Media Day at Big Bear Mountain Resorts!

On Saturday, January 28th, Bev, Kerri, and I made the short drive up to the beautiful town of Big Bear Lake for a scheduled Media Day at Big Bear Mountain Resorts. An early morning called for coffee and scones, along with cozy clothes and mittens. The drive was a breeze; clear roads, no chains, amazing sunrise. Upon arriving at Bear Mountain, our first destination, we had a warm welcome from the park staff and waded through the happy faces in the parking lot to arrive at guest services.

Once equipped with our rentals (skis for Kerri; snowboard for me), Director of Marketing, Rio Tanbara and Dan Neilson from Park Staff took us on a full tour of what Bear Mountain has to offer. Going straight to the front of the lift line was only one of the perks of hanging out with these guys. They showed us how Bear Mountain upholds it’s alias, “The People’s Park,” with the Red Bull Plaza, Skill Builder Park, and the Scene. The sky was blue and the snow conditions were beyond excellent. Each run added to the sundae of fun with Geronimo (Bear Mountain’s highest, steepest, and most-challenging run), being the cherry on top!

We worked up a full appetite and were treated to delicious hamburgers atop a sundeck at the Scene with a prime view of the terrain park. We were joined by media people from the surrounding areas, including Ruben Galvan from San Diego 6 and Jeff Barnes of the Mission Times Courier. One juicy hamburger and a plate of cajun fries later, it was time to catch a shuttle to Snow Summit for the next leg of the tour.

Aboard the shuttle, Bev and I were lucky to meet Channel 933‘s on-air personality and Music Director, Frankie V, who shared his fun and wacky experience on the hill, which he documented on YouTube.

Once at Snow Summit, we had an equally awesome experience, complete with mountain tour and happy hour. Our tour guides were Guest Communications Specialist, Suzie Jacques and Snow Summit Mountain Manager, Wade Reeser. While we covered most of the mountain, The Family Fun Park proved to be a popular spot for riders of any skill level, and the Terrain features were, without a doubt, far above par.

As three o’clock rolled around, we made a b-line to the Summit Inn, the original base-area lodge, for hors d’oeuvres and happy hour. We met tons of great people, including Matt Johnson and Erica Fox from Fox 5 San Diego, along with Heidi Hayes and Ted Pretty from Fox 5 Las Vegas. Kerri and I loved the vintage feel of the Inn, especially the retired double-seater chair lift hanging from the ceiling and the wooden skis strewn about with bindings that resembled bear traps. There was also a live band with feel-good music to accompany the friendly atmosphere.

It is safe to say that this Media Day was a huge success. It is crucial to have representatives from the media come out to encounter Big Bear Mountain Resorts in the flesh and be exposed to the wealth of fun that goes on up there, in such close proximity. Bear Mountain and Snow Summit are prime ski and snowboard destinations that should be talked about! We rely on the good time we show our Media Day attendees to create buzz in the media about the mountain. As an ode to the resort’s confidence, it’s not hard to create positive feedback when Big Bear Mountain Resorts offers such an exceptional experience.

Get Customers “Pinterested” in your Brand

In the evolving world of social media, we see new and hyped social media platforms popping up each day. Some stick while others can barely make it off the ground. But the ones that do stick are spread far and wide until curiosity takes over and makes it a national phenomenon. Case in point: Pinterest. It’s hard to go a day without seeing Facebook status updates saying, “Pinterest is so addicting” or “Check out my latest pin.”

It’s safe to say that consumers have become obsessed with Pinterest, the site that allows users to create digital “pin boards,” which saves images and links of things they find interesting, inspiring or temping on the internet. These boards are then shared with friends whose followers also have the ability to re-pin posts to their own boards. Pinterest became one of the top 10 social networks in December 2011 with 11 million total visits per week. Largely attracting female users, popular topics include wedding ideas, decorating, gardening, cooking, fashion and lifestyle.

There are several ways for brands to get involved with Pinterest:

·       Create “Pinteresting” content by using vivid photography and developing unique ideas

·       Add a “Pin it!” button to your site, allowing users to easily post your content to their boards

·       Create an account and board topics that match your brand

·       Post your own content in addition to anything your followers might find inspiring or useful

Remember that Pinterest, just like any other social media network, is about building a community. Your followers don’t want a direct sales pitch. They want to learn and discover new things. For some companies, Pinterest can be the missing link in their social media plans that can really push their brands to the top. Think Pinterest makes sense for your brand? Email Oster and Associates and we’d be happy to assess your social media plan.

