The Best in the West Ski and Snowboard Tour is an 8-week multi-media campaign featuring Matt Gibson and Emilie Warden skiing at top resorts in Colorado, California, Wyoming, and Utah. Through social media, blogging, and a contest, it will promote sponsors to over 1.4 million engaged skiers and snowboarders. There are two sponsorship levels - Black Diamond sponsors the main contest prize, while Blue Square sponsors smaller contest prizes. Sponsorships provide brand exposure through the tour and contest.

1. the WestS K I A N D S N O W B O A R D T O U R
The BestIN
P R O P O S A L

2. The Best in the West
Ski and Snowboard Tour
The Best in the West Ski and Snowboard Tour is a
multi-level media campaign that will follow Matt Gibson
and Emilie Warden on a dream ski trip to eight of the
best ski hills in the Western Hemishphere in Colorade,
California, Wyoming, and Utah.
By promoting BITW in collaboration with sponsors, tour-
ism boards, DMOs, ski hills, media partners, and local
bloggers this project has the potential to put the best ski-
ing, snowboarding, food, lodging, and winter activi-
ties the West has to offer in front of more than 1.4 million
Facebook users, over 145,000 Twitter users, and tens
of thousands of online readers, all of whom love skiing,
snowboarding, and the outdoors.
We want to help you to engage that audience.

3. Outline
The Best in the West Tour (BITW) will visit 8 ski resorts
over 8 weeks, and expose a targeted audience of ski-
ers, snowboarders, and outdoors-lovers to your com-
pany through social media, blogging, television, radio,
newspapers, a contest, and face-to-face interaction.
Goals
1. Increase your brand awareness on multiple plat-
forms
2. Grow your email newsletter list and social media fol-
lowings with skiers, snowboarders, and outdoors
lovers.
Target Audience
Skiers, snowboarders, and outdoors-minded Canadians
and Americans aged 25 - 60 with a focus on people living
in or near the areas visited on the tour.

4. The Cost
You recieve
• Exposure to millions of Facebook users.
• Exposure to hundreds of thousands of Twitter users.
• Exposure to tens of thousands of Matt-Gibson.org
readers.
• Exposure in local media in the target destinations
• Face-to-face brand ambassadorship with your market
• SEO-improving links from a highly-ranked website
• Unique engaging content for your website
The Cost
Two sponsorship options are currently available:
1) Black Diamond Sponsorship (limit 1)
- Will provide a grand prize for the BITW contest.
2) Blue Square Sponsorship (limit 2)
- Will provide multiple small prizes for the Spot the Blog-
ger Contest.
These sponsorship options are explained in detail in Sec-
tion 2.

5. SECTION I: STRUCTURE
STRATEGY
• SOCIAL MEDIA
• TRADITIONAL MEDIA
• FACE-TO-FACE
EXECUTION
• PRE-TOUR
• TOUR
• POST TOUR

6. Matt-Gibson.org, relevant DMOs, and the ski hills involved
have a combined social media following of more than 1.4
million Facebook users and 144,000 Twitter users, as
well as 10 newsletters. All of the parties involved can
grow their social media followings and newsletter lists
by sharing their audiences.
If all parties share social media posts and link to BITW
blog posts in their newsletters it will drive thousands of
targeted readers to BITW where they will learn about
your company and be given an incentive to subscribe to
your newsletter.
That’s a lot of targeted traffic -- and that’s before even
considering other possible partners for this massive traf-
fic exchange, such as AFAR (who have agreed to help
out), Outside (where some of blog posts may be syn-
dicated), and others I’m in talks with.
Social Media

7. Traditional media will be approached through two chan-
nels: local DMOs and press releases.
Five press releases will be issued using online wire ser-
vices. One press release will be issued announcing BITW
and the remaining four will be issued in conjunction with
each destination visit.
Contacts in the local press will be obtained as much as
possible from local DMOs and will be contacted directly
for interview opportunities and stories related to BITW.
The story of BITW is unlikely to interest the local press
much, however, so the Spot the Blogger Contest will
be used as a hook.
Traditional Media

