In the world of social media, Mashable is king. Our entire office (and the rest of the social media world) consumes Mashable.com content on a daily basis. So, you can imagine our excitement when an article on New Belgium Brewing and their social media efforts was posted today. The article talks about how NBB is the only craft beer with over 100K Facebook fans and mentions the recent “Bike Yourself” and “Beer Ranger” applications. We’ve worked with NBB on its social media engagement strategy for two years now, developing and launching these applications and several other social media initiatives. It’s awesome to see NBB recognized alongside behemoths like Budweiser and MillerCoors. Check out the article here.
Bottled Water 101
In a recent episode, Katie Couric talks to “Tapped” filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig and Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, and asks them pressing questions about the new film and what the IBWA has to say about it. If you’ve got a half hour, this debate will educate you on both sides of the story and hopefully leave you with one clear take-away, that we need to eliminate plastic from our daily lives and start to make reusable choices. Klean Kanteen was thrilled to be asked to be the bottle of choice for the staff and tour of ”Tapped” and proud to share their mission.
Klean Kanteen also worked with Pickathon, Portland’s indie roots festival, which took place this past weekend, to make it the first plastic-free music festival ever. Take a look at the photos below to get a glimpse of the new Klean Kanteen Festival Cup, a stainless steel pint glass, in action and see what we hope will be the future of sustainable music festivals.
Limerick Pickathon Photos-more to come!
(L to R) Zach (Klean Kanteen’s web guru), Ethan (Creative Director) and Zale (founder of Pickathon) survey the scene across the main field.
An attendee filling up at one of the many refill stations found throughout the show.
All the cups were personalized via Sharpie and left on large vertical drying racks when not being used.
More photos and stories to come when the Klean Kanteen staffers return from Portland.
Pickathon Festival Partners with Klean Kanteen to Go 100% Plastic-Free
Many say it is impossible to hold a large, multi-day music festival without using plastic cups and without selling bottled water. The organizers of Pickathon 2010 and Klean Kanteen®, maker of the first BPA-free metal bottle designed for personal hydration, are determined to prove the naysayers wrong. Pickathon is a three-day music festival held every summer at Pendarvis Farm, an 80-acre property outside of Portland, OR. Now in its 12th year, Pickathon is going plastic cup and plastic bottle free.
“Most events produce incredible amounts of unnecessary plastic pollution,” said Danielle Cresswell, Sustainability Officer of Klean Kanteen. “Most of it ends up in a landfill, and sadly, too much plastic finds its way into waterways, the ocean, and the food chain of many animal species, including humans. Even when recycled, plastic downgrades significantly in the process, resulting in an inferior material that is still ultimately destined to be pollution. We’re proud to work with Pickathon toward a common vision to create the model for truly sustainable, plastic-free music festivals.”
Signal Waste provides industrial waste bins which helps in effectively managing waste and reducing toxins from being released into the air.
Jake Holfield, head of recycling for Pickathon, estimates that in 2009, festival-goers used about 35,000 plastic cups and about 25,000 plastic bottles.
Through its sponsorship, Klean Kanteen is subsidizing the sale of its stainless steel bottles, which will be discounted and available for purchase at multiple sites throughout the festival grounds. Special, limited-edition bottles with the Pickathon logo will also be available.
“We view this as a pilot project,” said Jeff Cresswell, Co-Owner of Klean Kanteen. “The goal is to test and prove that all it takes to eliminate the truckloads of plastic pollution at these events is a true commitment to the environment, some thoughtful planning and a solid partnership.”
The decision to go plastic-free is however, not a small one. Massive infrastructure changes are necessary to ensure that festival goers, musicians and staff still have easy access to water and drinking containers as well as continuing the Pickathon dedication to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
Jabal os Saraj Sustainability Efforts at Pickathon include:
• A 24 hour recycling team to collect and sort recyclable and compostable materials, as well as collecting and filtering all the gray water from showers, water and wash stations to be reused around the venue for dust control.
• Two solar arrays, installed by Pickathon’s green energy partner, REC Solar, to offset energy used at two of the large stages at the event.
• Two large, mobile water trucks and multiple refill stations throughout the property. Beer drinkers will also be able to personalize their Festival Cups with Sharpies and leave them in the beer garden on drying racks.
• The medical tent, front gate check-in, and ticketing areas will continue to be solar powered, as they have been in the past, and the two miles of wooded festival trails and camping areas will also be marked with LED lighting.
