Skipedia is a blog full of fresh ideas about social media and snowsports.

We specialise in online marketing and social media consultancy for the travel industry.

'Ski Holiday' searches by UK market increase for first time in four years
Tour Operators

‘Ski Holiday’ searches by UK market increase for first time in four years

by iain on May 18, 2012 • No Comments
Anecdotal evidence from UK ski tour operators is that this season has at last seen a halt in the decline in ski holidays sold. According to Crystal Holidays, the size of the UK market decreased by 25% from 1.2m holiday makers in 2007/08 to 0.9m in 2010/11. The Ski Club...
STA Travel success with 'Win a Job in Australia' Facebook campaign
Social Media

STA Travel success with ‘Win a Job in Australia’ Facebook campaign

by iain on May 9, 2012 • No Comments
At Skipedia we are always looking out for great practice on Facebook. STA Facebook app is one of the best This great competition app currently running on the STA Travel Facebook page is one of the best we’ve seen.   Developed in partnership with Tourism Australia, the campaign has been designed...
Facebook Cover Photo Guidelines for Pages: do they matter?
Resorts / Social Media

Facebook Cover Photo Guidelines for Pages: do they matter?

by iain on May 4, 2012 • No Comments
Last week we highlighted some companies  breaking the official Facebook Cover Photo guidelines for Pages. With Facebook Timeline for Pages still only a few weeks old, it increasingly seems that their guidelines are unenforceable. We noticed two more dubious Cover Photos this week, from the ski areas of Sun Peaks...
Three examples of ski companies breaking Facebook's Timeline Cover Photo guidelines
Social Media / Tour Operators

Three examples of ski companies breaking Facebook’s Timeline Cover Photo guidelines

by iain on Apr 27, 2012 • 2 Comments
Less than a month ago that Timeline became the standard format for brand pages on Facebook. When the new style was announced, we pointed out the key Timeline features. Last month we looked at a early adopters who had already converted to Timeline. We also looked at the UK’s largest...
Nude skier helps Portes du Soleil win Facebook fans
Resorts / Social Media

Nude skier helps Portes du Soleil win Facebook fans

by iain on Apr 19, 2012 • No Comments
Nude skiing isn’t something you see very often, so we at Skipedia liked this innovative campaign by the (Swiss) Portes du Soleil. The campaign was run via YouTube and a dedicated site - http://ski-nu.ch/. Once the video finished, users were invited to ‘participate’, taking them to the Portes du Soleil Facebook...
Neilson Easter Egg campaign
Marketing / Tour Operators

Neilson Easter Egg campaign

by iain on Apr 10, 2012 • No Comments
Going through our emails on the weekend , we came across a great piece of marketing from Neilson. The email outlined a special Easter Egg hunt competition – find the five Easter Eggs hidden on their website and win a £100 off voucher, plus 20 runners up prizes of Easter...
Twelve UK Ski Companies Already Using Facebook Timeline
Social Media / Tour Operators

Twelve UK Ski Companies Already Using Facebook Timeline

by iain on Mar 26, 2012 • 2 Comments
With the Facebook Timeline deadline for brand Pages coming up on 30 March 2012, we’ve taken a look at how twelve of the UK’s leading ski tour operators are using Timeline so far. The companies are not necessarily the twelve largest. Indeed the UK’s largest ski company - Crystal Ski - has still to...
Old Spice and Dollar Shave Club up the ante for viral video
Advertising / Social Media

Old Spice and Dollar Shave Club up the ante for viral video

by iain on Mar 20, 2012 • No Comments
It all started with Old Spice.  They saw their sales double thanks to their infamous and innovative YouTube campaign in 2010. Surely you must have seen it?  Still, it’s always worth watching again… This campaign included creating individually tailored video answers to comments made online… Despite its incredible success, Old...
Five Things You Need To Know About Timeline For Facebook Pages
Social Media

Five Things You Need To Know About Timeline For Facebook Pages

by iain on Mar 1, 2012 • No Comments
Okay, by now you know that yesterday Timeline for Facebook Pages went live.  Currently it’s optional to ‘upgrade’, but all Pages will automatically be converted on 30 March 2012.  So what do you need to know? Summary for the time-poor, cash-rich The Cover Image arrives Landing Pages are gone There...
The Rise of the Tablet
Mobile

The Rise of the Tablet

by iain on Feb 20, 2012 • No Comments
We came across these two very interesting infographics this week, showing the phenonomal growth of tablet use across the world. Globally 67 million tablets were sold worldwide in 2011, up from 18.6 million a year.   Sales of tablets will overtake sales of traditional desktops and laptops during this decade....
Bawbags are big and getting bigger...
Branding

Bawbags are big and getting bigger…

by iain on Feb 13, 2012 • No Comments
While at Slide yesterday, we took the opportunity to speak to Midge Whyte, founder of Bawbags – a brand that is getting bigger and bigger. Whyte was looking for a new idea after previous clothing ventures and was thinking about a range of ‘Bawbags’ tshirts.  But it was noticing a...
How to turn a bubble lift into art...
Resorts

How to turn a bubble lift into art…

by iain on Jan 31, 2012 • No Comments
Courchevel 1850 has always been a stylish resort and in recent years works of art have been popping up around the mountain. Last year it was replicas of famous sculptures positioned around resort.  This year they have turned the Verdons bubble lift into a moving art gallery, with contemporary artists...
New Facebook Insights: Why there are more ‘People Talking About’ you than Lady Gaga…
Social Media