8. The purposes of the Spot the Blogger Contest are: 1) To act as a story hook for local radio,
television, and broadcast media and, 2) to increase brand awareness on Facebook, and 3) to
increase face-to-face interaction between Matt and Emilie and the target audience to develop
a community of dedicated online social evangelists.
Emilie and Matt will wear ski jackets and toques (beanies) branded with your logo. Their photo
will be prominently placed on the Black Diamond Sponsor’s Facebook page and the BITW
landing page. Any person who spots Emilie and Matt, takes a
photo with them, and shares the photo on Facebook will re-
ceive a small prize (to be provided by Blue Square Sponsors)
and to be entered into a draw for a grand prize to be awarded
at the conclusion of BITW.
Since anyone within the community will be able to win the con-
test, it should be considered newsworthy by local press. The
face-to-face interaction and reward system should help to a
community of dedicated followers who will follow and evange-
lize BITW over social media. And, since Emilie and Matt will be
wearing branded hats and jackets, your company will appear
in all participant photos uploaded to Facebook.
Spot the Blogger

9. Execution
Throughout the campaign, Matt and Emilie will:
Pre-BITW
• Liaise with DMOs to arrange accommoda-
tions and meals.
• Write five press releases: one pre-cam-
paign release, and one for each destina-
tion.
• Arrange transportation to and from each
destination.
• Provide all necessary equipment, including
ski and snowboard gear, cameras, laptops,
smartphones, etc.
During BITW Trips
• Liveblog activities throughout each trip on
Facebook and Twitter.
• Email all sponsors and relevant partners
each morning with a list of social media
and blog posts to share.
• Perform interviews with all interested me-
dia.
• Participate in the BITW ‘Spot the Blogger’
contest.

10. Execution cont’d
Throughout the campaign, Matt and Emilie will:
Between BITW Trips
• Spend four days at home in Salt Lake City
producing content for both Matt-Gibson.
org and the Black Diamond Sponsor’s
website.
• Content will include at least one blog post
about each ski hill, as well as information
about other activities, dining, and accomo-
dations.
• Social media updates from the previous
trip will continue to be posted during the
work period and social sharing emails will
continue to be sent to sponsors and rel-
evant partners.

11. Execution cont’d
Throughout the campaign, Matt and Emilie will:
Post BITW
• Complete creation for Matt-Gibson.org and the Black Diamond Sponsor’s web-
site.
• Final social media push for contest sign-ups and winner announcement.
• Creation of an anlytic report summarizing the results of BITW.

13. Landing Page Mockup

14. Blog Post Mockup

15. • Google Analytics will be used to track
outgoing link traffic from Matt-Gibson.org
and other partner sites.
• Bit.ly links will be used in social media
posts to track clickthroughs to all in-
volved websites.
• The #BITW hashtag will be used on all
tweets and followed using Twitter search.
• A Google Alert for “Best in The West”’
will be set up to moniter online mentions of
the campaign.
• Matt-Gibson.org and Mountain Collective
will all closely moniter website traffic lev-
els before, during, and after the campaign.
Tracking
To gauge the effectiveness of BITW:

16. SECTION II: SPONSORSHIP OPTIONS

17. Black Diamond Sponsorship
Cost: $0 Since this is our first year running this campaign, we’re
asking only that sponsors provide prizes.
Benefits
• Most prominent logo placement on every page
• Prime logo placement on the sponsor page
• Unique BITW website content linked to from the BITW land-
ing page and every BITW post on Matt-Gibson.org, as well as
promoted across all social media channels and in newsletters
• Face-to-face brand ambassadorship via the Spot the Blogger
contest
• Local television, radio, and news coverage via the Spot the
Blogger contest
• Targeted newsletter and social media subscribers.
• Mentions in all BITW press releases
• Sponsorship of the main BITW contest, which will run for the
duration of the campaign, with the winner announced after its
completion
• A post-campaign analytics and effectiveness report.
Responsibilities
• Promotion of the BITW campaign on social media and through
newsletters.
• Provision of one grand prize for the main BITW contest

18. Blue Square Sponsorship
Cost: $0 Since this is our first year running this campaign, we’re
asking only that sponsors provide prizes.
Benefits
• Prominent logo placement on every page of BITW on Matt-
Gibson.org.
• Logo placement on the sponsor page.
• Links within BITW posts to the sponsor’s website or, preferably,
related content on the sponsor’s website.
• Social media promotion across multiple platforms and in news-
letters.
• Targeted newsletter and social media subscribers.
• Possible local television, radio, and news coverage.
• Mentions in all BITW press releases
Responsibilities
• Promotion of BITW on social media and through newsletters.
• Provision of prizes for on-hill ‘spot the blogger’ contests.

