Backcountry Marketing

Today, we're revisiting one of our most popular episodes from 2021, our conversation with Maddie Duffy. Give this one a listen if you haven't already, or revisit for some major knowledge dropping. When it comes to building your team who are you working with? Why would you choose an athlete over an influencer? When is an influencer better suited than an ambassador? Why have an ambassador team in 20...

Josh Buesseler has been an industrial design and product strategy consultant for 14 years, with clients in many industries including outdoor. Prior to that, he worked in-house at Cascade Designs, which is now also a client along with SOG Knives. In this episode, Cole and Josh discuss: How brands express themselves through products Product design for the outdoor industry The benefits of failure Des...

Today, we're revisiting one of our most popular episodes from 2021, our conversation with Ben O'Meara. Give this one a listen if you haven't already, or revisit for some major knowledge dropping. ------------------------------------------------------- In this episode, Ben O'Meara the VP of Marketing at Huckberry breaks down the core components that make Huckberry, Huckberry. Huckberry is an online...

Julia LoVecchio is the Director of Marketing at CMH Heli-Skiing and Summer Adventures.  Julia's career has followed a somewhat unique and non-linear path, and as a result she's had the good fortune to gain leadership experience and build management skills across the tourism, hospitality, and communications industries. One element that has remained central to her journey has been a life rooted in t...

Marc Gutman is an award-winning storyteller, entrepreneur, adventurer, and idealist. But most importantly, Marc loves brands and their stories. He is the founder of Wildstory, a storytelling agency dedicated to helping visionary entrepreneurs and businesses get crazy clarity on their story. In this episode, Cole and Marc chat about how to build a creative manifesto.  They chat about: client engage...

Erica Aarons grew up in MN but has been in the Jackson Hole area for almost 7 years! She worked formerly at a creative agency in Jackson, doing social for mostly Travel & Tourism clients, including Visit Jackson Hole. After that, she joined Rex Specs, a dog gear company, where she dipped her toes in e-commerce and knew that's where she wanted to be. She left her role as Marketing Director at Rex S...

Moez Faruqi is the Head of Marketing at White Duck Outdoors. His role covers all aspects of the marketing side, including SMS/emails, influencers, product marketing, visual content, and more. In this episode, Cole and Moez discuss: How to get into marketing Learning on the job Differences between a brand and an online retailer Why you might pivot away from eCommerce And much, much more! You can co...

Jax Mustafa is a seasoned marketing expert, entrepreneur, and world champion desert runner. In this episode, Jax comes to us as the VP of Marketing at Erem, a footwear company inspired by the desert and committed to sustainability. Cole and Jax discuss: Working on a company from the ground up Launching a brand Building a startup marketing plan Maintaining your personal passions and health while de...

NFTs, the Metaverse, XR. Technology is transforming all around us. What does it all mean for marketers? Bethany Evans, Senior Marketing Director of Global Brand Management at The North Face, joins us on the podcast to chat about emerging technologies.  In this discussion, we chat about: NFTs Metaverse How a brand like The North Face reacts to emerging technology When is the right time to engage wi...

What is consumer research, really, and why is it so important? Megan Averell is the founder of the Insight Inn, a qualitative research and strategy firm, to bring people back into the heart of business decision-making. In this episode, we chat about: how research applies to marketing what research can be used for the challenges with research different types of research and much, much more! You can...

Darren Josey is the VP of Marketing at NEMO Equipment. Darren sits down with Cole to discuss how to build a non-transactional relationship with your customer, creating better customer relationships at large. With the huge influx of new folks recreating in the outdoors, there's an enormous opportunity to connect with potential customers outside of their transactions with you. Darren chats about how...

Social media is constantly changing, new algorithms, new platforms, and new trends are a daily occurrence. As a brand, how do you decide what platforms to be present on? How does your brand communicate on each platform? These are a couple of questions that Kami York - Feirn answers in this episode. As the Social Media Coordinator at Ruffwear, she is faced with these types of challenges daily. In a...

