Meet The ENVE Fray. It’s as promised: the new benchmark for modern all-road performance; a highly versatile performance road bike engineered with all-day missions in mind. You don’t have to take our word on that, Bicycling Magazine has named it their bike of the year.

Taking a step back as an agency, we’ve been lucky to launch four bikes and dozens of products with the team at ENVE Composites. This one has some added weight for us: In a lot of ways the Fray completes ENVE’s evolution from aftermarket wheel and component specialist to full-service bike brand. The Fray is the kind of mature, nuanced, forward-thinking offering that only ENVE could produce: nimble enough to see where the consumer is going and meeting them with World-Tour inspired construction and engineering.

Read more here: https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a60456227/bike-awards-2024-road/#enve-fray

One story has the potential to change an entire narrative. It’s why PR will always be such powerful tool in the comms kit; there’s just no analog. Even the most well-crafted, well-funded paid campaigns can’t accomplish what the third party validation of a placement like this one for BluBird client Powder Mountain did, in this case filling the queue with prospective buyers for their real estate initiatives.

Feature stories like this are not easy, they take time (usually multiple months), they take relationships and they require trust in the journalistic process but when they deliver, man do they deliver.

Give it a read, it’s a good one: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/29/travel/reed-hastings-ski-utah-snowboard.html?searchResultPosition=2

Successful campaigns look different for all brands, depending on what their company goals are. However – one goal we often work on with our clients is ‘widening the funnel’ to reach larger audiences.

Since we started working with First Endurance last fall, we’ve generated more awareness through prospecting campaigns to bring in new customers to their funnel. The result? 33% increase of year over year first time customers and in the month of July a 73% increase of month-over month first time customers.

How’d we do it? Drop us a line and we’ll tell you.

Following a record snow year Mammoth Mountain remained open through August. Which, of course, means skiing and riding on the fourth of July. BluBird secured a visit from the NBC Nightly News, who came to Mammoth for a feature story that aired on July 3rd

Although the story itself is light-hearted and fun, there’s a serious value message that underscores coverage of Mammoth’s extended season: No other resort in the country cares more about providing value to their pass holders by wringing every last drop of fun out the snow available. A number of resorts could still be operating given the amount of snow still on the hill, but they’re not. Mammoth is, and it’s important we celebrate that.

We’re glad Lester Holt and co. could help us do it.

See the story

We’ve rolled a lot of gravel with ENVE composites crew, all the way back to monstered group sets on CX frames when regular(ish) Joes and Jills actually had a shot at a top 10 in Emporia. Last Month, ENVE launched the MOG, its first gravel frame. You could say it’s long overdue, but we think it’s right on time.

The gravel segment is maturing, collectively we’ve come to know an awful lot about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to gravel bikes and componentry. The versatile MOG platform takes all of that accumulated knowledge, in the hands of expert craftsman and highly skilled engineers, and delivers exactly what you’d expect from ENVE: a better ride experience.

But don’t believe us: believe the cycling journalists who’s effusive praise for the MOG is rolling in:

See the Reviews

Snow is the most important ingredient when it comes to mountain resort communications.

It’s the tide that lifts all boats, but it doesn’t lift them evenly. You’ll notice that some resorts tend to get all the coverage, overshadowing their neighbors when major storms roll through.

The ability to leverage every bit of snowfall into visitation is what separates good resort comms programs from great ones.

Over the past month, Mammoth Mountain has been the epicenter of snow reporting, with over 1500 placements generated on snow at the resort. That takes coordinated effort, excellent timing, a lot of experience, and a wealth of healthy relationships to pull off.

This piece was also A1 above the fold. We’ve left our affinity for print in the dustbin of time. Still – pretty cool:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-29/mammoth-mountains-slopes-some-of-nations-deepest

This is one of the most important stories we’ve been a part of telling. This piece isn’t a victory lap – so much work still to be done – but it’s important to positively reinforce and recognize progress along the way. This story does that beautifully.

Told by a reporter, Jay Price, who’s seen the sport from the inside at events like SBT GRVL, with insights from incredible people like Amy Charity, Molly Cameron, Ian Boswell, Marley Blonsky and the inspirational team at Ride for Racial Justice.

Give it a listen. At a minimum it’ll make you smile; it’s one of those necessary “restore your faith in humanity a bit” moments we all need.

It’s harder to quantify the bottom line impact of “thought leadership” campaigns, which can put the concept on the back-burner when it comes to CPG comms. But In our experience the fruits bear quickly and repeatedly. Sometimes it’s best not to over think it: good things happen when you give smart and passionate people an audience, as evidenced by this piece Anderson Valley Brewing Company’s Kevin McGee wrote for Rolling Stone.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture-council/articles/trend-in-2022-an-insiders-take-on-the-quiet-revolution-going-on-in-craft-beer-1326277/

Skiing + Hot Springs > Peanut butter + Jelly. No where is that combination better than the Eastern Sierra, and we’re happy that Conde Nast Traveller agreed with us (and Visit Mammoth)

When the “best of” lists come out this time of year, it’s a good time to quickly reflect on what marketing and communications can and can’t do. The truth is – clever ideas and a well-executed campaigns only get you so far. Especially when it comes to a category like craft beer. When we’re objectively talking about comparing the very best of anything, ultimately the product/ service/ experience has to stand on its own.

But to be in those conversations, you have to put yourself in the room. And how you do that goes a long way in determining the outcome of the conversation and if it involves you.

This week, Men’s Journal named Anderson Valley Brewing Company its favorite Winter Warmer. The beer is excellent, and the brewery has as sterling a reputation in craft brewing circles as there is; those things ultimately matter more than anything else. But so does a six-pack of Anderson Valley Winter Solstice landing on the writer’s porch in the weeks leading up to publication.

There’s nothing complicated about it; if your horse isn’t at the starting gate, it doesn’t matter how fast they are. At a minimum, that’s what a good communications campaign should do: get you to the right gates.