YonderVT Final Synopsis & Recommendations

Champlain College Strategic Digital Community Management

Spring 2014

Joey Szela Ryan Terry

Zachary Agostine Leif Gurdin

Sarah Webb

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Table of Contents

[Foundation] 3 || Yonder Application 3 || Vermont 3 || Yonder in Vermont 4 || In­app Baseline 4 || Baseline 4 || Website Baseline 4 || Our Goals

[Our Plan] 5 || Version One 7 || Version Greenlighted 7 || Broad Overview 8 || Retail Partnerships 8 || College Outreach 9 || Digital Engagement

[Outcomes] 10 || Retail Partnerships 10 || College Outreach 11 || In­app Engagement 11 || Social Engagement 11 || Website & Blog

[Recommendations] 12 || Local Partnerships 12 || College Outreach 13 || Ambassadors 13 || Badge System 13 || Social Media & Blog 14 || Adwords

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[Foundation] Yonder Application The Yonder application has incredible potential to build genuine, positive communities and personal relationships both digitally and physically. Users can document their outdoor experiences, add location­based information, create conversation with other users, browse and “like” others’ experiences, thereby building relationships within the application. Yonder has the amazing capability of bridging digital interaction and the physical world. We were really excited to explore these possibilities while building the Yonder community in the state of Vermont. Vermont The demographics of Vermont are very conducive to the Yonder brand. Vermont has over 626,000 people, a third of which are between the ages of 35 and 54. This age range is well versed with smart phones and have a lot of experience using apps for business and social purposes. The average income is close to $53,000, meaning that Vermonters have a fair amount of disposable income. Because Vermont is so beautiful and there is so much to explore, a lot of disposable income is spent on outdoor related items, such as gear, apparel and provisions. There are also many interconnected outdoor related communities in Vermont who are always looking for ways to enhance their outdoor experience, so Yonder should have no problem succeeding in Vermont. Yonder in Vermont Even beyond demographics, Vermont has incredibly key psychographics to build the sort of community the YonderVT team is envisioning. Vermonters are people who want to build and support their community ­ and that is what the Yonder application is all about. Whether it is answering questions about how to get to a trailhead, congratulating someone who kayaked for the first time, or posting a biking experience to get friends excited to head out for the afternoon, Vermonters are eager to share their knowledge for the betterment of the group. Additionally, Woodstock, VT is the homebase of the Yonder application. By having the app’s home state be the exemplar Yonder community, Vermont could function to be the go­to example to show new user groups how the amazing community­building potential Yonder contains.

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In­app Baseline We collected our baseline data the week before we started implementing our content plan ­ March 31st 2014. At that time, the Vermont statistics within the Yonder application were as follows:

Number of Users 243

Number of Experiences 656

Number of Likes 6,303

Number of Comments 605

Number of Shares 96

Social Baseline The baseline statistics for the social channels we chose to work with at the start of our plan were as follows:

Yonder Facebook Page Likes 7,060

Yonder Facebook Page “People Talking About This” 465

@YonderApp Twitter Followers 656

Website Baseline When beginning this project, the website acted mostly as a landing page and directed users to download the Yonder application through the iTunes Store. While containing beautiful imagery and streamlined content, we believed that these characteristics could be retained while building the user­experience to be more engaging. What We Were Tasked With We were tasked by the Yonder team to double both the number of users and the amount of engagement currently happening within the application for the state of Vermont.

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[Our Plan] Version One Originally, we developed a multi­channel effort to double users and engagement for Yonder in Vermont. Our digital marketing plan included development of social media, the Yonder website, and a Yonder blog. We aimed to create a #YonderVT hashtag community across Facebook, Twitter, and the Yonder App itself. By creating small, location­based communities, we planned to translate digital Yonder connections into face­to­face relationships. Our recommended plans for the Yonder website ranged from simple changes ­ like adding Yonder social media links to the website ­ to larger endeavours, like developing the website to include the Yonder App user experience on a computer. Digitally, we are also highly recommended the creation of a Yonder Blog with different optioned levels for involvement. These digital efforts would have been complemented with a retail partnership and local college outreach efforts within the state. Finally, we are recommended the implementation of a Badge User Reward System to incentivize participation in the app. The following two charts depict the optional involvement levels from which Yonder was able to choose from and the original details of the Partnership Agreements, respectively.

