The network of outdoor enthusiast sites at NameMedia all contain forums, where users post up to 30,000 messages a day.  What in the world are they all talking about?  GEAR....routes....travel plans...you name it.  But if you dig a little deeper into this, what you will find is that these people are also looking for the opinions of other fellow outdoor enthusiasts.  Its their opinion that counts most.   As a marketer for your outdoor brand, understanding this and positioning your company in the thick of these conversations is some of the best use of advertising budget you can make.

Want proof?An interesting article came out earlier in the month from Nielsen titled, "Global Advertising: Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most"
It's a long read, but here is one quick point to walk away with:

- Ninety percent or consumers surveyed noted that they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 percent trusted consumer opinions posted online.

It's important to note that branded websites hold down a 70% factor as well when it comes to reaching the outdoor enthusiast.  But what is easier?  Tossing some banners out on a network and hoping some people click on the ad and then get to your site....or advertising in the areas of the web where people are already discussing your product, already engaged with your brand, and seconds away from hitting REI ( our top exit point) and making a purchase?

I'm not sure about you, but when I come home at night and check the mail, there are easily 2-3 new magazines in there or catalogs.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy flipping through them to see what's new and what certain writers have to say (and to also see which brands are copying who).  

But as far as time goes, I'm lucky if I can sit down for more 15 minutes at night and catch up before I fall asleep.  So much for the 16 magazines by the bed that I have to still flip through.  I went to REI last week and grabbed three mags on Kayaking and have barely made it half way through one.

But at work.  Totally different ball game.  I have blogs I read, forums to scroll through, and of course I am always researching new gear (still hunting for the ocean Kayak...Valley or Seda).  Now where you do think Seda is placing their ads?  Yup, you guessed it.  In the trade journals that are beside my bed that I haven't read yet.

And of course if I'm reading Outside magazine, how would Seda know that I was in there hoping to find an article titled " 10 mistakes to avoid when buying your first ocean kayak"

I think you get my point.  You need to be in areas where you know your customers are....as well as they areas they might be.  Online advertising can show you this, in real time.  We've worked with a few recent outdoor brands where sure, they knew exactly the types of enthusiasts they were trying to reach so they allocated a large portion of their media buy to our Fishing sites.  But what we also did for them was run a few more impressions across our outdoor network to help them uncover new markets.  Turned out the biking and hiking crowd was pretty excited about their product as well.

To give you an idea of the type of people in our network of enthusiast sites, here is your typical activity breakdown for the Alpha Outdoor Consumer in our channel:



OUTDOOR SPORTS & ACTIVITIES

Running  50%
Fitness Walking  67%
Backpacking  42%
Hiking  68%
Camping  64%
Fly Fishing  14%
Mountaineering    9%
Kayaking  17%
Canoeing  28%
Surfing    9%
Yoga  22%
Scuba Dive  14.5%
Fly Fishing  11%
Cycling  40%
Mountain Biking     35%


Does anyone out there in the outdoor space have a product that does not fit with the above demographic?  I'd love to hear from someone who has an example!

So with the last two posts, I have pointed out two companies ( REI and Navionics) who have launched their own iPhone app as a means to garner more mind share with their brand enthusiasts.  So which model is better?  Free or paid?

A little digging pops up an interesting article from Pinch Media (as reported in Tech Crunch) where they looked at this situation a little deeper:

"There may be more than 20,000 iPhone apps out there that have been downloaded more than 500 million times, but what is the average shelf life of each app? Greg Yardley, CEO of Pinch Media, offers some stats based on the 30 million+ downloads his iPhone app analytics startup has kept tabs on. One of the most telling slides in a recent presentation he gave shows the drop-off rate in iPhone app usage (see above; entire slide presentation embedded below). For free applications, only about 20 percent of users return to use the app the first day after they download it, and then it quickly drops off from there. By 30 days out, less than 5 percent are using the app. The chart for paid apps shows a slightly steeper fall-off rate. So there is a very brief window of time to capture people’s attention and potential revenues.

The key insight of the presentation is derived from this data. Because it answers the eternal question that all iPhone developers have: Should my app be free or should I charge for it? For all but the most successful apps, the free route does not make much sense because ther eis not enough time to recoup the costs of developing the app from advertising.

Free apps tend to be run 6.6 times more often than paid apps, but even with that increased usage, it is not enough to make more money. Yardley offers some quick math. The average paid app returns $0.70/user. The average free app is run 80 sessions. In order to earn the same as a paid app on a per user basis, the free app would have to command an $8.75 CPM (cost per thousand ad impressions). But most iPhone app ad rates are in the $0.50 to $2.00 range. That is assuming on ad per session. The other option is to bombard users with more ads, which might scare them away.

Yardley estimates that less than 5 percent of all apps woul dmake more money right now with advertising than charging for paid downloads. His advice: “Unless there is something inherent about the app that screams free, sell it.”