Business Insights from Summit County COO Breakfast

The launch for the Summit County 2014/2015 winter season for businesses was the COO Breakfast hosted by the Summit Chamber of Commerce in early October.  If you weren’t able to attend, here is a summary of the key insights.

With over 425 eager listeners in attendance, the morning presentations included an economic review of last winter and this summer seasons, videos and talks from the leaders of each of the area ski/snowboard resorts to talk about what’s new and exciting for this season, and a lively Q&A session.  A few stats:

• The US ski/snowboard industry averages 57 million skier visits per year nationally
• The baby boomers are aging out of the sport, and need to be filled with younger enthusiasts
• Summit County enjoyed 4.14 million skier visits last season (not including Loveland Ski Resort or Frisco's ski hill)
• 2014 Summit County summer visits were up 11% over 2013, July was up 7% and August up 16%
• Last winter's visits were up 17% in November, 21% in December, 10% in January and 15% in February

Copper Mountain’s Gary Rodgers highlighted continuation of the 12’s High Alpine Project, their Sherpa App, Woodward, Safety Programs and their Sustainability program.  Impressively their 18 new water bottle filling stations saved 176,000 plastic bottles last year – how is that for awesome?

Pat Campbell from Breckenridge glowed about their Peak 6 expansion from last season, this season’s new 6 pack high speed Colorado Chair replacement that increases capacity from 2,800 to 3,600 per hour, the remodeled Peak 9 restaurant renamed Overlook Restaurant, their snow drifter mobile dining for Peak 6, running water piped to the Peak 6 hut, and Vail’s rebranded sustainability program Epic Promise (formerly Echo). 

Keystone’s John Buhler reminded listeners of their family resort emphasis including Riperoo, tornado alley, Kidtopia snowfort, tubing hill, ice skating, weekly Saturday night fireworks, and kids ski free program.  New this season is a village revitalization, 20% increased lift capacity in the Outback, and opening up the Outback summit area including a new viewing platform, which is truly one of the prettiest views in any of the resorts.

Alan Henceroth from Arapahoe Basin’s longest season of 241 days highlighted their successful opening of the xx bar last season and this season’s $2.3 million, 7,000 sq. ft. kids’ 14 and under ski school lodge which will open around Spring break this season.  They also did a fantastic job focusing on sustainability, diverting 1/3 of their waste away from the landfill.  The Black Mountain Lodge events and dinners continue this season and the 430 acre Beaver expansion is on track. 

Finally, Rob Goodell shared Loveland Ski Resort’s 474” of snow last season, which was the 5^th most snowfall in North America and the most in Colorado.  They have made upgrades to their warming huts, enhanced their pass partner program to include Crested Butte and Durango, expanded their Snow Ranger program with the National Forest Service, and renovated their base area restaurant. 

iResort App Events Feed for YOUR Company Website

Being part of the Summit County community as a local business owner, you are aware the impact events have on business, bringing tourists and revenue to the area.  We are fortunate to have high quality venues and events like the US Pro Cycling Tour in the summer, January’s Dew Tour, Breck’s Snow Sculpture Championship, ski and snowboard competitions in the winter, and beer fests all year round.

In addition to our great outdoor recreation, events are key to increasing tourism, stimulating the local economy, and getting the right people into your shops, restaurants, hotels, and website.  Until recently, visitors, locals and business owners had to go to over 20 different websites to find events happening each month in Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper, Frisco, Silverthorne, Dillon and the rest of Summit.  iResort App set about making finding events easy for everyone – events happening today, this week or next month – and making it easy for businesses and websites in the county to promote events to their website visitors and target audiences.

Our easily embeddable Summit County RSS events feed solves this challenge and is easily added to your website, provides updates in real time, and provides a date sorted list of all of the events in the area, up to months in advance with click-through links to more information on each event, an event logo and location and category sort.  For example, if your website visitor wants family-friendly events in Frisco in December, users can search for that.  Or you want to go dancing in October anywhere in Summit, you can search for that.  

Benefits of this dynamic events feed for your business website not only gives your subscribers and visitors the info on upcoming events, but also allows you to implement a tactic that can make a big impression on your organic search engine optimization (SEO). The events feed provides key word enriched content and link building to increase traffic to your website, ultimately increasing awareness of your business and helping push your website up in search engine results.

Connect with us now to learn how you can get this events feed on your website, and we can help you choose the best spot to position the feed on your site - info@iresortapp.com.  Let us do the work of compiling Events information for you, and take that tedious task off your staff’s To Do list. 

PLUS – are hosting a special event?  Let us know and we can work with you on getting your event in front of over 16,000 people that we reach each month.  Be sure your organization includes iResortApp on your PR list so your events are up front and center.

3 Glimpses of Marketing Genius Gleaned from Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show Success

Since taking over the helm of The Tonight Show from Jay Leno February 17, 2014, Jimmy Fallon has taken late night by storm. By all indications he’s doing a fantastic job entertaining his audience, securing great guests, kickin’ it with a strong monologue and comedy bits, and most importantly for network NBC, growing viewership. Former Saturday Night Live cast member, Jimmy provides a fresh approach to late night TV. Turning 40 in September, the comedian pulls in the younger audience highly prized by advertisers. 