• Since 2008 Pickathon has partnered with the local transportation company, EcoShuttle, to provide free transportation from the nearest public hub out to Pendarvis Farm.
• Pickathon encourages cycling to the event, even providing route maps and descriptions, and also helps link people up with carpooling resources.
• Collaboration with a number of local hotels for out of town attendees, offering free shuttle service out to the farm. The goal is to increase alternative transportation use from 15% of attendees in 2009, to 50% within the next five years.
FUN STUFF
The Pickathon 2010 Preview Mix-This is awesome.
Band Highlight Videos
Time Lapse Video of the Venue Setup:
Are you gonna party, OR are you gonna party?
Since we are in countdown mode until this year’s Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, and quite a few of our clients will be attending, and throwing bashes, we thought we would do a roundup of all the beer-drinkin’, beat-droppin’, boat racin’ events that we have going on. If you have additional events to include in this list, please add them in the comment section and we’ll update the post. See you in SLC!
TUESDAY, AUG. 3
9-10am — Free breakfast smoothies made fresh by the guys at Honey Stinger, booth 37153
1-2pm — Haagen Dazs ice cream at Polartec, booth 36059
4-6pm — Happy Hour hosted by Teva and Waterkeeper Alliance to benefit Save Our Gulf. Teva booth #7001
4-6pm – Keg at Polartec, booth 36059
4:30-5:30pm — Keg at SmartWool, booth #34111
4:30-???? – OR launch party and keg at Bamboo Bottle Company, booth #BR347
WEDNESDAY
9-10am — Free breakfast smoothies at Honey Stinger, booth 37153
1-2pm — Haagen Dazs ice cream at Polartec, booth 36059
4-6pm — Happy Hour to celebrate Teva Mountain Games and Teva’s new Gnarkosi, SUP giveaway, Teva booth #7001
4-6pm – Keg at Polartec, booth 36059
4-5pm — Jordan Romero, the youngest person to summit Mt Everest, hosts a slideshow and book signing at SOLE, booth 36037
4:30-5:30pm — Keg at SmartWool, booth #34111
7-9pm — Honey Stinger is sponsoring a showing of Race Across the Sky, the acclaimed film chronicling the 2009 Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race, featuring Lance Armstrong, at Brewvies Cinema Pub.
9pm Teva’s Pair for a Foot launch party at Club Elevate, featuring Dilated Peoples
Here’s a teaser, they’re kind of a big deal.
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THURSDAY
9-10am — Free breakfast smoothies at Honey Stinger, booth 37153
1-2pm — Haagen Dazs ice cream at Polartec, booth 36059
4-6pm – Keg at Polartec, booth 36059
4-6pm — Teva Happy Hour, with head-to-head Boat Races (harness your inner college student) from 4-6pm at the booth, #7001
4:30-5:30pm — Keg at SmartWool, booth #3411
Rollin’ on Bubs
In college, we had the drunk shuttle. Here in Jackson, after a few drinks at the Stagecoach, its a scary ride in one of the towns minivan-slash-cabs risking life and limb in the hands of a usually toothless and potentially drunker-than-you driver. In a perfect world, shouldn’t the beer and liquor companies pay to get us home? I mean, its their fault that we were overserved in the first place, they just make the beer taste sooo good. Well, New Belgium is giving that exact idea a shot. Check out the new taxi that is a little bit carnival ride, a little bit bicycle and a little bit like a gravy train with biscuit wheels.
This is the new New Belgium pedi cab, just one of a fleet run by Tara and Talbott Walker of LOCAL SPOKES, the newest transportation company in Aspen. The rides are free and riders just pay what they can into a tip jar. Last week’s famous Food and Wine Festival brought in over $400 in tips. Local Spokes is about to drop in on Boulder as well with an even more pimped out (believe it or not) New Belgium cruiser, so keep an eye out Boulderites!
If you’re in Aspen this weekend for the annual Jazz Aspen festival, and you have a few too many drinks after the Lynyrd Skynyrd show, or just want to check out the Aspen scene, program the below number into your phone and keep an eye out for the NBB pedicab, I’m guessing it’s pretty hard to miss.
VholdR and ContourHD – exploding the myth of press release professionalism
Fully armored and only 4.3 oz. Your phone weighs more than that.