Our last episode of the freelancer month has arrived! This week, Cole sits down with John Entwistle, Account Director and Photographer at Origin, an outdoor agency that partners with brands they believe in. Everything they do is about getting more people out there. In this episode, Cole and John discuss: - best practices for working with an agency - what your portfolio should consist of - how to s...

Freelancer month continues with a conversation about how to manage clients efficiently and effectively as a freelancer. In this episode, Cole sits down with Maari Casey. Maari is the Founder & Owner of Uncompany, a freelance collective designed to connect clients with high-caliber talent. In this episode, Cole and Maari discuss: - the top challenges freelancers face - why thinking like a project m...

Freelancer month continues with a special Q&A episode with your host, Cole Heilborn. Cole tackles the top questions that freelancers sent in with the Backcountry Marketing Production Assistant, Emily Holland. We discuss: - How do you decide what to charge for your services? - How do you expand your business offerings? - How do you keep your sanity when it comes to monthly income highs and lows? -...

Freelancer Month! This whole month, we'll be sharing episodes that are geared more towards freelancers and answering the top questions they may have. How do we interact with money as a freelancer? In this episode, Justine Mulliez, a business coach who works with creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs discusses multiple paradigms of money and how freelancers struggle with this. We discuss: - Our...

Freelancer Month! This whole month, we'll be sharing episodes that are geared more towards freelancers and answering the top questions they may have. For this episode, we sit down with Jon Glassberg. Jon is a Director, Photographer and Professional Cimber. He is the owner of Louder Than 11, a media production company and creative agency based in Boulder, Colorado. He is also the co-founder of the...

How do you find a balance between vision and expectations? So often in today's culture, we're told to set a goal and work tirelessly to it - sometimes to a fault. What if we approached our work/life goal setting differently? Without giving up our work ethic, what if we approached life with a little more grace and allowed ourselves to see where the path takes us. Mason Gravley joins me on the mic t...

How is a brand's value perceived? Perceived value is calculated from a variety of factors. Values, visual presence, quality, and price of the product all play a role in the customer's perception of a brand. Jonathan Wegner is the VP of Brand at SOG Knives and shares how the SOG brand has suffered from neglect. At one point it was lumped into the "Walmart Quality" standard. In this episode, he shar...

Mike Arzt is the co-founder of The Public Works. Since starting the video production company Mike has experienced a challenge that many freelancers turned business owners face. Am I the camera person or business person? This pivot for many is a challenging point in a business. Mike reflects on this journey and provides some feedback on the lessons he's learned through this change over the years. F...

In this episode, Liz Esche, the Marketing Director at Gnarly Nutrition joins me to discuss the re-brand project Gnarly rolled out. Re-brands are exciting, but how do you continue to market through a re-brand? How do you manage product package changes while managing website changes, copy, logos, and everything else? Liz shares behind the scenes how the Gnarly team managed to pull off this entire re...

This episode is part of our 2021 top episode round-up - it was originally published on 12/14/2021. In this episode, Nicole Handel, the Director of Marketing at MAMMUT joins me to discuss psychology and the consumer's decision-making process. Psychology is at the core of everything. We examine multiple intersections of marketing and psychology by dissecting paradigms across the marketing industry a...

Conor McElyea is the Director of Partnerships and Membership with the Conservation Alliance. The Conservation Alliance is a membership-based non-profit that helps fund conversation efforts across the continent. To date, they have protected 73 million acres, 3,576 river miles, remove or halted 37 dams, purchased 18 climbing areas, and designated five marine reserves. Conor discusses the rise in pop...

This episode is part of our 2021 top episode round-up - it was originally published on 09/01/2021.   In this episode, Emily Holland, the host from the Nature Untold Podcast breaks down all of the details to start a podcast. We discuss defining your "why", format, software, sponsorships, Patreon, and marketing.   The podcast world is a bit like the wild west, there are no rules, a few best practice...

What are the differences between an agency and working in-house? How does an agency view things like: time, meetings, scope creep, and the creative process. Are they different than an in-house team? Quinn Lanzon is the Director of Marketing at OneUp Components. Previously he worked for 2 agencies and has noticed some differences between the two after jumping the fence. Quinn shares some of his obs...