EpicM Mix: Red defining the Cus stomer E Experience with h Big Ide eas By Nancy y Pekala Vail Reso orts has brought social to t the ski slo opes by crea ating a multi--channel stra ategy that redefines s the custom mer experience. Understa anding that half h the fun of o sliding down a mountain m is the t bragging g rights that come with it, Vail Resorts, which w owns and operrates six ski resorts in th he western United States, set ou ut to provide skiers with veriffiable docum mentation of their achievem ments. In 2010, the company launched two t mobile applications and a an optim mized website (snow.com) ( in an effort to t keep their gue ests engaged d while visitin ng the resorts. The T website is a must-se ee destinatio on for Vail Resort R guests s and would-be e visitors. It includes an active blog (Buz zz), featured d videos and d photo galleries.. EpicMix The drive er of the com mpany’s custtomer experrience-focuse ed strategy is EpicMix, a mobile applicatio on that aimss to make the e entire ski experien nce social. G Guests can a access the d digital app onlin ne or via a m mobile app th hat can be download ded for the iiPhone, And droid or other smartpho one. The app utilizes radio frequencyy scanners th hat alled at all off the compan ny’s 89 ski liffts at are insta its Vail, B Beaver Cree ek, Breckenrridge, Keysto one and Hea avenly Resorrts. It autom matically capttures the activ ity of guestss throughoutt each of the e resorts. The radio frrequency-en nabled chips are embedde ed in season n passes and lift tickets so omatically that guessts’ life ridess can be auto 1
tracked including the e total numbe er of verticall feet skied a and total dayys on the mo ountain. The e a is powe ered by Omn niture and us ses Adobe’s online markketing suite. EpicMix app Based on n special ach hievements, skiers are awarded a col lectible virtu ual pins. With h more than 400 graphic pins p available, each with h its own point value, the ere is a pin th hat fits almo ost every skie er’s ability. For F example,, the “conqueror” pin rew wards those who ride ve ery lift in one day while th he “Blues Trraveler” pin is given to th hose skiers wh ho get their picture p taken n on the top of Pe eak 7. Collec cting the virttual pins can be a competitive e sport in and d of itself for resortt guests. Rid ders with the e most points arre featured on o a leaderbo oard, and the pins and a metrics can be disp played as a checkere ed-collage im mage. Additiona ally, the com mpany comm missions professio onal on-mountain photog graphers to scan skie ers’ RFID-en nabled passe es, take their pho oto and then upload it to the skier’s EpicMix account. a The e photos run n the gamut fro om action sh hots, portraitts or snapshotts. Thanks to t the EpicM Mix mobile app, the photos can then be shared with guests’ frriends via so ocial media. With the tagline, “Capture, Connect, Share,” the goal of th he program is i to allow guests to cap pture their tim me on the m mountain and d at the resorrts and share e it with theirr family and friends. The Results Vail Reso orts reports overwhelmin ng success for f the EpicM Mix initiative e. In its 2010 0/2011 launcch season alone, a more than 100,00 00 users partticipated in tthe program, a 15% ado option rate fo or all eligible guests. T The first seasson also nettted 40,000 mobile app userss and more th han 280,000 0 Facebook and Twitte er posts, mo re than half of which inccluded a pho oto. Using g an estimate e of 130 friends per user, the 35 million social impression ns translated d to over 55 b billion vertica al o skiing and snowboarding, accordin ng to the feet of company. The mobile m app a also allows p provides add ditional inform mation for skkiers includin ng trail and g grooming inform mation, snow w and weathe er reports, re esort news a and traffic c updates. Vail Resorts R CEO O Rob Katz ssuggests tha at the entire EpicM Mix initiative is about red defining the ccustomer experience for their guests. g 'This s is more abo out recognit ion', Katz sa ays. 'This isn n't an advertiising model for us. It's com ming from ou ur IT and mo ountain opera ations teamss, like if we w were openin ng a new lift or o restaurant'. The cross--departmentt collaboratio on ensures tthis isn't entiirely a marke eting effort, bu ut rather an investment in n the compa any's infrastrructure.” 2
What’s been the impact of the initiative on the company’s traditional marketing methods? Katz explained simply, “We don't do as much traditional anything anymore.”
Speaking at the recent Brand Innovators Chicago Summit, Clark Kokich, Worldwide President at Avenue A| Razorfish, suggested that Vail Resorts has done what many organizations today are attempting to do, which is redefine the definition of a “big idea.” “You still need lots of little ideas but big ideas don’t look like they did before,” Kokich said. He added, “Vail Resorts made the product better. They invested in the digital experience in order to make the product better for their customers.” Kokich added, “Today, the Big Idea is about the Big Experience and the Big Product Idea.” “This is just a lot more fun for marketers because it’s about doing things that matter.”
Nancy Pekala is the AMA’s Senior Director of Online Content and Editor of Marketing Thought Leaders. Do you know any other brands that are redefining the customer experience? Share your thoughts in the Marketing Strategy group of AMAConnect, the AMA’s online community exclusively for marketers. Follow us on Twitter @marketing_power.
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