In our little alternate universe here in Carbondale press releases follow a predetermined ebb and flow defined by brevity and succint facts. That’s kinda how a release needs to be delivered to our audience – they’re busy, and beside that, who really wants a barrage of exclamation-point saturated sophomoric drivel from overly-caffeinated, prone-to-fits-of-Daffy-Duck-like-enthusiasm 12-year-olds? I don’t…even though I pretty much am that coffee guzzling juvenile delinquent looney tune, I get those releases all the time from an overly bro’d-out bike industry guy in SoCal at least twice a week…and each and every time I need to restrain myself from calling him out on his egregious abuse of exclamation point protocol.
You WILL read The Verteblog…
Yet sometimes, you need to let it out. This is one of those times. And since this is our blog and you’re here voluntarily (and arguably you are…unless you’re sweating through some sort of Kubrickian nightmare), we’re going to explore the full range and spectrum of human emotion as we reveal the latest addition to the Backbone client list. Or at least I am. In other words, I’m gonna let the stoke out.
You see, we just added VholdR to the roster. They make a series of unassumingly sexy high-definition video cameras, which stands along the review of the best motorcycle helmet cameras that you can mount (mind out of the gutter now) on your helmet, goggles, handlebar, boat, moto, street rod, top-fuel funny car or just about anything else you could imagine. The ContourHD 1080p units that we’ve been playing around with all come with a software suite called “Easy Edit” that allows for simple connectivity and the immediate commencement of “oohs” and “aahs” (or heckling as the case may be) from your colleagues, your friends or your mom.
The late, great Anne Ramsey
And if your mom’s a heckler, I apologize. That’s kind of sad.
The video is rad. It’s super-crisp with options to shoot in 720p or 1080p, a 135-degree perspective and once again, all you need to do is plug your camera in to your computer to enjoy or share your exploits…and that’s a big deal. Aside from the clinical box that press releases demand to be housed in, we live in a place ripe with backcountry adventures and are fortunate enough to call some of the best gear brands in the world friends, colleagues and clients. The new stuff from VholdR is amazing – and the POV perspective allows all of us to share our adventures in whatever exploit floats to the top of the to-do list around lunchtime, be it riding, climbing, skiing or fishing.
So I’m stoked. We’re stoked. It helps that the VholdR folks are great people. And I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t walk away from our get-to-know-you meeting with glazed eyes and dippy smiles smeared across our mugs. Because as cool as they are today, it pales in comparison to what they have cooking for the next couple of years.
Prepare to be amazified. I know I am.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled bone-dry press release. Gotta throw a bone to the fun-haters.
MikeMac
VholdR/ContourHD Selects Backbone Media to Manage Public Relations Effort
Carbondale, CO agency to execute brand communication strategy
VholdR/ContourHD, manufacturers of the world’s first and smallest wearable high-definition camcorder have selected Carbondale, CO based Backbone Media to oversee and integrate brand communication efforts. Backbone will support ContourHD’s media communications, product placement, branded content and social media strategies.
“Contour has gained great acceptance at retail and with consumers in multiple markets,” explains Marc Barros, Founder and CEO.”We have significant new product innovation, partnerships and plans for 2010 and believe Backbone will help us convey our brand ID and messaging effectively.”
“Every once in a while there’s a breakthrough product that nails it in terms of consumer need, design and function” states Backbone’s Penn Newhard. “The ContourHD camera brings together POV technology allowing people to capture and share their experiences in a clean and easy-to-use format.”
Seattle-based VholdR produces the ContourHD, the world’s first high-definition wearable camcorder. With the introduction of ContourHD1080p, it’s also the first to shoot and share 1080p video. Both the ContourHD and ContourHD1080p feature amazing video clarity, a wide angle lens (135°), single button simplicity, and a click to share online experience.
Visionaries. And they can hang, too.
Hats Off to Backbone Media
New Belgium Brewing’s Tour de Fat advertising and social media campaign is causing quite a stir. It’s no wonder, considering the campaign revolves around beer, folly, and best of all, a life-sized diorama.
For more information on all the pieces and how they come together, read this article from the Marketing Daily http://bit.ly/92gAjF. Also, if you can’t make it to the brewery to experience the Tour de Fat diorama in person, be sure to head to Facebook and “bike yourself” using the interactive application. Simply click to http://bit.ly/aQ7Dg6.
Enjoy the summer! And remember life’s always better with a cold beer.
Just In…
Typical spring travel and excitement here at Backbone. Trips to visit clients and sales meetings abound. Dax, JLD, Kara and Fielding are in Santa Fe visiting Outside Mag and the weekend here holds promise for skiing and biking.