(Involvement)

Digital: Social

Digital: Blog

Digital: Website

VT College Outreach

VT

Partnership Outreach

Badge User

Reward System

Low @YonderApp Twitter ­ Become a resource ­ Connect with outdoor community leaders ­ General local outdoors communities for eachstate or selected regions such as #YonderVT Yonder Facebook Page ­ Make the page possible to find

­ No blog ­ No changes

­Outreach to three Vermont colleges ­ No collateral included

­ Partnership Level: Bronze **See Retail Partnership Agreement* below*

­ Contest for current app users to boost usability

Mid @YonderApp Twitter ­ All of the above ­ Promote blog content Yonder Facebook Page ­ Promote blog content

­ Blog with 2 post/week by YonderVT team

­ Add social links

­ Outreach to selected colleges only ­ Collateral included

­ Partnership Level: Silver **See Retail Partnership Agreement below**

­ Turn badges into stickers and send them to top users.

High @YonderApp Twitter ­ All of the above Facebook ­ All of the above ­ Boosted posts ­ Facebook Targeted Ads in VT

­ Blog with 3 days of content / week from Yonder staff in addition to 2 posts / week by YonderVT team

­ Develop API to provide web­based Yonder experience ­ Google Adwords

­ Outreach to all colleges on YonderVT list ­ Collateral included

­ Partnership Level: Gold ­ Initiate the Yonder Ambassador Program **See Retail Partnership Agreement below**

­ Create and implement a badge reward system within app

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Partnership Agreement with Green Mountain Digital’s Yonder Goal: The Yonder team will meet with local outdoor retail shop owners to discuss establishing partnerships with the businesses. Each party will promote one another’s business through a set of (no­cost) tactics, decided on by Yonder’s partner. The focus of the partnership will be to get the Yonder name in the eyes of the partner’s customers, and have store employees talking about and the Yonder app.

Yonder

Partnership Level

Partner Business

Include partner’s business name and logo on the Yonder landing page, as well as the Yonder app.

Bronze

Will feature Yonder stickers/flyers at the business’s point of sales. As well as display Yonder posters at the entrance and exit of the store.

**Includes all factors from Bronze level**

+ Include partner’s business address, contact info, and website on Yonder site and app. Business name will also be included in Yonder newsletters. Yonder will promote partner through social media posts.

Silver

**Includes all factors from Bronze level**

+ Employees of partner business will give a short explanation of the Yonder app when filling a customers bag at POS. Partner will promote Yonder through social media posts.

**Includes all factors from Bronze and Silver levels**

+ The partner’s business will appear on the Yonder apps geo­locator map when users are searching for nearby activities. If clicked, all info will appear, plus a short bio of the business.

Gold

**Includes all factors from Bronze and Silver levels**

+ Employees of partner business will SUGGEST the use of Yonder to customers and how to obtain it. Especially when a customer has any questions regarding where to go for their outdoor activity.

***This partnership agreement is valid for a 1­month period. At the end of the month, the parties can decide to extend the partnership for however long they see fit, upgrade the partnership level, or terminate the partnership altogether.

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Greenlighted Version Our greenlighted plan is much more focused on key elements that we can actually accomplish before the end of the semester. The low level partnership agreements were a good place to start – we could easily begin communications with local business that supplied outdoor gear and start to form a partnership. We chose six local businesses and began to work with them. This started by introducing the brand and providing the business with some Yonder material to give away, which were well received. If we had longer to do this project, me might have been able to progress to the mid ­level agreement with some of the businesses.

