The Vail Resorts logo in white text on a black background.
The EPICMX logo with bold black and white colors.
A person holding a smartphone displaying the Epic Mix app, showing a skier in blue gear on snow with the app's logo, user stats, and social notifications.

Gamifying The Skiing And Snowboarding Mountain Experience

Case Study

In 2010 at mountain resorts across the country, the skiing and snowboarding experience feels like the same thing, season after season. Vail Resorts wanted to create something new and innovative for their pass holders and extend the customer relationship beyond the average 6 days of skiing to 365 days a year.

The solution was creating an entirely new experience and brand for Vail called EpicMix. A new mobile (OS & Android) and desktop application free with all hard passes, that allows skiers to connect with friends and family, track their vertical feet and lift rides, broadcast messages, autoshare accomplishments on Facebook and Twitter, check mountain conditions, and earn digital Pins for on-mountain achievements and exploration.

Users earn points for their digital pins and vertical feet skied or boarded, and can see how they rank against their Facebook friends and other users on the EpicMix leaderboards.

It was an end-to-end product & brand creation project for them. From the idea of gamifying the mountain, name, brand design, UX, marketing, and tech production.

Screenshots of a mountain biking app displaying user stats, maps, and badges on a smartphone.
Screenshot of a snowboarding resort loyalty program dashboard showing user's progress, points, and badges earned.
Webpage showing Snow.com with a snowy mountain background, a skier, and navigation options for resorts, vacation planning, mountain conditions, and a green EpicMix logo. Includes social media sharing and user stats for snow-related achievements.
Close-up of a person's hand holding a smartphone displaying a mobile app with a Pins section featuring a Pow Hound Pin, earned December 1, 2010, at Breckenridge, with options to share via Facebook, Twitter, and email.

Nike+ Meets Gowalla in Vail Resorts App for Skiers and Snowboarders

— MASHABLE

DEMO

Digital Pins

A chart titled '180 Pins, 180 ways to say 'Aww Yeah'' with 180 icons representing different phrases or expressions. The icons are arranged in rows and columns, each with a unique graphic and caption, covering a wide range of expressions and sayings.

Figuring out all the ways to earn pins on the mountain was one of the funnest part of creating EpicMix. 

The hardest part was designing all the pins.

LAUNCH CONTENT

The word 'RESULTS' in bold, black capital letters on a white background.

10% Increase In Repeat Visits to Vail Owned Resorts

7.4% YOY Increase In Lift Pass Revenue

Led to Fast Company Naming Vail One The "Most Innovative Companies"

Implemented At Resorts Around The Globe 

Awards

The image shows the logo of the CLEO Awards, with the word 'CLEO' in large black letters and the word 'AWARDS' underneath in smaller black letters.

2x Gold clios

Diagram of a simple electric circuit with a battery, a switch, and two light bulbs connected in series.

PEOPLE’S VOICE