Dig Deeper | Circ Blog

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We’ve finally seen the fruits of about eight months of our labor over here at Circumerro Publishing. Our three main publications have been out for about three weeks now and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Under the guidance of our fearless leader, a new publishing team was assembled in the past year to freshen things up in Publishing. With that direction, our talented designers have completely redesigned Homestead and our flagship publication, Rendezvous.

In addition, a new piece was created to help augment Rendezvous: the Rendezvous Pocket Guide. This companion to our traveler’s guide to Jackson Hole provides the Jackson Hole visitor with business listings and a helpful map of the area (proudly sponsored by START Bus and including their stops—something we hope will encourage folks to utilize public transit). It can be found on brochure racks and at concierge desks throughout “the Hole” and, best of all, it’s pocket-sized.

We’re particularly pleased with the new Homestead magazine. It has been increased in size to a 10 x 12 inch publication with more beautiful home pictures and editorial content. We’ve also increased the circulation and made it available for sale on newsstands throughout the region. We hope you take the time to pick up a copy, which you can do at newsstands or by contacting us Circumerro.

You can learn more about several of Circumerro’s products in the special Business Focus section in today’s Jackson Hole News&Guide. Let us know what you think; we hope you like what you see.

—Chris

Circumerro Publishing’s Rendezvous traveler’s guide was featured in the June 20 issue of the Jackson Hole News&Guide Business Focus special section.

Rendezvous

Want to find out the best place to eat outdoors or the perfect all-day family activity? Do what almost every tourist does: read Rendezvous, the traveler’s guide to Jackson Hole. Rendezvous, published annually by Circumerro Publishing, can be found in nearly every hotel room in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley, Idaho.

This guest directory is Jackson Hole’s unofficial traveler’s guide and is the best place for visitors to find the broadest range of information on area activities, events, shopping, dining and more—no matter the season. Rendezvous provides readers with general information on getting to and around Jackson. There are sources listed to find out about current weather, road, and ski conditions, and stories about the history of the area and other general points of interest.

“Rendezvous gives visitors and anyone else new to the area an overview of what to do while experiencing Jackson Hole,” said Circumerro Publishing Director Chris Hansen. “From how to get here and get around once you are here, to history, to what to do, who can help you do it, and where to relax when you’re done, Rendezvous is the most comprehensive, well-rounded, free guide-book to the area.”

Found in area hotel rooms, condos and other places travelers rest, the book is designed to be read and browsed at your leisure. “The format of the book and the presentation of information in it is created for someone to sit down and read when they have the time to do that,” said Hansen.

In its 11th year, Rendezvous has come to be a publication hoteliers look forward to putting in their rooms. The book has been updated this year with a new design and a cleaner, more contemporary look. While much of the relevant information is similar from year-to-year, stories and photos are updated annually. “This year we reorganized and increased the editorial content of Rendezvous,” said Hansen. “We hope travelers find it easier to read and discern helpful information.”

Readers will find information about the national parks and wildlife and a detailed calendar of events. Stories highlight fun things to do in both the summer and winter seasons, as well as dinning, nightlife, art and culture. New special sections were added this year, including “Beauty and Wellness” and “Kids and Teens.”

Another added value in the book this year is that the distribution and content have been expanded to include Teton Valley, Idaho. “Because the area is growing so rapidly and becoming a more integrated part of a vacation in Jackson Hole, we’ve included information and business listings within Teton Valley, and the book is available in lodging facilities over there as well,” said Hansen.

Also new this year is the addition of the Rendezvous Pocket Guide, a smaller companion piece to Rendezvous. As its name suggests, this annual pocket-sized guide includes business listings and a map of the Town of Jackson. The map, sponsored by START Bus, locates bus stops to make getting around a breeze. Eighty thousand pieces were printed and are being distributed through hotels, at concierge desks, in brochure racks, rental cars and at the airport.

—Allison Arthur

Circumerro Publishing’s Homestead magazine was featured in the June 20 issue of the Jackson Hole News&Guide Business Focus special section.

Homestead

Want a private tour of some of the most beautiful homes in the region? Homestead, one of Circumerro Publishing’s signature publications, gives you a peek at some of the most innovative and beautifully created homes in the Jackson Hole area.

In its sixth year, Homestead has been completely re-designed and circulation expanded. The magazine’s large-format (10″ x 12″) and contemporary design bring featured homes, art and craftsmanship to light for readers. The new look better reflects the changes in architecture and design seen in the Jackson Hole area today.