Drawing in more young viewers, in particular the coming of age "millenials" was a key objective for refreshing the show and bringing in classy, lighthearted entertainer Fallon. The late 20’s to early 40’s viewers are stepping into more influential career roles and are a critically important consumer demographic as they purchase homes, have babies and raise families, take vacations and drive consumer demand.

What insight can we marketers glean from Jimmy’s success on The Tonight Show? 

Twitter is an Immediate Satisfaction Tool               OUT = print  IN = tweets

With over 12,000 followers, Jimmy’s hashtag game tweets out questions that become worldwide trending topics as fast as a wind-fueled wildfire. The responses are hilarious, and of course they choose the best responses for Jimmy to deliver on the show. I love that he reads the name of the tweeter and shows the response as he reads it, so it feels like you are reading the tweet yourself. The best part for NBC – users write their comedy for them. Proves once again that truth is stranger than fiction – you just can’t make this stuff up. As of this writing, the tweet is:

jimmyfallon @jimmyfallon · Jun 4

Let's play the hashtag game! Tweet out the weirdest or worst summer job you ever had and tag with #WorstSummerJob. Could be on our show!

I watched the painful pause from Jay Leno as he delivered the last comedy bit of news clippings, and the staff from behind the camera said they wouldn’t be needing any new clippings sent in by viewers.  The hashtag game reinforces the end of the printed era. "Millenials' use technology to find what they’re looking for, not printed anything. Social media and in particular Twitter done right is topical, conversational, and timely. 

Get Real                                   OUT = structure  IN = flow

Jimmy’s personality resonates throughout The Tonight Show. From the moment he skips onto the stage with a coy smile and clapping along with the audience, he’s ready to have a good time. I smile just thinking about it.  His genuine comfort in his own skin and amusement with the world gets his audience ready to go on a journey of irreverence and entertainment that is most certainly harder than he makes it look. What makes Jimmy Fallon great at this job is what made Johnny Carson great – both are REAL.  Their ease and amusement with the world comes through, not as “hosts” per se but as guides to artfully craft an experience with guests as if you were invited to a house party with them. You get the feeling the celebs really want to be there and hang out – not appear as stiffly scripted guests. 

Jonah Hill apologizing for rude language to paparazzi on The Tonight Show was an amazing thing to watch: http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/segments/6866. As many on social media commented after that apology – he did it right, appeared sincere and expressed genuine emotion, unlike others in the public light who are defensive, edgy, angry and more concerned with getting caught. I can’t imagine this scenario playing out a decade ago or on another show. It was above all real, or at least appeared so, and real is something "millenials" expect from public officials, celebrities and brands.  They can smell fake a mile away and will simply turn away from insincerity to another choice without skipping a beat.  Spin and hyperbole really doesn’t work with this generation.

Experiences Rule                 OUT = formal  IN = experiential

Apparently Billy Joel hasn’t appeared on a talk show for some dozen years. But he decides to come visit with Jimmy. I see the teaser and have an expectation of the typical approach - Billy sits in the guest chair, chats a little, heads over to the stage to sing one of his famous songs. I like Billy Joel so I am looking forward to this. But what happens is WELL beyond my expectation and its genius. Jimmy pulls out an iPad with a formerly little-known app called Loopy HD (for $7.99) downloaded and hooked up to a couple microphones and asks Billy if he can sing with him because – well, he wants to.  They take turns recording the doo wop background for The Lion Sings Tonight and they launch into the most joyous 4 minutes you’ll ever witness – check out that smile on Jimmy’s face when Billy Joel starts really getting into it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-eAzNp5Hw&feature=kp. This isn’t about hosting a guest, this is about creating an experience and having fun.  By the way, app developer Michael Tyson as reported by Todd Spangler had no idea Fallon was using the app on the show, but has done well with downloads since the show aired: http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/jimmy-fallon-billy-joel-duet-app-1201141742/

Jimmy’s buddy Justin Timberlake comes on the show all the time and they dance and sing and goof around. It’s raw and joyful and fun. Jimmy is able to get guests visit with him that shun personal appearances because his show is a kick to do. He has a standing approach to playing games with his guests – Pictionary is a favorite – and it feels like you’re just hanging out with friends. The guests are relaxed, the approach is fun and inclusive to the audience and you really feel like you get to know them as people. Sure, the guests are there to pitch their movie or album or whatever but the experience and the inclusiveness of playing together is fantastic to watch. Marketing a movie this way is so much more appealing than a talking head. You want to go see the movie to see how this person handles the role, rather than even the story itself. Including the audience in an experience is a highly appealing way to be marketed to and meets the implicit “deal” between the marketer and the consumer of the product – the trade-off of an experience for their investment of time, money and focus. 

We are in a fast paced time of transition in the marketing world.  It’s great to watch the success of a truly new approach to an iconic show like The Tonight Show.  Leveraging Twitter, Getting Real, and Creating Experiences for customers are just three of the new marketing rules to be embraced as we move into a new era.