Robert Payne

In order to truly understand a brand it helps to experience it firsthand.

When we at Twelve Horses are not busy geeking out on the web, many of us here are charging hard somewhere in the outdoors. Whether it is around Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada range that rise above our Reno office, or the Wasatch Mountains that tower above our Salt Lake City location, a common means of experiencing these environs is on a pair of skis or a snowboard. Come visit us and you’ll find that the last powder day is a common conversation around the water cooler. Even as I type this blog post apres ski session, I am looking out across big, beautiful, snow-laced Lake Tahoe and looking forward to the next time.

This company culture is undoubtedly a major contributing factor as to why we service so many destination and sports marketing clients. Passion for these pursuits permeate our client work and online marketing endeavors such as brand building, web design and development, email and multi-channel marketing, social marketing, and search engine optimization. It works well because we are marketers and technologists that are a part of the target snow sport audience. 

When I came across this blog post titled, Seasonal SEO and Online Marketing for Ski Resorts, I couldn’t resist beating our own drum. Not only is it an informative and well-written post on online marketing for ski resorts, but it also touches upon one of our clients that we have serviced for more than 12 years – Heavenly Mountain Resort. It is a great compliment, but it also gives you a window into what we have been doing for them. Here is an excerpt.

Heavenly Resort in Lake Tahoe is perhaps the best example of a ski resort with an effective online marketing strategy. They are relatively well optimised for search and have good visibility in the search results. They have developed a MySpace profile and their website offers a range of initiatives including videos, daily podcasts and RSS feeds for their interactive blog, mountain condition updates and their own TV show.

Our work for Heavenly has also garnered several awards including a Web Award, ADDY, and California Travel & Tourism Award, and this success stems from a well-designed website that relies on the right online tools to reach and resonate with a global customer base. But I also believes that it comes from a deep and personal understanding of their brand.

See you on the hill!

tags: destination snow ski resort online marketing branding web design search engine optimization