Chris Hansen, publishing director for Circumerro, said that the complete redesign and shift in the magazine’s focus resulted in positive growth for the company. The overall focus highlights how western and contemporary styles are uniting in new ways through architecture and design in the Rocky Mountain West. “These changes to the magazine allowed us to broaden the editorial and geographic scope beyond what has traditionally been considered western design in Jackson Hole,” he said. “We strive to showcase homes that are unique and that represent a collaboration among the best architects, builders, interior designers, artisans and anyone else who has been involved in creating a truly unique home.”

Builders, architects and interior designers are invited to showcase their homes through multi-page photo spreads and editorial that tells the story of that collaboration. In addition to showcase homes, Homestead includes stories on landscaping, green building, interior design, art, artists, art collectors and galleries.

Homestead’s reach in the market has greatly expanded. Circulation has been increased from 10,000 to 30,000 and new avenues for distribution have been introduced. It is available at newsstands, bookstores and other local retailers; is mailed to affluent homeowners throughout the area; can be found in real estate offices; and is offered as a gift at high-end local events, such as the Grand Teton Music Festival’s upcoming wine auction.

An expanding subscription base is also increasing readership of Homestead. “Growing the editorial content is a goal for the coming year,” said Hansen of plans for further expansion. “We want to include more content that is of interest to readers who look to Homestead as a way to connect with professionals who provide the services high-end homeowners are looking for.”

Reinforcing one of the strongest elements in the magazine, Hansen commented on the design. “A talented in-house team here at Circumerro designs the magazine and maintains consistent creative control over the publication from start to finish,” he said, adding, “The design is clean and it’s easy and enjoyable to read. The quality is top notch.”

For more information on featuring your project, advertising or purchasing an issue of Homestead, please contact Circ at 307-733-8319.

—Allison Arthur

Here at Circumerro we’ve gotten pretty good at producing our products. But just when you think the job of producing is done, it’s time to market. While there are many ways to do that, direct mail and direct email marketing tend to be fairly straight forward and effective. And as we continue to focus more of our energies on the Web, we look to direct email marketing as the easiest and most cost-effective way to get the word out.

But here’s the catch (or at least one of ’em): email addresses tend to be hard to come by, while snail-mail addresses practically grow on trees. Of course, I completely understand the reluctance to provide email addresses in this age of unending spam. Many of us who work in front of a computer get literally hundreds of emails a day, and the average Internet user has something like four separate email accounts. If you work a lot with email and have an effective spam filter, most of those emails are qualified, necessary things. Unfortunately, in a less-than-perfect world, a great deal of email is unwanted spam.

Back to the point:

Sending snail mail costs money. You’ve got to print the piece and then pay to have it mailed, including the physical cost of handling the pieces so many times before they end up in your box. But to send something via email costs very little, for both the sender and the recipient. Mostly just some extra bandwidth and the time it takes to set it up. Of course, there’s the time on the recipient’s end to read the message, qualify it as something they want to respond to, and then hit delete if they’re not interested—arguably less time than it takes to check your snail mail box and throw the unwanteds in the trash (or hopefully the recycle bin).

The cost of direct snail mail marketing certainly gives marketers pause about the resources they are using (or should). But the system continues to encourage us to waste resources to deliver our messages effectively when email marketing creates no waste.

For as much as we hate to receive junk mail in our postal box, we still prefer it over unwanted email. For example, when I call my local chamber of commerce for their business listing, they are more than happy to share their members’ physical addresses with me, but the emails? That’s a big no-no.

It’s controversial enough that, when I floated it by my friend Keith for use in his CarbonNeutralJournal blog (as I do for many things I find on the subject of saving resources), he bounced it back to me, saying:

“I agree with your logic, but not with the reality. You can do a lot to curb print junk mail (Greendimes is just one such service), but you can’t do anything to stop junk email. Plus it’s often so vulgar and offensive.”

As a marketer I realize that much of what we produce in print is just so much fodder for the recycle bin (which is why we here at Circumerro focus our efforts on the Web when we can). It is very much a resource issue, and I hope we can get to a point where it’s more acceptable to receive email than snail mail.

Again, Keith sums it up:

“I’m afraid the spammers have spoiled the water for what could/should have evolved into an efficient and reasonably unobtrusive way to do direct marketing.”

Thanks for nothin’, spammers.