New Facebook Insights: Why there are more ‘People Talking About’ you than Lady Gaga…

by iain on Jan 14, 2012 • No Comments
Should you worry about the ‘People Talking About This’ metric? As a page owner, should you worry about the ‘People Talking About This’ metric recorded in your Facebook Insights and publicly on your Facebook page? Our answer is yes and no.  But the good news is that you shouldn’t worry...
What is France doing wrong and Austria doing right?
Resorts / Tour Operators

What is France doing wrong and Austria doing right?

by iain on Dec 9, 2011 • 3 Comments
The annual ski industry reports from Crystal Holidays and the Ski Club of Great Britain may be based more on educated guesswork than actual data, but that does not mean they are not useful. Any information that helps us to understand our industry better is valuable, and if the reports...
Ideas for using QR codes in the ski industry
Mobile

Ideas for using QR codes in the ski industry

by iain on Nov 23, 2011 • No Comments
eBay launch shop with QR codes only We at Skipedia were interested to read that eBay will be opening a pop-up shop in Soho this Christmas. The shop will stock 200 lines of products, but have no tills.  The only way to buy the products will be through the eBay mobile app. Cash and...
Small is beautiful: Why Obermutten has more Facebook fans than Zermatt and Verbier...
Resorts / Social Media

Small is beautiful: Why Obermutten has more Facebook fans than Zermatt and Verbier…

by iain on Nov 17, 2011 • No Comments
The tiny Swiss village of  Obermutten has shown just how simple social media is… The hamlet of 79 residents promised that when anyone likes their Facebook page they would print off their profile and pin it up in the village. The pictures quickly filled up the town’s main noticeboard, and now...
Using Twitter hashtags in advertising...
Advertising / Events / Social Media

Using Twitter hashtags in advertising…

by iain on Oct 17, 2011 • No Comments
‘Your season starts here’ With just two days to the Metrosnow.co.uk London Ski and Snowboard Show, I found myself admiring this ad over the weekend. That strapline ‘Your season starts here’ gets it in one.  The season really does start with the London Show. But what about Twitter? I would have liked...
Why do chalet girls bake a cake every day?
Tour Operators

Why do chalet girls bake a cake every day?

by iain on Aug 13, 2011 • 2 Comments
Okay, not strictly anything to do with marketing, but just for fun… So why do chalet girls bake a cake every day? As far as I know chalets have always left out a cake for their guests to tuck into for ‘afternoon tea’. After a long day on the slopes,...
Latest entries
Utah Tourism launch unique ad campaign on San Francisco subway
Marketing / Resorts

Utah Tourism launch unique ad campaign on San Francisco subway

by iain on May 11, 2012 • No Comments
Visitors to San Francisco’s Montgomery Street Station have recently been treated to a unique viewing of one of Utah’s scenic icons, Delicate Arch. It’s all part of the Utah Office of Tourism‘s USD2.2m ‘Utah Life Elevated‘ advertising campaign. Utah Tourism’s advertising agency, Salt Lake City-based Struck, unveiled a one-of-a-kind outdoor advertising effort that focuses on...
Sunshine Village celebrate their Facebook fans in their Cover Photo
Resorts / Social Media

Sunshine Village celebrate their Facebook fans in their Cover Photo

by iain on May 10, 2012 • 2 Comments
It wasn’t so long ago that Sunshine Village were the villains. After their epic social media fail in January 2011, there was a large amount of negativity attached to the brand. That certainly hasn’t all gone.  The Support Ski Patrol wronged by Sunshine Village Facebook page is still active and has almost 8000 fans. However,...
Mattel send Barbie bald after Facebook campaign
Social Media

Mattel send Barbie bald after Facebook campaign

by iain on May 9, 2012 • No Comments
In our current social media led world, brands need to be continually monitoring what is being said about them online. Toy manufacturer, Mattel, recently did wonders for their own brand loyalty by responding to a parent-inspired Facebook page called ‘Beautiful and Bald Barbie!  Let’s see if we can get this made‘ for children who have...
Axe 'feed the bra tree' at Mount Norquay
Marketing

Axe ‘feed the bra tree’ at Mount Norquay

by iain on Apr 27, 2012 • No Comments
‘Please Feed The Bra Tree’ That’s an attention grabbing line, isn’t it?  The bra tree in question sat beside a chair lift in Mount Norquay this winter and was part of a campaign by ‘Axe’ deodorants (more well known as the Lynx brand in the UK). The campaign also included cheeky chairlift safety bars and...
Dominos use Twitter hashtag to boost sales
Social Media

Dominos use Twitter hashtag to boost sales

by iain on Apr 21, 2012 • No Comments
Using hashtags on Twitter for promotions is still a new area that we have written about before.  So this recent Tweet Treat campaign by Domino’s Pizza impressed us. On offer was a great reason for followers to take part: cheaper pizza! The promotion, which ran from 0900 to 1100 on 5th March 2012, reduced the...
Thyon use an Eskimo in an igloo to create social media buzz
Resorts / Social Media

Thyon use an Eskimo in an igloo to create social media buzz

by iain on Apr 20, 2012 • No Comments
Another campaign Skipedia liked from last season was from Thyon in Switzerland’s Quatre Vallees. Possibly inspired by Whistler’s Embedded campaign, Thyon took a more light-hearted approach to employ their own esquimau to live for 14 days in his own igloo on the mountain. The candidate was chosen by interview from a shortlist of 40 candidates....

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The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer. Please feel free to support or disagree with me in the comments section of each blog entry.

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