The Powder Highway Ultimate Ski Bum

A social media campaign

Profile:

In a bid to find the Ultimate Ski Bum, Kootenay Rockies Tourism put up the Ultimate prize…3 months of living and skiing for free in the Rockies. Hosted on Facebook, the contest asked Ski Bums from across North America to post their boast on why they thought they deserved such a prize.

Over 4 weeks 4,700 people joined the Powder Highway Facebook page, posting pictures comments and stories about their adventures. When the voting subsided, 10 Finalists were declared, and then the contest went supernova. The Finalists created 90 second videos to support their bid. From a parody of Dos Equis Most Interesting Man In the World campaign, to a Finalist tattooing the phrase Ski Bum on his ass, the competition was fierce. Even more fierce were the 4,700 fans vying for their Favorite Finalist. The campaign saw over 11,000 “Stories Talking About This” shared to an audience of 2.1 Million.

During the 2 weeks of judging deliberations, the Fans went nuts, posting daily and commenting on each others posts. When Kate Ediger was announced as the winner, the announcement itself received 30 comments. At the end of the campaign, nearly 5,000 passionate Skiers and Snowboarders were posting their original content to the Powder Highway page which is now arguably the authority on winter activities in the region.

As the Digital Producer of this campaign, it was integral that all the various channels worked together to focus passionate skiers and snowboarders to the Facebook Page. YouTube, Twitter, and the clients website were all leveraged to push traffic to the Facebook page. A custom designed Tab, CMS, and Contest application were developed and supported by Facebook Ads. This campaign showcases the power of Social Media when focused on developing passionate communities.

Promo Video (YouTube):

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