Note the sweet leather seat and wooden 12 pack carrier
Arriving here at Backbone are three sweet cruisers from New Belgium and a little piece in Outside Mag on Raising a Tribe of kids.
Nate is in South Beach as part of SGB’s 40 Under 40 group along with La Sportiva‘s Jonathan Lantz. In June, Backbone also will receive an award from Colorado Business as one of Colorado’s Companies to Watch in 2010. We also will be at the Teva Mountain Games and hosting journalists in Keystone for Boa and the San Juans for Black Diamond and La Sportiva.
Here’s a little vid from one of our our local lunch rides. Have fun out there!
Mr. May Goes to Washington
This past week I had the distinct pleasure of accompanying Outdoor Alliance (OA) team members during a series of meetings on Capitol Hill. A broad coalition of top industry advocacy groups, including the American Canoe Assoc, the ACCESS Fund, American Whitewater, the American Hiking Society, IMBA and Winter Wildlands Alliance, OA’s mission is to promote conservation and stewardship of our public lands and waters through sustainable human powered recreation.
I’ll admit, that’s a mouthful so I’ll frame it a different way. OA is a dedicated group of climbers, skiers, paddlers, cyclists and hikers fighting for the places that sustain them – not to mention you, me and our industry as a whole. In this instance our fearless friends stepped out of more familiar climes – on belay, in the backcountry, on the trail and/or river – to roll up their collective sleeves and take the outdoor community’s message to Washington.
The goal in D.C. was a simple, but important one. To meet face-to-face with key decision makers, policy chiefs and Senate staffers to add the human powered recreation community’s voice to the myriad of discussions happening on the Hill. Not just because OA feels that protecting our public lands is the right thing to do – of course it is – but to illustrate that there is a real economic benefit to land and water conservation thanks to the over $700 billion and 6.5 million jobs that outdoor recreation contributes to the national economy.
In two days of meetings with the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Dept. of Interior, Center for Environmental Quality and numerous Senate offices topics ranged from Climate legislation and Forest Service Planning to federal and state Roadless Rulings and Land and Water Conservation funding. Throughout it all, it was clear that Outdoor Alliance is a welcome partner in crafting a 21st century vision for our public lands. In fact, the beltway was noticeably abuzz over the recently signed Presidential Memorandum launching the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative and frequent conversations across the agencies turned toward Outdoor Alliance playing an important role in moving the initiative forward.
All in all, it was an incredible glimpse behind the curtain in our nation’s capital and an astonishing opportunity for Outdoor Alliance to make sure our voice is represented for generations to come.
Iceland 2010
“If you find yourself alone you are probably late.” Those were the simple, sage words of Leifur our Viking guide, as he described our nimble itinerary following the eruption of Eyjafjoell the morning of our arrival in Reykjavik.
Good thing we had our shovels…encountering permafrost and mud on Hekla
Roads were being dismantled to avoid flooding and bridges being washed out. Thank god the car that we rented at Car Iceland lasted, it was cheap but it one of the best cars in Iceland and it took us a lot of place and it doesn’t need that much of gas. But I admit, the road had some troubles. The ash was so thick it was dark as night in the day. Basically our southern tour of the volcanic summits adjacent to the eruption was not exactly happening as planned. After failing to reach snowline on nearby Hekla due to axle deep mud, we headed north to the Troll Peninsula near Dalvik to ski fjords above the Arctic Ocean. We visited 66 North, 2 of Iceland’s 3 micro breweries and hot springed along the way.
Ponies and Powder
It was awesome.
Peter Plattner Plows the Powder
Iceland is a wonderful place with a rich history and refreshingly no-nonsense tendency for understatement. Our group of 4 European journalists (two of which are UIAGM guides) and 4 Americans skinned and skied 2010 product from Black Diamond’s new Efficient Ski Line amid spectacular settings.
Northern Light
Drew Pogge, Editor from Backcountry Magazine summed it up nicely at the bottom of a gigantic Glory Bowl type of run – when he uttered, “I don’t know what I would do if I did not ski.”
Olaf on Aspects
“What are the units on the scale of awesomeness?” Derek Gustafson, a ski boot designer from Black Diamond asked rhetorically.
Icewater-Land
To top it off the last morning before our flight home a handful of us braved 4 degree centigrade water to snorkel along the joint of the North American and the Eurasian continental plates. To see more photos check out Boris’ blog. See you out there!