A recent CU alum launches an innovative company called The Adventurous 500.

CU alum, Ryan Park, a social media strategist, created a new way to promote local businesses in Colorado by integrating unique adventures into daily video blogs. Each day, a video is posted on various media sites, all affiliated with The Adventurous 500. The Adventurous 500 is an online entertainment company focused on engaging Colorado communities with local businesses. Each day, Ryan Park is sponsored to discover something unique about Colorado that correlates with the daily sponsor.

"If you can imagine fusing advertisements with entertainment, putting it online and fusing it with social media, that's what we do," said Ryan Park the founder & CEO of The Adventurous 500.

For each of the 500 days, a daily sponsor creates an adventure for Ryan Park to discover. Because each adventure is posted online, the daily sponsors view Ryan’s project as a means to establish a presence within the online community. By creating a relationship online, local sponsors are able to connect with Generation Y in a whole new level.

“We have a Facebook and a twitter but everything else is kind of a come on into the store type thing. So we’re hoping this will establish us a little more online,” said Clare Lane, a sales associate at The Ritz, one of the local sponsors of The Adventurous 500.

Depending on the adventure, each video differs when it comes to the number of views and “likes” on Facebook. The more views a video receives, the more likely the sales will increase for that particular sponsor.

Wade Holland, vice president of operations and sales, said, “A lot of clients say they’ve heard people coming in, talking about The Adventurous 500, saying they’ve seen a little bit of boost in their sales, and that’s great for us because it shows what we’re doing is effective, and that’s what we’re out to do.”

The Adventurous 500 also gives viewers the opportunity to win free giveaways. After watching the video from beginning to end, viewers receive instructions on what to post on The Adventurous 500 Facebook wall in order to be qualified to win the free giveaway.

“I was on their Facebook wall and entered my email address and I won a free DJ,”
said Kelsey Kopasz, a CU student.

Aside from daily sponsorships, The Adventurous 500 is focused on looking for a long-term sponsor to partner with for the duration of the project.

Park said, “Right now we’re looking for an overarching sponsor. The value for them is going to be enormous, considering we’ve already hit about a half million views our first 90-100 days.”

The Adventurous 500 has already gained the attention of various local news sources such as the Colorado Daily, Daily Camera,The Denver Daily and Young Go Getter. As day 500 gets closer, The Adventurous 500 team is hoping to not only continue receiving local coverage but also take the reins and gain the attention of the entire nation. Ryan Park hopes to expand his company outside of Boulder within the next few months.