—Chris

Today I noted a couple of things going on with so-called “new media”; and worth mentioning, I found both tidbits online for free after having missed them in their traditional “old media” delivery channels.

Perhaps the next best thing to being at the leading edge of “new media” (if you’re part of the “old media”) is reporting on it. Enter the NPR series (just started today) on one of Madison Avenue’s oldest ad houses’ approach to the latest thing. I heard the teaser during Morning Edition and was eagerly awaiting the story on my drive home. It was interesting, but not what I expected. I hope the rest of the series is a little more compelling. At the very least, it’s hooked me into waiting for the next installment.

Meanwhile, Organic’s blog, Three Minds, rebroadcast Rupert Murdoch’s Special Report “Mixed Media,” which appeared on Forbes’ site on May 7. Perhaps the most interesting, yet unsurprising statement, is that “old media are threatened by the erosion of our traditional profit centers.”

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I’m thinking that’s what NPR was thinking when they chose to examine the subject, but they might have missed the mark.

What ever you might feel about Mr. Murdoch or his enormously successful Fox News empire, if you’re at all in tune with what’s going on in the overall media world, you’ve got to at least appreciate his perspective on the direction of mass media, and his ability to express it in the throes of a multi-billion dollar take-over attempt. You can’t deny it: he gets it, but we’ll just see if he can make “it” happen.

—Chris

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While neither of these pictures (taken with my cell camera) is the greatest, you get the impression this is no ordinary dog track.

It’s one thing to see animal tracks in the snow, but it’s another thing entirely to see the tracks of a large and rare predator.

A friend and I were taking advantage of some fresh, late-season snow and a beautiful day by getting a couple of runs in on a favorite backcountry stash south of Teton Pass. We were near the top of the climb when my friend noticed what we first thought were very large dog tracks coming down the top hundred feet or so of the skin track. The inch of new snow, slightly warmed by the sun, was the ideal medium to record the imprint. We wondered why a dog would be walking down this part of the hill without a human. It was apparent that we were the first two people on top that day; no one else had skinned up the track ahead of us or, after further investigation, from any other direction (there’s really only one approach to this spot and we were on it). And it was very obvious that these tracks were fresh—very fresh.

We noticed the tracks just above where it veered off to the southeast (the animal’s right). Once on top, we were able to follow the tracks across the top of the small peak. We observed where the animal had stopped to sniff around—after having followed a much smaller animal’s tracks for a few yards—and had come up from the west side of the hill completely unaccompanied by any other tracks—human or otherwise. While neither of us are trained animal trackers, both of us can profess some knowledge of indigenous animal tracks of the Tetons. We looked hard at some very good prints: we made note of the pad shapes and positions, the presence of claw marks, the apparent gait of the animal, and the very large size of the prints themselves. It was our combined, unprofessional opinions that these were indeed the tracks of a wolf.

After taking a couple of pictures with the camera on my cell phone (not the greatest, as you can see) and discussing the very real possibility of there being a wolf in this part of the southern Tetons, we skied some lovely, creamy spring snow.

My partner, being less than enamored with the skiing, decided to head out after that run. I, on the other hand, wanted to enjoy the beauty of the day and the spring conditions. I also wanted to get another look at those tracks and see where they went.

On my next skin up, and upon reaching the point where the wolf took sudden departure of the ridge toward the southeast, I could see clearly where it had headed across the glade just below. Funny thing though, we had looked for such a track not twenty minutes before and it was definitely not there. Upon closer inspection of the track, I realized that the animal must have been coming down the hill when it either heard or smelled us, stopped close enough to the edge of the ridge to take a look, and then took off in the opposite direction. It must also have then waited out of sight, just below the ridge, for us to pass and then continued across the glade.

This was a little freaky: having been in a wolf’s sights without us seeing it. We strive to be respectful of the nature around us as we engage in it, but this kind of encounter certainly gives one a renewed awe of and respect for the wildness that is so close around us here in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Seeing the animal would have been impressive, no doubt; but seeing only tracks and deciphering just what the animal had done only moments before is, in my mind, a much more valuable experience.

—Chris

Website design has been pushing the envelope for some time. In my research (read: surfing) I’ve come across some compelling sites that are delivering a variety of information in some very unorthodox ways. Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes it’s trivial. One category of sites I’ve come across is the genre I would consider simply “fun.”

