Skipedia

The sad demise of the catered chalet ski holiday

by iain on Sep 25, 2023 • 8 Comments

Looking through a recent survey from Le Ski, I was struck by one stat in particular. While it was encouraging to read that the number of UK skiers and snowboarders is predicted to grow by 14% in winter 2023/24, the fact that only 13% stay in catered chalets highlighted how...

Ideas

Will ChatGPT make ‘ski experts’ redundant?

by iain on May 11, 2023 • No Comments

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is changing fast. A few years ago, it was just the name of one of Steven Spielberg’s less good movies, but in 2023 AI has moved from the world of ‘futurologists’ into the mainstream. The chances are that even if you haven’t tried ChatGPT (or Google’s ‘Bard’),...

Iain / Ideas / Tour Operators

‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines’ – article in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine

by iain on Mar 8, 2023 • 3 Comments

Iain’s article ‘Parrots in the Snow: the rise and fall of Bladon Lines‘ has now been published in ‘Ski+Board’ magazine. It’s also now available as a special episode of The Ski Podcast My first experience of working in the ski industry came 35 years ago when I went to Chatel...

Iain / Resorts

Ski Touring in Morocco: A Photo Essay

by iain on Feb 8, 2019 • No Comments

Iain from Skipedia recently went ski touring in Morocco. Flying into Marrakech, and then travelling to Imlil (1740m), Iain then spent three nights at the Refuge des Mouflons (3207m), ski touring to different 4000m peaks. Ski hire was from Braemar Mountain Sports, guiding and logistics were organised by Toubkal Guide. You...

Resorts / Tour Operators

‘I’m a modern-day Batman’ says anti-ESF campaigner

by iain on Nov 2, 2014 • No Comments

These are difficult days for the ESF in the UK. The current legal cases against Simon Butler and Le Ski have stirred up plenty of negative sentiment within the British market against the ESF. Both cases – which deal with different aspects of the law – are currently at different...

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

Uncategorized

Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies: A nightmare we can all relate to…

by iain on May 28, 2015 • No Comments

If you’ve spent some time in the Alps, you can probably see how it would happen. One minute you’re having fun at apres-ski, downing a few Jägerbombs and dancing on the table. The next you’re surrounded by flesh-eating zombies…and it’s even worse than that: they’re wearing lederhosen! ‘It’s all downhill from here!’ Filmed in the South...

Events / Marketing

‘Meet the Ski Experts’ from 1986…

by iain on May 24, 2015 • No Comments

We love this flyer from 1986 we found tucked away in at the back of a cupboard. If the chance to go skiing for ‘only £3.50’ wasn’t good enough, check out the list of the ‘ski experts’ you can meet for a chance to book your 1986/87 ski holiday. Who remembers Yugotours, Intasun, Sunmed, Horizon...

Marketing

How to minimise your unsubscribes…

by iain on May 21, 2015 • No Comments

An email we received this week (shown below) demonstrates a well-thought out approach for dealing with newsletter unsubscribes from InTheSnow Magazine. Unsubscribes are inevitable You can’t please all of the people all of the time, and some of them will end up unsubscribing from your newsletters. However, one simple follow up email – such...

Marketing

An apology: Ronseal no longer does what it says on the tin

by iain on May 8, 2015 • No Comments

If you’ve not yet seen this shocking admission from Ronseal then check out the video below right now. This cheeky apology (similar in tone to Bodyform’s own mea culpa in 2012) explains why their famous ‘It does what it says on the tin’ strapline has now been changed – to pacify pedants on social media....

Marketing / Social Media

How Adidas & Alistair Brownlee made ‘25% off’ look like a bad deal…

by iain on Apr 23, 2015 • No Comments

We all love a deal, but there’s few things worse than a ‘special deal’ that isn’t a deal at all. When I saw this Tweet from Olympic-winning triathlete Alistair Brownlee, I was excited – ‘Hey, I’m a friend of Alistair Brownlee and that’s earned me 25% off Adidas gear’. It’s great marketing by delivering a real...

Resorts

Zermatt article in ‘The Skier & Snowboarder’ magazine

by iain on Apr 15, 2015 • No Comments

Skipedia doesn’t just create online content. This is an article for ‘The Skier & Snowboarder Magazine’ that Iain wrote after a visit to Zermatt earlier this season. Take this link to read more print articles by Iain Martin. Iain enjoyed a visit to Zermatlantis – the historically-themed underground museum in Zermatt. Just click on the...

Newer Older