The FIFTY Project Social Media
In 2019 Professional skier Cody Townsend began a mission to do something nobody had ever done: Ski all fifty lines from the book The Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America. With the backing of key industry sponsors he launched a video series about the project. It would come to be near the center of an industry boom for backcountry snow sports and online athlete serials.
As it turns out being a full-time dad, professional skier, attempting to ski The FIFTY Classics, and also produce a video series about it is a lot of work. Cody asked me to ease the load by taking over control of the FIFTY social media.
I delivered weekly behind the scenes content, fostered and engaged the community, coordinated with key brand partners and grew the Instagram page by over 100%.
Photo by Ming Poon
Photo by Bjarne Salen
Tone
Brand differentiation between Cody’s social media and the FIFTY was key. We made an effort to differentiate my voice as “The Disembodied FIFTY Narrator” and position The FIFTY page as a place to cheerlead the project.
I saw it as my role to celebrate the project with other dedicated fans. I follow a rule on social media which is that you should always create like a creator. That is to say you should create like a member of the community you are attempting to reach.
This ethos was exemplified throughout The FIFTY as I frequently created content based on the prompt “What would I want to see as a fan?”
Storytelling
The path to growth for The FIFTY is storytelling. The FIFTY Project video series is entirely built on storytelling in the mountains and the Instagram page is no different.
Content that upheld that story was fundamental. This relied heavily on behind the scenes footage to flesh out the tight 12-17 minute run times of the video series.
I prioritized and developed content that highlighted the characters, gags, interactions and human moments the fans had come to love.
BHTS
A key aspect of The FIFTY Is the down to earth and behind the scenes nature of the video series.
Cody wanted to further that experience for the dedicated fans. The backbone of the page has always been video content that didn’t make it into the final cut. How does he plan? What are the moments missed in the episodes?
These could be humorous, educational or informative. This kind of content is what drove follower growth most aggressively as it hit accord with the most dedicated and interested FIFTY fans.
Community Management
Anybody who’s a fan of the project will be well aware of the strong online culture surrounding the project. By Season 3 the project was at the center of online discussions in the snow sports space. The FIFTY was to be a member of that community.
An essential element of the page became to leverage, encourage, and celebrate fans who make memes about The FIFTY. It became one of our most valuable forms of UGC. The extent to which that helped build community cannot be understated.
Knowing the strong online community around the project informed the kind of content I created. A core facet of the community management strategy revolved around sharing memes, UGC and fan takes from the episode releases.
1:1:1
I believe in a one-to-one-to-one ratio of educational to entertaining to CTA oriented content.
This strategy was executed with The FIFTY. We used key behind-the-scenes and educational content to empower the sponsored content and see the highest possible metrics for the brand partners.
This strategy was backed up by numbers and community engagement.
Metrics
I believe in a social media approach grounded in authenticity, community and storytelling. That strategy should be backed up by analytics to reach target demographics.
For stakeholders, analytics are a key aspect to demonstrate viability of media channels. The numbers are a great starting point to identify and address success and failure. These metrics are key for selling the project to future sponsors.
User engagement, shares, and feedback from the audience was also taken into account.
Implementation of these analytics included shifts in content type, posting frequency, posting time and general strategy. These will be informing growth during the next phases of the project.
The most impressive result is the followership growth from below 30k to above 70k+ in 18 months.
Giveaways
Nowhere was this better on display than during our 2023 giveaway campaign.
I coordinated with all of the key brand partners and their media teams to execute a series of giveaways of key FIFTY gear items.
These brands included Salomon, Hyperlite, Smith, Yeti, Mammut, OnX and Opensnow among others. Through the review and giveaway process We highlighted key features and benefits of the various products and services provided by the partners.
Video
This is a video series and as such perfectly positioned to capitalize on a video centric social media landscape.
Whenever possible, I prioritized adapting concepts into video formats. This included gear reviews, project updates, behind the scenes footage and episode highlights as seen here.
Episode Releases
During an episode release my role was to screen the episode before release and find key elements to produce teasers, trailers or other promotional materials for social media.
These were used to supplement Cody’s posts and provide a unique tone of voice.
It’s always most important to be most energetic and engaged with the online community in the moments surrounding episode releases.
Trend Setting
This is one of my personal favorite projects that I’ve gotten to be a part of. Cody’s media model is what everyone else is trying to imitate now.
The FIFTY social media is a great example of where influencer marketing can take brands when it’s done well. Storytelling combined with the 1:1:1 content ratio, and building that content on the backbone of strong analytics, leads to a powerful community building force.
The FIFTY Instagram is a place for fans to connect to a common community around the project and where brand partners can see consistent returns.
The FIFTY represents the current blueprint in the snow sports industry for how to effectively execute and influencer marketing program. Storytelling, connection and community are all of the center of what makes this such a rewarding project to be a part of.
Contact
Think we could work together? Questions about my rates or about a project? Drop me a line!
I make sure my clients receive a hands on approach with solutions catered to their specific design problems. You can contact me via email Cuttsandcouloiurs@gmail.com