We also got approved for a lot of mid­level digital content, such as posting to social media, blogs, and the website. Creating digital content is low risk, high reward, so we were able to do much more for Yonder in this regard. We created a content calendar and each week we would make posts to Facebook, Twitter, and the Yonder Blog. Broad Overview After revising the green­lighted scope that we presented to the Green Mountain Digital team, our plan for #YonderVT became centered around locally­generated content, promoted through a strategic digital plan. Our content sources combined VT news and events with our efforts with local retail partnerships and outreach to clubs at selected VT colleges.

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Retail Partnerships Partnering with local complementary businesses allows you to offer more to your users and prospects, gain more awareness in the marketplace, and build relationships between your business and your target market, which will lead to more opportunities in the future. All of these benefits will occur without any cost to Green Mountain Digital! Utilizing these local partnerships is a great way to bring increased value to your customers. Upon simplifying the agreement, the Yonder VT team was given the greenlight to meet with local outdoor retail shop owners to discuss establishing partnerships with the businesses. The team’s suggestion was that both parties will promote one another’s business through a set of (no­cost) tactics, at the discretion of the potential partner. The focus of establishing partnerships with local businesses is to get the Yonder name in the eyes of the partner’s customers, our target market, and in the mouths of the partner’s employees. The Yonder team supplied six retail locations in the Burlington area with stickers and flyers to hand out and display around the store. This will work to spread the Yonder name, increase general knowledge of the tool, and the benefits it offers. The businesses were also asked to create a shop profile on Yonder in order to provide the team with helpful feedback, and more importantly, share their experiences while expanding the Yonder community. In exchange for helping Yonder’s cause, the team offered to post the business’s name/logo to the Yonder Partnership webpage, as well as dedicate a Yonder blog post to the business discussing their offerings and why the team enjoys shopping there. Additionally, the team offered to promote the partner across Yonder Facebook and Twitter accounts. College Outreach Reaching out to the Vermont college communities is a low­cost and highly­effective way to reach the Yonder target market. In a state of roughly 600,000 there are about 60,000 students. It would be a great opportunity for this population, likely to be both active and tech­savvy, to be introduced to Yonder. We initially prepared to reach out to all colleges in the state, however, Yonder helped us narrow our focus down to five key institutions ­ Champlain College, Middlebury College, Lyndon State College, Johnson State College, and the University of Vermont. We chose these colleges because they seemed to have the most active outing clubs. Emails were sent to the most pertinent clubs or individuals we could determine ­ outing club presidents, student outdoor activity coordinators, ski and ride clubs, etc. Our plan outlined three steps ­ initial outreach introducing Yonder and asking for a physical address, sending promotional materials and further information regarding the YonderVT initiative, and then a third follow­up correspondence to keep the lines of communication open and the relationship building.

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Digital Engagement In order to increase Yonder registrations and engagement in Vermont, our digital plan was centered around a Yonder Blog on the redeveloped http://yonder.it. After the website was updated in late March, we gathered content from VT events and news, our experiences with outreach to local retailers and colleges, welcoming any other updates from the Green Mountain Digital team. The main channel for posting content became the new Yonder Blog. After each post was published on the blog, it was promoted via a geo­targeted Facebook post and a tweet from the @YonderApp Twitter. We also provided paid recommendations for boosting the reach of these Facebook posts and Google AdWords strategy.