19. SECTION III: WHO YOU’RE WORKING WITH
CONTENT
• MATT GIBSON
• EMILIE WARDEN
• MATT-GIBSON.ORG
INDUSTRY
• DMOs
• SKI HILLS
• MEDIA

20. MATT GIBSON
EMILIE WARDEN
Matt is an award-winning adventure travel blogger, writ-
er, and photographer from British Columbia, Canada.
He writes the About.com Snowboarding Guide, col-
umns for Transitions Abroad and Travel + Escape, and
has worked with numerous outdoors and travel publica-
tions includign Outside, AFAR, Action Asia, Kootenay
Mountain Culture, and more.
Emilie was raised in Salt Lake City and learned to ski at a
young age. After University Emilie moved to Taiwan where
she learned Mandarin Chinese, which came in handy when
she later worked as the only white flight attendent on Cathay
Pacific Airlines. She’s returned to Salt Lake City where she
is pursuing photography and social media management.
She can often be found setting Matt straight about these
activities.

21. Matt-Gibson.org
Overview
• Online since 2009
• Has won several awards and commenda-
tions including placing as a semi-finalist in
Austin-Lehman’s Best Travel Blog Contest.
• Has been mentioned by numerous publica-
tions including USA Today, Canada.com,
and The Atlantic.
• Is syndicated on Raveable and Weekend.sg
• Select posts also appear on the Magellan
GPS Outdoors Community and the Outside
Magazine website.

22. We’ve worked with

23. Matt-Gibson.org Stats
September 2012 Traffic Stats
*Traffic stats from Google Analytics and demographics from Alexa
Visits/month: 27,000
Pageviews: 44,000
Average Visit: 1:20
Location: USA 66%, Canada 9%, UK 5%
Age: 18-24: 18% | 25-34: 22%
35-44: 9% | 45-54: 27% | 55-64: 23%
Gender: Female: 53% | Male: 47%
Income: $30 – 60K: 47% | $60 – 100K: 32%
$100+K: 21%
Social Media Stats
Facebook Likes: 5400
Facebook Friends: 775
Twitter Followers: 4000
Klout: 67 Influential in Travel and Tourism,
Photography, and Writing.

24. Matt-Gibson.org Stats cont’d

25. Colorado Tourism Board
Facebook: 379K
Twitter: 44K
Newsletter: Yes
Contact: Carly Grimes
Utah Office of Tourism
Facebook: N/A
Twitter: N/A
Newsletter: N/A
Contact: Clayton Scrivner
Utah Travel Industry
Facebook: 2.4K
Twitter: N/A
Newsletter: Yes
Ski Utah
Facebook: 25.7K
Twitter: 3.6K
Newsletter: Yes
Contact: Brandon Ott
Wyoming Office of
Tourism
Facebook: N/A
Twitter: 6.6K
Newsletter: Yes
Contact: Chuck Coon
Visit California
Facebook: 47K
Twitter: 17.2K
Newsletter: Yes
Contact: Rachel Veu
DMOs

26. Ski Resorts
Colorado
Aspen/Snomass
Facebook: 37.7K
Twitter: 13.5K
Newsletter: Yes
Vail
Facebook: 119K
Twitter: 13/k
Newsletter: Yes
Wyoming
Jackson Hole
Facebook: 90.5K
Twitter: 11.7K
Newsletter: Yes
Grand Targhee Resort
Facebook: 14.5K
Twitter: 4K
Newsletter: Yes
California
Squaw Valley
Facebook: 53.9K
Twitter: 7.9K
Newsletter: Yes
Alpine Meadows
Facebook: 22.3K
Twitter: 5.7K
Newsletter: Yes
Utah
Alta
Facebook: 6.5K
Twitter: 3K
Newsletter: No
Park City Mountain
Resort
Facebook: 21.8K
Twitter: 12K
Newsletter: Yes

27. A Final Note
We’re excited about working with you, and don’t want you to think of this as a
one-time offer, because It’s not. It’s meant to open a dialogue for innovative and
unique ways that we can work together to move us both closer to our goals.
Travel blogging is still maturing as an industry. Its leaders are working on projects
similar to this, but everyone is learning as they go.
If you have any ideas how we can help you to reach new audiences, or if you’d
like to hear more of ours, we’d love to talk to you.
We can be reached at xpatmatt@gmail.com or at (408) 717-3729.
We hope to hear from you soon!
Matt & Emilie