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New Business: Pinnacle Lodging, Grand County & More

November 7th, 2012 • No Comments

Since we partnered up in August, Gwen and I have been busy wrastlin’ up new projects we can tackle together, and she’s formally launched her business, Sugarloaf Content, with great success. Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the things we’re working on:

  • Pinnacle Lodging – In late August, I met up with the team at Pinnacle Mountain Homes, a custom home-builder based in Breckenridge which was recently awarded the “Builder of the Year” honor by Builder Magazine. Over the last few month’s they have combined forces with a local property management company (Breckenridge Accommodations) to become Pinnacle Lodging, and we’ve been hired to redevelop each rental home’s content and optimize it for multiple booking websites such as HomeAway.com. The new main website will launch soon, but in the meantime, Gwen and I are feverishly rewriting much of the text content to shed light on each property’s unique selling points. Some of the homes they offer are spectacular, making it all too tempting to go adjective heavy in our writing (must… resist … ).
  • Grand County Colorado Tourism Board – I’ve been assisting Signature Advertising with Grand County Colorado’s SEO efforts throughout 2012. Throughout the process, we’ve seen ways to grow traffic with content marketing, so in 2013, that’s just what we’ll do. We’ve scoped out a program to (a) engage their end users better, (b) stimulate organic and referral trafic, and (c) fuel their ECRM efforts. Beginning this month, we’ll be creating a dedicated content calendar, with monthly editorial content updates that will power their marketing outreach. We will also be doing a similar program with another Signature Advertising client, Sweetwater County.
  • Undisclosed Project on a Very Cool City (You’ll have to pardon the coyness on this one, but we’ve got an NDA) – We’re also working with an international interactive agency on the publishing efforts of a major Asian city. Like economic-hub-of-the-Pacific major. Focused on a B2B audience, we’ll be setting a forward-thinking content publishing strategy by auditing a sample size of 400 individual pieces of content (a fraction of the overall site) and making detailed recommendations on style, SEO, web content best practices, workflow and localization.

Gwen Gray Joining Headwaters Content

August 13th, 2012 • No Comments

Gwen Gray, who will be partnering with Headwaters Content on a variety of projects. Someday, this will be the book-jacket photo to her as-yet-unwritten book "Provencal Gardens & Their Languid Charisma."

At a certain point, a one-person agency has to grow without the benefits of cloning. After all, cloning is (a) kinda expensive, and (b) largely considered unethical.

So today we’re happy to announce that Headwaters Content is expanding operations by partnering with a long-time friend, former colleague, and content dynamo — Gwen Gray.

Gwen and I have worked together for more than eight years. Not only is she a thoughtful strategist and a talented writer, but she is one of the most amiable and professional people I’ve had the pleasure to work with. Because of her sense of humor and charm, projects are more fun for everyone when Gwen is involved.

Here is a sampling of some of the clients Gwen has worked with in her career:

In working with Headwaters Content, Gwen has become a regular contributor to Inspirato’s luxury travel blog, and she has also written content for us with our newest client, Aspen-Snowmass.

Gwen has been sought-after by several organizations for her content writing skills (including Headwaters), and as a result, she recently established her own business — Sugarloaf Content — to better pursue these types of projects.

Moving forward, Gwen will assist us in business development, and she’ll play a major role in overseeing content development for any new projects that result from this partnership.

Where this all goes, we don’t know yet, but we’re pretty confident big things will come of it. As two microagencies working in close concert with each other, we’ll be able to quickly adjust to our client’s needs. And we will each have a go-to collaborative partner to make our work sharper, more creative, and more compelling for end-users.

Gwen is based in Superior, Colorado.

Aspen-Snowmass Hires Headwaters Content

July 6th, 2012 • No Comments

 Aspen Snowmass home page

We’re excited to announce that Aspen-Snowmass has hired Headwaters Content for content strategy and development services for their both their website and publications.

In May, we began work by closely collaborating with Aspen-Snowmass’ marketing team to develop content for their Vacation Planner — both the domestic and international editions. Since then, our attention has turned online where we are focusing on search engine optimization, engaging landing-page content, and communications strategy for the upcoming winter season.

As a mountain resort, Aspen-Snowmass is in its own league. It is simultaneously a haven for celebrity glamour, a leader in environmental stewardship and the home to the Winter X Games. Yet, despite its international fame, this ski resort has not lost its local vibe.

In the winter, it’s four mountains — Snowmass, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk — serve skiers and snowboarders on one lift ticket. The options are staggering: steeps and glades at Aspen Mountain, bowls and bumps at Aspen Highlands, halfpipes and cruisers at Buttermilk, and more than 3,000 acres of terrain at Snowmass. Give me a week, and I’d ski maybe 20% of the four mountains.