PIPA / SOPA: Potentially Dangerous Legislation

I woke up this morning to Nirvana’s song, "Smells like Teen Spirit." I felt inspired to research information about the song on the internet. I opened my laptop and navigated to Wikipedia. I typed the word “Nirvana” into the search bar. As soon as I hit the enter key, the page content turned black and I was left with nothing but a brief, yet stern message prompting me to write my congressman about stopping legislation that could potentially destroy the internet as we know it.

If you haven’t seen the many website blackouts or protests occurring over the past few days, you may be wondering what legislation is threatening to censor the internet. There are two bills at the cause of all this commotion, SOPA and PIPA.

What These Bills Are:

PIPA is the first of the two anti-piracy bills. Its acronym stands for the Protect IP Act. This bill was introduced to the Senate in May of 2011. If PIPA is passed, it will give U.S. corporations, mainly the entertainment, gaming, and software industries and the Federal Government the right to seek legal action with any website they feel is enabling copyright infringement. If this bill is passed, it will:

• Force U.S. internet providers to block access to websites deemed as enablers of copyright infringement
• Seek legal action by suing search engines, blog sites, directories, or any site in general to have the black listed sites removed from their website
• Will be able to force advertising agencies to remove websites from advertising accounts
• Companies will also have the power to sue any new websites that get started after these bills are passed, if they believe that they are not doing a good job of preventing infringement

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act and is a bill that was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives in October of 2011. If SOPA is passed, it will work in conjunction with PIPA. Here are some highlights:

· The U.S. Attorney General will be able to force search engines, advertisers, DNS providers, servers, and payment processors from having any contact with alleged infringing websites

·SOPA will allow private corporations to create their own personal hit lists composed of websites they feel are breaking their copyright policies. These companies will be able to cut off all payments to the targeted website. The website of question will have five days to act before it is permanently taken down

How This Affects Internet Users:

Blogs can be blocked or shut down completely and the internet will become a witch-hunt for any possible copyright violation. These acts make it the blog owner’s responsibility for everything displayed on their site, including comments of visitors.

These acts are already stopping developers and start-up companies from innovating due to the bills causing a riskier legal climate. If these acts were around when the internet was first created, many websites we use today like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or SoundCloud would not exist. Basically any website that could be targeted as a place where online piracy might take place would not exist.

It is well known that the government has been under a lot of pressure to resolve the issues wrapped up in online piracy, and piracy has been a growing problem over the past ten years. But, this legislation has a high margin of error, mainly because it has been rushed. Google and Mozilla, two former supporters of the bill, have removed their sponsorship and are working hard to make sure the acts do not get passed.

One noted flaw involves lessened overall security for internet users. Also, it would cost the country $47 billion a year to uphold these bills, and sadly, they will not succeed in stopping piracy. That’s right. Instead of taking down piracy, the acts will take away freedom of speech, and forms of individualism. The illegal downloading of pirated content will still thrive. Posting a video of yourself singing a copyrighted song will get you sued, but illegally downloading that song by entering a websites IP address in lieu of its name, will still go unpunished.

These bills have sent a shock-wave through the nation. The best we can all do is stay informed. Check out this video describing some of the possible consequences of passing these bills. On that page, there is also information on how to vote against the acts.

Do you think these bills will censor internet users and stunt online innovation? Share your comments and feedback below.

Shazam! Super Bowl Advertising

If you own a Smartphone, you are probably familiar with the app “Shazam.” For those of you who aren’t, Shazam is a mobile based music identification service. This service utilizes a mobile phone’s built-in microphone to gather a music sample. From that brief sample, song titles, artist, and lyric information is displayed for the user.

The standard money maker for apps is mobile ads. The London based Shazam group has decided to venture beyond that facet of advertising and is prepared to enter the realm of “big money,” namely the television market.

The Super Bowl is an event known as much for its ground breaking advertising as it is for the game itself. Last year, Shazam was featured in one Super Bowl ad for Dockers. After that addition lead to positive consumer-to-brand interaction, this year up to one third of Super Bowl ad spots will use Shazam. These brands will amplify their ads with unique mobile content and valuable offers delivered to audiences in real-time.

Keep an eye out for Budweiser, Sony Pictures, and Pillsbury commercials. There will also be surprise brands using Shazam, mainly automotive and clothing companies. Campaigns that have a social call to action (Liking on Facebook, Following on Twitter etc.) have a 350 percent increase in consumer-to-brand interaction. That means that in the not so distant future, Shazam will definitely be more prevalent in the advertising community.

Would you use Shazam during the Super Bowl to interact with brands you love? Share your comments and feedback below.