These sites that I consider fun are sites that take a non-traditional approach to delivering their “information,” often a fairly loose term. But they challenge the visitor to explore the site—to search every nook and cranny for tidbits they might not realize were there at first blush, and that they probably didn’t know they needed to find. At the end of the trip, you probably aren’t that better off for having combed the site for every last tidbit, but you probably had a good time getting there and were challenged to think differently about how you find information on a website.

Check out these two examples…and have “fun!”

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Is our life being homogenized with global brands that preclude any localized discovery? On a recent business trip to San Francisco, I felt like my travel experience was as if I had just taken a trip to the local mall (which fortunately JH doesn’t have).

Effective brands offer a level of trust and security as we travel. Obviously all those passing travelers offer lots of impressionable eyeballs, so why not expose your brand to them? Upon exiting the BART train I was deluged with Microsoft’s promotion of Vista, almost buying every square inch of the Powell Street terminal. For a second I thought I had arrived in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics show, not in the financial district of one of America’s most cultural cities.

As I walked the block-and-a-half to the Marriott, identified by it’s signature architectural facade, the only thing that stood out in the fog was the glowing white Apple logo from their store on Stockton Street. I had traveled all this way and not experienced one thing related to San Francisco (BART excluded—it rocks) that was local in nature.

So, do we want our lives consumed by large-branded experiences where we are told how these products will help us feel, travel and live? Well, to each their own, but to live an engaged life means you forgo the obvious and look for the experiential opportunities in your environment. On my next trip I think I will challenge myself to not patronize any large brand that is not regional in nature to that locale and actually take in some local culture.

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The best part of returning home and the only thing that stood out in leaving the airport was a local sign—a reminder of why living in JH allows us to not become a homogenized American.

—Latham

Circumerro announced today the launch of a new product and corresponding company division: Circumerro Video creates custom, authentic video for view on the Web. Web video has fast become a powerful communications and marketing tool, allowing businesses to quickly create and brand a trackable message to which viewers can directly respond.

Circumerro Video is currently producing videos highlighting communities, businesses and products for its clients; specifically, business profiles and real estate video tours are proving popular tools for clients on the Locale and JacksonHoleTraveler Web sites.

Web video is an approachable medium for advertisers and customers alike and works well for a variety of messages including fundraising, advertising, public relations, product launches, movie trailers and much more.

According to Circumerro President Latham Jenkins, “Web video is a compelling medium that tends to be spontaneous. It delivers an authentic style that makes an emotional connection with the viewer, resulting in higher conversion rates and customer retention for advertisers.” Circumerro Video provides all professional services associated with video, from production to hosting. All video is shot in High Definition HDV and presented in the new standard 16:9 (widescreen) format. No additional media players or downloads are needed for viewing Web video from within e-mails or on Web sites.

Circumerro’s proprietary Web marketplaces drive a high volume of viewers to its videos, in addition to posting on YouTube, Google, MSN, AOL, Yahoo and other sites. The Savannah Morning News (Savannah, Ga.) recently featured an article on the community profile video of the Ardsley Park neighborhood in mid-town Savannah created by Circumerro Video.

Locale.com and Circumerro Video are playing a lead role in bringing new technologies to advertisers and their customers. According to Jenkins, “One of Locale’s clients, Lowcountry Real Estate in Beaufort, South Carolina, received almost 30 views of their video per day in February. This is an incredible impact on prospective real estate clients any time of the day or night.” Jenkins added, “It’s a 24/7, 365-days-a-year marketing tool,” Michael Pruett of Sotheby’s Real Estate in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, attests to the effectiveness of Web video: “I am a firm believer that a video showing will set me apart from other realtors. It allows buyers to get to know me on a personal level—it makes an emotional connection and adds tremendous value to my listings.

Circumerro’s video production team walked me through the process from start to finish and put together a professional video that I am proud to be a part of. Circumerro Video’s packages start at $995 for 30-second spots and range up to $3495 for premium packages featuring 3- to 4-minute spots. Standard projects are shot, edited and posted within two weeks. Custom packages are available.

About Locale
Coastal, mountain or desert, Locale features properties and valuable information about community, culture, and economies in exceptional places to live. Locale is “The online Marketplace for Lifestyle Real Estate.” For more information visit www.Locale.com.

