Our Story

Port Side was born on a mountain bike trail with a 480p camera and a couple of friends riding hardtails in Bellingham, Washington. Editing away on a 2009 MacBook Pro with iMovie, I realized that filmmaking provided an outlet to craft feeling through the video medium. Inspired by our proximity to the ocean and fueled by this novel idea that filmmaking could induce feeling, Port Side was born.

We started as a video production company, but as the company evolved over the years, it became clear that the success of a video was only as good as the brief we were handed and the distribution of the content.

Knowing what we didn’t know, we started The Backcountry Marketing Podcast to interview industry leaders to better understand the landscape, upstream and downstream, of production. Our goal was to try and answer the question: "what makes video content work?"

Five years and 200+ episodes later, we'd evolved into a creative studio helping brands with their content strategy, creative and execution. The podcast had unknowingly became the foundation to our strategy work and had equipped us with hundreds of insights that now power our methdology.

- Cole Heilborn
Creative Director

Services
Deliverables

Our Services

Strategy. Creative. Execution

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Consulting Strategy

Most outdoor brands don’t have an execution problem. They have a clarity problem. This ongoing consulting engagement is built to sharpen your brand positioning, content strategy, and creative direction.

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Outdoor Content Trips

What if you could produce turnkey, social first content, on a quarterly basis, that is creatively distinct to your brand and share the cost of production with non-competing brands?

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Full Service

Our fully integrated service brings strategy, creative, production, and distribution under one roof. We work across branded entertainment, campaigns, and social.


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Deliverables

What We Deliver

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Media Deliverables

Brand Films

Branded Serial Content

Campaign Videos

Social Content

Photography

Strategy Assets

Content Mapping

Audience Research Analysis

White Space Audits

Creative Development

Briefs

Treatments

Scriptwriting

Our Vision

We envision a future where outdoor brands are creating emotionally resonant media drives measurable outcomes. Their content is distinct, creative, creates fans, plays in culture, touches the depths of humanity, and builds an authentic connection between brand and audience that is unshakeable.

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Team

We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all production. Every project gets a handpicked crew of seasoned experts who know your world, many of whom have shared their insights on our podcast. You’ll get exactly what you need to bring your story to life. Nothing more. Nothing less. Already have internal video team? We can work with them too.

Cole Heilborn

Founder | Creative Director

Spencer Astra

Cinematographer

Liz Astra

Editor

Joseph Cunningham

Podcast Editor & Producer

Emily Holland

Producer

Riley Seebeck

Photographer

Be quick to listen, slow to speak

Give the audience a reason to care

Lead with empathy

Goal first, story second

Ask harder questions

Bellingham, WA
360.383.7721
cole@portsidepro.com
Proud member of The Conservation Alliance