Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Daniel Montano. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Daniel , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about one of the craziest things you’ve experienced in your journey so far.

Evolution from MontanoSolaria to ElevationCreation.com

Years ago, Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado asked my Denver based graphic design firm MontanoSolaria to create a single promotional postcard, which we designed and illustrated magnificently. Little did we know, the marketing director was months behind with several other projects including the ski trail map, multiple print brochures and most of their international marketing pieces.

Needless to say, we were hired and were able to staff up and handle the work prior to ski season. But it was a really crazy few months! But it was all worth the effort since it leads to an incredible client!

For the next eight years, the marketing team at Copper Mountain Resort and owner Tony Novelly treated us like family with complimentary ski lift tickets, resort stays, and invitations to summer and winter resort events. “Work hard, Play Hard” was never a more an appropriate phrase to live by.

Our collective goal was to increase visitor sales to one million visitors a year, which we did with the first “Buddy Pass”, “Kids Ski Free” and “Two for One Passes” of its kind. The clever advertising campaigns and supporting marketing material we produced attracted IntraWest Resort from Canada. IntraWest eventually bought Canada’s Whistler ski area and Copper Mountain for $192 million.

The sale was bitter sweet, since we lost a great client, and eventually we changed our name to ElevationCreation.com for better Google Search and to focus on our national clients who need unified digital marketing campaigns. Our unique SEO- (Search Engine Optimization) approaches has proven very successful with two of our most clients selling to billion dollar firms.

Our story and evolution will continue as our team of professionals continue to embrace AI and other technologies to continuously evolve. We, however, humbly remember. . . one small project, can change your destiny.

Daniel , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

A little about Elevation Creation and myself, Daniel Montano. I’m the owner and president of Elevation Creation. One of Colorado’s best digital marketing firms.

I received a B.F.A. from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO and studied design at the Institute of
European Studies, Vienna, Austria.

Out of college I started my first company “Daniel Montano’s Creative Communications” and started working with national ad firms on a freelance basis. But I soon learned I needed to drop my first name from the company name since clients only wanted to work with “Daniel” and I was burning myself out! So MontanoSolaria was created and has now evolved to ElevationCreation.com

During my career, my firm has worked with clients such as Coors Brewing Company, Copper Mountain Resort, Denver Health, Renegade Brewery, Albertson’s, AdamWorks (Aerospace), St Joseph’s Hospital, Porter Hospital, Comcast, AT&T, Lucent Technologies.

Non-profit clients have included: Food for Progress Africa, Center for African American Health, The Denver
Foundation, LAEF -Latin American Education Foundation, community organizations. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) Alexander Foundation, and I’m currently a Community of College of Denver Foundation. board member.

Currently ElevationCreation.com is helping promote a USA Nano CBD beverage business named HempWolf.com. Hemp Wolf produces 2 oz. Nano CBD beverages using natural spring water from Eldorado Springs Colorado to create teas, coffees and lemonades.

Elevation Creation’s team of branding professionals, social media marketing experts, digital designers, and E-commerce professionals love branding and especially guiding our clients to new levels of profitability. And with the assistance of AI, we are able to reach even more customers with less effort. It’s definitely an exciting time for our industry and for our clients.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

A huge intentional pivot was in 2002 when we decided to leave print production management and focus on website design and digital filming. This began our journey as a premium website design firm in Denver and producing film and video projects.

The Internet brought about a lot of digital marketing changes and the most obvious one, was the move away
from traditional brochures and printed projects. Printed graphics were a passion of ours but the world wide web was taking hold and customers where not interested in direct mail or other forms of offline materials. Elevation Creation started offering websites and soon had a portfolio of work. This was the right move, at the right time.

Also, digital cameras and digital video equipment became affordable and we were able to offer our small businesses and non-profit clients affordable deals which helped them grow. Our customers looked like they had a budget for national ad firm. And our loyal clients stayed with us as we evolved.

We are now in the phase of another important pivot, using AI for refined messaging, faster SEO deployment and to help write our legal partnership agreements with clients. So far, it’s working out well.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients are articles and stories like Canvas Interviews and social media post like on LinkedIn. We find that the most inquisitive clients are looking for resources and professionals to help them grow their businesses. Most people know that their favorite secret little restaurant or bar may not have the budget to market like a national chain, so many are hard to fine.

The same with our business. “Small but Mighty” is often what we say to ourselves, and we have fun at this size, usually working with privately owned business and with the owners themselves. We wouldn’t have it any other way. And with Zoom, we can connect with anyone, almost anywhere, at any time zone.

Contact Info:

• Website: elevationcreation.com
• Instagram: denverfilmandvideo.com
• Facebook: Facebook.com/DanielMontanoDenver
• Linkedin: Linkedin.com/DanielMontanoElevationCreation
• Youtube: DenverFilmAndVideo.com
• Yelp: Yelp.com/ElevationCreation

Image Credits
copyright 2024 Elevation Creation LLC.