The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Looking forward to going to New York in a couple of weeks!
via @kottke

Regardless, I really enjoy following the pro-cycling scene – well, the Grand Tours at least. Cervélo, a high end bike manufacturer run a pro team who competed in this year’s Tour de France, Giro d’Italia etc., fielding a competitive team and coming home with stage wins and jersey holders. The team has been followed by a couple of documentary makers since birth in 2008, and Cervélo have slowly been releasing beautifully shot episodic updates of the team’s progress.

I really wanted to highlight what they’re doing as a great example of engaging digitally with their customers (and prospective customers). The quality and entertainment value of the video has been consistently high, and the level of engagement it has brought to the brand from me is most likely second-to-none; certainly far more than regular ad campaigns or regular social media. Yes, the $$ cost to Cervélo was probably significant when compared to a regular mag or online marketing campaign; but considering they are running a pro team it’s probably relatively insignificant when compared to a year’s team budget.

I felt that Cervélo have given me something high quality, exclusive and interesting – enough for to return regularly to their site to get the next instalment – and it’s not often that you actually get something good for free.

  

Cervélo
Documentaries @ Bartape.net

Footnote: other cycling brands doing similar things
Trek Bikes Document series (and on YouTube)
Rapha – their blog and Vimeo account

via kottke

• It’s quite a compact place, but after a couple of days you have to venture out of the centre. There’s some amazing views to be had from many of the hillier spots.
• The city and people seem very sure of themselves, and everyone speaks english. It’s as if the place is very happy with it’s own identity and is fairly modern, but happy with it’s history and isn’t trying to be anything else.
• We were plagued by poor service in restaurants. Some was just plain bad, some unfortunate.
• One place we had amazing food was the Paladar restaurant on Calcada do Duque. I can’t find it anywhere online, but it was in the Wallpaper guide to Lisbon, and the link back there will take you through to it on Google Maps. Seriously amazing food at rock bottom prices. Sit inside for the cool interior, or outside if there’s good evening weather.
• Everything (food, shops, travel) is great value. Research before the trip said as much, but it’s the cheapest place in Europe I think I have ever been to.

Here’s a spruced up Google Map of what we thought was cool and where we ended up staying…

And that otter…

Gorge Skiing on Vimeo

From the week’s skiing in Italy.