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[Outcomes] Retail Partnerships The businesses we met with include Ski Rack, Outdoor Gear Exchange, The Alpine Shop, Northstar Sports, Maven, and Burton Snowboards. Ski Rack and Outdoor Gear Exchange seemed the most engaged in Yonder’s partnership offering by immediately displaying the Yonder stickers and flyers around the store before team members departed. These businesses also acted interested in the discount program and taking part in the Yonder community, but needed to talk to marketing/event coordinators before making any official decisions. The YonderVT team has not heard anything more in terms of advancing the process, but can follow up before closing out the semester. The Alpine Shop, Maven, and Northstar Sports were all interested in the partnership as well, just not as proactive to engage the businesses. These three locations said they were very certain of their participation in the partnership, however they need to talk to staff in charge of such relations. The team left these businesses with plenty of stickers, flyers, and the proper contact information to follow up with Yonder once they had talked it over and made a decision. Burton Snowboards was also interested in the partnership agreement. Being the only international business we approached, they have many more rules and restrictions than any of the other companies. The store managers at the Burlington headquarters told us they need to run the partnership agreement by those in charge of such relations. Many factors come into play for such a large company, no matter the size or simplicity of the partnership/sponsorship, or who it is with. College Outreach Out of the five colleges we reached out to, we heard back from one ­ the UVM Outing Club. We were able to forward the information directly to Yonder in order to have promotional materials sent to this group. We never heard back from the Champlain Ski and Ride Club, but we were able to place Yonder materials around this campus on our own. While this was not ideal, we thought it would help to spread the word regardless.

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In­app Engagement In­app engagement increased on all fronts throughout the course of the four weeks we conducted our work throughout April. They are as follows:

Baseline End of Semester Increase % Increase

Number of Users 243 260 17 6.5%

Number of Experiences 656 754 98 14.9%

Number of Likes 6,303 9,956 3,653 57.9%

Number of Comments 605 792 187 30.9%

Number of Shares 96 120 24 25%

Social Engagement Social engagement increased in all channels that we utilized throughout the three weeks we conducted our plan. The are as follows:

Baseline End of Semester Increase % Increase

Yonder Facebook Likes 7,060 8,521 1,461 20.7%

Yonder Facebook Number of “People Talking About This”

465 555 90 21.7%

@Yonderapp Twitter Followers 656 780 124 18.9%

Website & Blog As outlined in our digital Scope of Work, the Yonder Blog was the central channel for #YonderVT content. Beginning on April 2nd, we released 3 blog posts; totalling 203 views. We experimented with different target markets on these posts. The first post, which recommended checking out the Intervale Center at the end of the winter season, was locally targeted and had 9 views. The second, which informed readers about the closing dates of Vermont ski resorts, was more regionally targeted, including VT, NH, MA, and NY, and had 136 views. The third post, which explained Vermont’s “Mud Season” and spring activities in the state, was targeted to Vermont and had 27 views.

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[Recommendations] Local Partnerships Local businesses were definitely interested in learning more about the Yonder application and beginning a mutually­beneficial relationship. We believe it is in Yonder’s best interest to continue the conversations we began with this retailers to continue to spread the word about the application. Establishing a partnership with Burton may be much more of a process; however the reach this business has is immensely larger than any other business the Yonder team has met with. Burton Snowboards also has many well­known professional athletes on their team, which, in the scheme of things can do a lot for Yonder’s expansion. This location is definitely worth the wait, and certainly deserves a follow up. College Outreach Our plan was a great trial run of reaching out to colleges remotely. We didn’t hear back from every school, but we definitely feel this is a function of the communication medium rather than a lack of interest in these groups. Perhaps initial contact made via email is just not a strong way to start that first conversation. We suggest Yonder make a strong effort during the first few weeks students get on their campuses in the fall. During these weeks, there are introductory club meetings, club fairs, and orientations, that Yonder could visit and talk to the students who run these organizations face­to­face. Freshmen also receive welcome bags when they arrive on campus, and having stickers and postcards included in these would be an effective way for a group of ideal users to learn about the application. Ambassadors The YonderVT team had originally suggested an ambassador program in our initial proposal. Although this suggestion was part of the “High Engagement” classification, the team felt that such a program would be worth the effort and incredibly beneficial to Yonder. The team was excited to see an Ambassador Program integrated into the website update several weeks ago, however there is always room to build upon the concept. One important piece of information YonderVT discovered was when team members promoted Yonder content across personal digital outlets, such as their own Facebook, Twitter, or blog, in addition to the application’s outlets, traffic to linked content increased dramatically. This is a very small­scale example of what could happen if the Ambassador Program was used to promote content as

