statement that Mount Snow took a chance on younger employees, because traditionally their Marketing/PR people have been really young and hip. But that’s just because I’ve probably had more exposure to the crew over there than doubleb has.

Mt. Snow’s young faces likely have a lot to do with why the resort homepage prominently features the videos and encourages visitors to check out their branded company pages on social networking sites like mySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.  Twitter should be their next stop for social marketing. I follow one of the places I ski – @skisolitude – and they’re doing a pretty decent job using the platform. @PCski is now doing the same.

Room For Improvement

• Spread the word. While their 2300+ impressions are nothing to sneeze at right now, it’s not exactly stellar either. They still could benefit from a lot more promotion. I’d definitely start with the UMass & UVM college ski clubs, but also send it out to the core base of users on their email list.
• Channel Upgrades. One of the coolest things about creating a YouTube channel for your brand is that you can customize it and create a somewhat branded experience. Even if it’s just slapping your logo up, it would go a long way. I spent maybe 10 minutes creating and customizing the Downhill Divas YouTube channel with the same color scheme and header banner as the primary site. And I linked to the main site in the channel info on the upper left. Mount Snow or anyone else creating a channel shouldn’t leave off these two important steps.

Post from: Adventures In Search & Social Marketing

I’d Give My Right Arm to Ride at Mount Snow

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Near the end of every year, the SE’s release this data (I’m still waiting on Google Zeitgeist and Microsoft Live Search) typically with some analysis around the popular trends and in particular, searches for celebrity gossip. I think Yahoo! Buzz always does the best job at explaining why certain searches go popular, but I much prefer to speculate and create my own theories on occasion.

The Ask.com list of popular searches gave me the most fodder for my own commentary, but we’ll have to see what Live Search comes up with first.

Most relevant to this blog though, was AOL’s data on Top Travel Searches:

Top USA Travel Destinations

1. Las Vegas
2. Myrtle Beach
3. Chicago
4. Boston
5. New York
6. Washington, DC
7. Niagara Falls
8. Key West
9. San Francisco
10. Atlanta

Top International Travel Searches

1. Dubai
2. Australia
3. London
4. Aruba
5. Bermuda
6. Cancun
7. Jamaica
8. Cabo San Lucas
9. Paris
10. Punta Cana

Since 2008 was an Olympic year, Beijing athletes fared pretty well across the board, and of course professional athletes from the NBA, NFL, MLB, WWE, NASCAR and INDY popped up. It might be a stretch to call some of those personalities action sports athletes, but I definitely respect them all for what they’ve done. I just couldn’t resist one last jab at the Brett Favre saga (even though I love him dearly), Tom Brady’s still got my vote.

Post from: Adventures In Search & Social Marketing

Gossip Girl: Top Search Trends of 2008

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Typically, those of us who love to work with action sports companies or old school manufacturers in the industry get frustrated when they don’t get the value of social media or SEO. So I’m always pleasantly  surprised when I see new and cool ideas. Rossignol got it right this time, or at least came close..

How it Works:

Visit the special Rossignol search+Win site here, or sign up by clicking this banner:

The really cool part? The contest is essentially an affiliate play… I get points if you sign up and get points. They’ve smartly added “Invite a Friend” and Promote the Game banners for website use, social profiles, blogs & even included BBS code.  You can download browser toolbars to make searching for points easier.

Nit Pick: This contest is a perfect example of something Debra Mastaler would suggest as a link building effort. Too bad the banners and link code don’t really do anything for the brand’s main domains. But I’m sure they’ll get some residual link juice off the footer link.

Branding wise, it’s pretty brilliant to get the word out there for Rossi, a brand that’s had its challenges remaining relevant in the new school/freeride era. They do also own Quiksliver, Roxy however, so that makes them pretty cool, and US HQ have moved to Utah. I digress…

As for the search results, well, that’s another story. Powered by Ask+Google means it’s kind of a crapshoot depending on what you’re searching for, if you actually need a good answer.

I plugged “Deer Valley snowboarding” in to see what I’d get. It’s a trick question because DV doesn’t allow snowboarders, as Danny Sullivan just asked me yesterday, because that’s the venue for this week’s Search Insider Summit. He had found this out on the DV site, but SIS’s conference info got it it wrong too.

If you go to the results, you’ll see a mix of Sponsored Ads and presumably natural search results. The next problem I have is not with Rossi, but more the SEM industry as a whole.

Nit Pick: For the love of god PPC people – know your campaign! This is one place where KW Insertion doesn’t work!! I’ve gotten at least two ads encouraging me to snowboard at DV. Thanks, but I’d prefer not to get kicked off the mtn after dropping $80+ bones on a lift ticket. I actually would rather ski at DV anyway. In a shiny, flashy Bogner that is not held together by Duct tape.

I could nit-pick more, but I’m off to win some points. And more gear I really don’t need.

PostScript: Site really needs a leaderboard added, and a little more detail about what it takes to win some points. There’s some details though about points in the Rules, though. Should have read that before agreeing – didn’t verify email with 5 minutes, so lost those points.

Post from: Adventures In Search & Social Marketing

Search Google & Ask.com to Win Rossignol Ski & Snowboard Gear

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