“Sponsored Ads” Coming to a Facebook Newsfeed Near You

In the last ten years advancements in internet technology and social tools changed the way the world communicates. Social networking sites connect advertisers to large groups of like-minded people. Advertising on Facebook and the controversy surrounding personal privacy is not new. All users have been exposed to the “tailored” ads that conveniently appear on the right hand side of the home page.

Facebook’s 800 million active users are about to get a new dose of targeted advertising. Starting in 2012, Facebook will insert “Sponsored Story” ads in user newsfeeds in an attempt to boost interaction with marketers. The ads will appear in the newsfeed just as other posts do, with the exception of being labeled “sponsored” in the bottom right-hand corner.

These ads are created around a user “liking” a brand’s fan page, “checking in” to a venue, or using an app, among other types of status updates. This is Facebook’s attempt to turn you and your friends’ activities into advertisements. For those of you in theTwitterverse, Sponsored Stories will be similar to Promoted Tweets on Twitter which run in the stream of updates or stories a user sees, and has the same look and feel as other posts.

I know what you’re thinking. “My newsfeed is going to get bombarded with an onslaught of advertisements!” All you Facebookers can relax. You will see no more than one Sponsored Story in your feed per day. Facebook plans to incorporate these ads gradually so they don’t infuriate users.

What is your opinion about ads in your Facebook newsfeed? Do you think users will view this change negatively? Leave your comments and feedback below.

Twitter’s Brand New Brand Page

Today, Twitter is set to unveil redesigned brand pages. These pages are geared toward strengthening Twitter’s relationship with the advertising community. Twitter has a version of brand pages at the moment, but they have been overshadowed by the overly-hyped Google+ brand pages which went live last month. Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain states that "marketing officers across the country constantly request the addition of user-friendly brand pages." Those marketers are finally getting what they asked for.

With the current format, branded elements of the page design are usually covered by the tweet-timeline. With the redesign, there are customizable pages with large header images where advertisers can display their logos and taglines. Brands also have the option of keeping their most salient tweets at the top of the timeline. That top tweet can also auto-expand and reveal an embedded photo or video from Flikr or Youtube. Customer-service oriented brands such as JetBlue want a way to respond to multiple tweets without having their message diluted. This is achievable with the new layout because Twitter will separate out a brand’s @ replies and mentions.

Tweets are limited to 140 characters. It’s no surprise that a Twitter user is unable to learn the nuances of a company with that small of an interaction. Brand pages can be considered an extension of knowledge. If a particular tweet speaks to a user, they can satisfy their curiosity by clicking on the company’s brand page, and indulging themselves with more detailed information.

So far, 21 marketers are set to launch brand pages. Some examples are: American Express, Best Buy, Chevrolet, General Electric, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon, and Nike. These companies already actively distribute content on Twitter. Their goal with brand pages is to look for a way to make that content stand out better.

The launch of brand pages is a large step forward for Twitter. This venture could be viewed as an attempt to compete with Facebook as the secondary branding destination for a company, after its own website.

Do you think that Twitter’s new brand page has potential for widespread success? If the brand page was avail bile to all Twitter users, would you create one? Share your comments below.

Google Introduces Music Component

Google strives to be much more than a standard search engine, and has achieved that on many levels by evolving and staying on top of trends. When they released Google+ this past July, the people at Google were hoping it would be a social media giant that would rival the likes of Facebook. However, it has failed to take off as hoped and many (including us) got bored with it after the initial hype. Google is hoping to make waves again by reaching into the music market and providing its users with an alternative to iTunes.

Google Music will be integrated into Android phones, which is the world’s number one operating smartphone system and powers roughly 200 million devices worldwide. Google Music already has over 13 million songs in their system that will be available through various internet-connected devices.

Google Music is hoping to distinguish itself from other music sites by utilizing Google+ and allowing users to share purchased music with friends. This doesn’t mean users can buy a song and friends can steal it to load on music devices. It basically means that Google+ users will get “free, full play” of songs purchased by friends. You can also access your music on any of your devices at anytime. You never have to worry about synching or being online.

I think it’s great that they’re adding the music component and working with Android phones. This will be the greatest competitive advantage over iTunes in my opinion. However, I’m not sure how Google Music will ultimately be able to compete with iTunes and other social music sites on non-mobile platforms. A differentiator they’re touting is the ability to share on Google+. Google+ seems to be having a tough time breaking into the every day social media world. If I wanted to hear a song in its entirety, I can go to YouTube, Pandora, Turntable, Spotify or Blip.

What are your thoughts on Google Music and how do you think they can make their mark in the online musical world? Leave your thoughts below!