Ski Holidays with snoman

I’m just back from an amazing week in Chamonix!

6 days and nights of talking to local business owners and managers and they were really enthusiastic – everyone thought www.sno.mobi was a great idea and loads of business have joined – our Chamonix pages are already buzzing with bars, restaurants, taxi, ski instructors, lots of accommodation, chamonix ski holidays, property for sale and a lot more…

… but it gets even better…

… we have partnered with the Compagnie du Mont Blanc (the lift company that runs the whole valley) and they are now using us as their mobile channel. The guys there are very switched on – they’re really aware of how mobile web has exploded, how expensive it still is (to build to work on all devices) and are keen to use our system to communicate all their info to visitors in-resort. They have put our stickers in all the gondolas, kiosks and lift stations in the valley and they now run our Piste & Lift info and Lift Pass pages as their own – a terrific partnership for us both!

We’re also talking to the Office du Tourism – we could be very useful for them in the same way (providing a mobile communications channel for free, when it would be very expensive for them to build their own). We’re offering them the use the Events Listings for free (normally you would buy an Event Listing, like when a bar wants to List their Happy Hour).  The Tourism Office can then List all the major Events in Chamonix… and everyone can see them because everyone has a mobile phone!  I met an incredibly swtiched on young guy who is heading up their PR and marketing - he knew all about how mobile web is exploding and he was super enthusiastic… talked about working together as if it were a done deal…

… although my next conversation with the head of the walk-in tourist office was less emthusiastic… because I seemed to be offering a service which would add to her work-load (ie inputing the events at the start of the each new season).

In fact I think I ballsed-up this meeting, because I went into it fresh from the PR guy, thinking the meeting was to show this lady how to input Chamonix events… infact she is at least as senior as the marketing chap who prematurely said “oui!” to to me and this meeting should really have been to explain and convince her that Chamonix Tourism Office actually wanted a mobile web channel.

I spent the first 5 minutes wondering why the conversation was getting stuck, before the penney dropped and I realised I must start MUCH further back to explain:

- what mobile web IS, and

- why its technically so hard to work on ALL phones, and

- how we’re the ONLY ski site in the world who CAN, and

- how we can put Chamonix events into literally EVERYONE’s pocket, and

- how it works towards their eco-plans because they’ll need to print less maps and brochures and flyers etc, and

- how it will mean less people need to come into the Tourism Office (busy place) because the info is in their pocket

… and… and…

But I’ve been in enough BBC management meetings to know when you have someone on-side… and when you don’t…

… I fear the new chap may be out-ranked by the long serving person in charge of the walk-in tourism office… we shall see…

… its all part of the VERY steep initial learning curve!

I have to be really pleased because it’s a terrific start with the Compagnie du Mont Blanc, but for me, the best thing of all is how all the business owners and managers really agree with our goals for ethical business – we can promise to keep it really cheap (so every business can afford to be found) as long as they all add a link to us and put our sticker in their window – it costs them nothing and saves them a lot of money (we’re cheapest because we don’t need to spend their money on our advertising and search rank).

All very exciting – more to follow soon…

(re-post from March - moved from Blogger to wp blog on ski holidays site www.sno.co.uk/blog/ )