In summer, the mountain resort plays host to outdoor concerts, mountain biking events, an award-winning camp for kids, and several niche festivals. Back that up with an insanely good restaurant scene and the iconic Maroon Bells as a backyard, and its pretty close to being the perfect mountain destination.

Business trip anyone?

Water for People Hires Headwaters Content

March 5th, 2012 • 1 Comment
Water for People's website

Water for People's website

 

Few things are more exciting for us than a new client. But a new client that is working on one of the world’s most critical issues? Now that’s something that truly fires us up.

We’re very pleased to announce that Headwaters Content has been hired by Water for People to create a long-term content strategy and develop content for their suite of communications.

Around 884 million people in the world are lacking access to safe drinking water, and an astonishing 2.6 billion are without adequate sanitation facilities. Compounding these two facts is an increasing shortage of water supplies, which will only place more — and in many cases, catastrophic — stresses on populations.

 

Solving this massive issue requires more than just building wells and improving sanitation — it requires an infrastructure to maintain and regulate the system. It is because of this that Water for People takes a new approach, which they call Everyone Forever (see above video).

To truly change the reality for communities ravaged by water poverty, Water for People works in areas where it can give every resident safe drinking water and sanitation systems that are self-sustaining. To do this, they collaborate with local governments and business leaders to fund, develop, and maintain water systems that will break the cycle of water poverty for good.

This isn’t a build-a-well-and-move-on-to-the-next-village operation. This is lasting change with extensive health and economic benefits for these communities.

As bold as Everyone Forever sounds, it is an approach that has come to fruition in Chinda, Honduras, and is well on its way in other municipalities where they work.

Water for People is currently operating in 11 countries, including Rwanda, Uganda, Guatemala, Bolivia and India. We’re thrilled to begin work with this next-generation NGO.

Inspirato Brings Headwaters Content On Board

December 6th, 2011 • No Comments

One of Inspirato's Tuscany residences.

 

We’re pleased to announce that Inspirato — a new luxury destination club which Forbes recently called one of America’s Most Promising Companies — has hired us for extensive content strategy and development services.

Headquartered in Denver and launched earlier this year, Inspirato already boasts spectacular residences in 29 destinations around the world, including Tuscany, Paris, Turks and Caicos, California Wine Country, Mexico, the Caribbean, Hawaii and Colorado.

It is also based on a premise we love: “overpaying for a vacation is not a status symbol.” Well said.

They offer something unique to the luxury vacation club market: lower nightly rates and more flexible availability. Inspirato members pay a one-time initiation fee, then an annual maintenance fee, which allows them access to residences and experiential tours around the world for a significantly reduced rate (up to 80% off in some cases). Here’s more on how the club works.

We’ll be joining the Inspirato marketing and web teams through 2012 to provide strategic support on how compelling travel content — on their website, blog, video channels and print destination guides — can lead to more members and more vacations.

October: Content News Worth Reading + Trends Worth Ignoring

October 18th, 2011 • No Comments

Just a quick post to share some recent articles worth reading and trends worth watching or ignoring:

  • Amazon is now in the publishing business and will release 122 new books this fall. While I hate eBook readers and the experience they offer, I’m all for more competition in the publishing space, especially if it gives the traditional publishing houses of NYC a kick in the rear. Amazon is nicely cued up to revolutionize the system.
  • The debate on the future of search rages on, especially now that Apple has unveiled Siri. I think this Forbes article dives into it nicely, at least on a philosophical level. What matters more? Answering your questions or indexing the world’s content? Writer Alliot Cole argues that Google is conquering everything, but search. Pretty interesting…
  • This was the only obit on Steve Jobs that I read, and it felt like the only one worth reading (courtesy of The Telegraph UK).
  • Dumb Idea of the Month: I’d be remiss to not include at least one article about the travel industry. This month? Ryan Air continues to hate our urinary tract by replacing lavatories with more seats. Some flights will now have one bathroom and a passenger to toilet ratio of 200-to-1. This from the same airline that seriously contemplated coin-operated toilets on its planes last year, as if a flight from Dublin to Rome were akin to San Francisco’s Union Square. And after all this, Ryan Air president Michael O’Leary allows himself to be photographed hugging a phallic Ryan Air fuselage. You can’t make this shit up.
  • Dumber Idea of the Month (courtesy of our dumb-tech-loving friends at Mashable). Austin-based company Blue Marble offers to create massive QR codes for your corporate HQ roof. Why? Because surely this will increase your exposure on Google Maps. And I thought QR codes jumped the shark when that idiot in Paris had one tattooed on his chest.
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Kevin Day, Principal / Content Consultant » 303.915.9464 »