About Circumerro
Based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Circumerro is comprised of Creative, Publishing, Video and Stock Photography divisions. Circumerro’s team of creative, passionate and strategic thinkers approaches each project with one goal: provide best-in-class communications tools and services to push your business to higher levels of success. Circumerro publishes Locale.com, JacksonHoleTraveler.com, Rendezvous and Homestead. Circumerro: “Taking You in New Directions.”

If the rest of the Alpinist Film Festival went as well as the opening snow night, it won’t be long before this regional, niche film festival claims higher, broader ground. From Christian Beckwith’s welcome just after 7 p.m., to the rolling credits of Brendan Kiernan’s well-executed “The Line”—the story of Mark Newcomb’s quest to ski a new route on 8013-meter Shishapangma—after 10:30, it was an emotional roller coaster.

Forget ski porn. Ski night was about “why”. As in, why we live in the mountains and, in particular, why we choose the Teton Mountains. As Beckwith explained in his intro, it wasn’t too long before the festival—as they were making final selections, in fact—that they realized they had the opportunity to have an all-Jackson Hole ski night. Far more than just gratuitous ski porn.

Yes, the TGR guys were there, but they kept it reined in with two appropriately short films: one a dedication to Doug Coombs and his pioneering contribution to big-mountain skiing as we know it today, and the other a somewhat panned 3-minute short of Jamie Pierre’s 255-foot huck for Jesus titled “The Jesus Jump.”

The night was dedicated to Doug Coombs and opened with the most emotional film of the evening, hands-down. “In Doug’s Words” is a film of the last interview with Coombs before he died in a fall from a cliff only a few short weeks later in La Grave, France. Rick Hunt, Jackson Hole native and long-time friend and ski/climbing partner of Coombs, introduced the film. While Rick’s speaking presence left something to be desired, what he wrote about Doug (“I just have to read this,” he said as he began reading directly from his paper), how he embodied the free spirit of skiing and the impression he made on skiing and everyone who knew him hit the nail on the head. It was great to see and hear Doug again; when it was over just six minutes later, there was nary a dry eye in the house.

“Town Down” captured the spirit of the so far 25-year run of the Town Downhill on Snow King Mountain, showing it as a Jackson Hole institution that never fails to satisfy on many levels. While a serious race, it also has its fun-factor (embodied in the relatively new “Phat and Baggy” division) and its fraternal factor (everyone who dedicates so much time to preparing the course and making it happen). A well-timed showing given the running of the Town Downhill the weekend before.

David Gonzales‘ 9-minute short on the Igneous ski company was rich enough to feel quite a bit longer. Or maybe it was my infatuation with their craftsmanship combined with my desire for a custom pair for myself…or maybe it was just my full bladder.

After the intermission, the evening ended with the 55-minute feature film “The Line,” Jackson Hole native and consummate alpinist Mark Newcomb’s quest to make it to the top and ski off of an 8000-meter peak. Interspersing Mark’s upbringing in the Tetons with footage of the team making their way too, up and off of Shishapangma, filmmaker Kiernan put together a film that, to paraphrase Mark’s words, made a good film out of a mediocre story.

But perhaps the most interesting film of the night was “Legends of the Fall Line,” Piton Productions‘ retrospective of the history of skiing in the Tetons. The story is one that has been ripe to be told for some time (and could, I’m sure, be told from several perspectives). Hats off to them for getting interviews of Teton skiing pioneers before these genuine and influential people have passed on. Just seeing Virginia Huidekoper and Betty Woolsey speak about their experiences in the early days of skiing in the Tetons makes one envious of that special time. It also focuses quite a bit on Bill Briggs—successful early ski off the Grand and how that became a turning point in big-mountain skiing. Conspicuously absent, however, is any mention of the development of Jackson Hole Ski Corp, especially considering the amount of footage dedicated to Barry Corbet (not to mention the fact that the Alpinist Film Festival began its life as the Barry Corbet Film Festival).

In the end, it was a well-rounded evening of fantastic ski alpinism footage. Not sure how y’all are going to top it next year, but I look forward to the offering.

—Chris

PS: After having done a little post-post surfing, just wanted to give props to Jim S for saying some of the things I forgot to about the Center and this festival in his jh underground blog today.

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On Newsstands Now!

Rendezvous Featured in News and Guide Business Focus

Homestead Featured in News and Guide Business Focus

Direct Mail Conundrum

Old Media vs. New Media

Ain’t Cryin’ Wolf

“Fun” Sites

Follow that Brand

Circumerro Launches New Division: Circumerro Video

Snow Night Hits a Home Run