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well. If a few team members made such a difference, imagine how many people one­hundred ambassadors could reach. This would be a very simple addition to the program and would greatly benefit Yonder’s efforts. The team also wants to reiterate the initial concept proposed which suggested using employees of shops the team established partnerships with to act as ambassadors to the Yonder app. They would suggest Yonder to customers anytime they have a question about where to head on an outdoor adventure, can discuss the benefits of the app, and will talk from personal experience. Additionally, these ambassadors can be the ones to promote immediate customer downloads in order to receive discount codes good at that shop on their next purchase, if any of the partners agree to such a strategy. Badge System While we firmly believe Yonder needs a gamified system for their app, there are many other things that should be worked on at this point in time. Should Yonder implement a badge system, we believe it should document and display the top categories that a user has posted in rather than rewarding users for generating content. This will give users a sense of accomplishment and bragging rights without diluting the content by rewarding badges for a certain number of posts.

However, if the partnership agreements work out, Yonder could totally give away digital badges based on the events that partner is facilitating. For example, if Outdoor Gear Exchange is having a climbing sale, and a user submits a picture hiking in their new shoes using Yonder, they could receive a special badge that not only helps the user stand out, but it also shows other users that OGE is a perfect location to acquire outdoor goods. Social Media & Blog Our recommendation for the Yonder social media and blog is to keep up the good work! Between the daily efforts of the Green Mountain Digital team and the strategy that we put in place for regionally­focused promotion efforts, there is a good foundation for success on Yonder’s social channels. We believe the regional focus will continue to help users relate and interact with one another, building strong community ties and engagement. Our direct experience through our #YonderVT Blog posts is that a regional targets (bigger than just an individual state) perform best for getting the most views. These posts are especially strong when promoted by Ambassadors.

We highly recommend that Yonder maintains the digital structure of strategically posting content on the blog, and uniformly promoting through Yonder’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. Be cautious against trying to utilize channels, such as Pinterest, that might not be worthy of the time investment, and could dilute your social media involvement. Lastly, any hashtags such as #YonderGames or #YonderStance that are released in e­mail newsletters should be reinforced

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with a blog post that clearly explains the goals of that effort, and how Yonder users can get involved.

It is extremely important to highlight personality and authenticity whenever you can, which is why the Ambassador program, college outreach, and retail partnerships are so important to create digital content for Yonder. Any opportunities that you can utilize to continue a focused, personable, authentic brand identity for Yonder will result in success. Luckily, Yonder is in a unique position with access to hundreds of unique, user­generated photo and video experiences daily that is fully licensed for promotional use. Continue to take advantage of this as much as possible, as many other companies starve for this earned media content. Lastly, outdoor adventure thrives in Vermont, so Yonder should embrace that and be transparent about the Woodstock headquarters whenever possible. Adwords Recommendations We understand the Yonder team has recently began using a Google Adwords paid search programs. We think this is a great way for you to reach new users and recommend continuing this effort through the future. Additionally, we recommend you move run a second ad campaign with the search engine Bing. Bing Ads are relatively less costly than Google Ads, and they function to reach people that you are currently not reaching via Google. Google Adwords are easily transferrable over to Bing Ads. Utilizing A/B testing strategies with these campaigns in order to test keywords will supply you with valuable information for little effort. Once the better­performing ad was determined, this could be used more often for more effective marketing. We also recommend Yonder begin using an enhanced CPC bidding strategy that is focused on getting more clicks; more clicks mean more people at your website, and more people at your website means more downloads. Lastly, if you are not running one currently, a display remarketing campaign could prove useful. We recommend running one such ad that would reach users who have been to the website, but may have not yet downloaded the application.

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