Video is hot. Helmet cams give riders a chance to relive and share their runs. Affordable HD is giving average Joes the chance to shoot top-quality video. And, when stacked up against text or static images, video takes the cake over and over again as the preferred medium. ViralBlog reported some incredible stats about video consumption on YouTube: more than 2 billions video views are recorded each day, 70% of viewers are from the US, and over 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute.

Riding on these coat-tails and with a huge boost from Terrain Park Manager Eric Rosenwald, Boreal started a simple, yet powerful contest that let up-and-coming film crews battle for prizes while showcasing the impressive Boreal park at the same time. I spent some time on the phone last week with Boreal’s Marketing director, Jon Slaughter, to get the details on the appropriately named, Team Video Challenge.  Rules and guidelines were as followed:

• Each team could have no more than 4 members
• Teams had one week to shoot and 72 hours to edit
• Park was closed to other riders for 3 hours so teams to bring in booms, dollies, etc.
• Final video had to contain at least one shot of the Boreal logo
• A follow-up viewing party showcased results
• Prizes included $2,000 cash, $500 cash, Private Park Shoot, and a GoPro sponsorship

Then, the “switch” that took all this content and made it, as the buzzword/cliche says, “go viral.” One of the teams would walk home with the “award for most views.” Without that prize, it’s still good. With it, you suddenly have a dozen teams getting everyone they possible can to view their videos. Apparently, a few of the teams even got their videos onto Transworld’s site.

Last year the videos from the contest pulled in over 200,000 views during the season. Already, the videos from the 13 teams that participated in this year’s contest have pulled in well over 50,000 views.

How much would you pay to have 13 semi-professional movies made in your park and then shared with every living being within reach of the 50+ people that made them? Probably more than $2,500.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.