This post is part of Marc-Oliver’s Web Fiction series, which highlights a creative business idea for the digital world. Names are fictitious. Subscribe or see all Post Series
“As a creative designer I was looking for additional (marketing) opportunities to offer interactive experiences to peoples mountain routine. Ideas to connect them with the brand (in this case the ski resorts) in a new inspiring way. Its about: Life – Fun – Play.”
Well, you know me: I just love skiing and I love my iPhone. The question that came up yesterday while I was riding on Whistler and Blackcomb Mountain again: Can the iPhone change the way we ski? Simple question and some might say stupid too. But, think about it twice and take a look at some of those great ideas I outlined and scetched for you.
1. Chairlift Surfers – Discover People, Events and Services nearby.
Chairlift Surfers helps you to easy catch up with your ski buddies, find new friends on the slopes, plan backcountry trips, organize your aprés ski party and even more in a fun and playful way. I can set up a comprehensive personal profile with my skiing abilities and my days off from work. It matches community members automatically with the same abilities/interests and shows them on an interactive map, so you can connect with them on the mtn. way easier. If I live in a city the app will send me push notifications when any of my “followers” hit the road up the mountain, just in case I need a ride. Chairlift Surfers brings the social life back on the mountains.
The motivation for the app: Chairlift Surfers deals with the fact that ski resorts bring together lots of people who share the same interests and passion for skiing and snowboarding. This iPhone app extends that experience, easily connects them and takes the customer service of the resort operators to another level. It is also a great motivation for Singles to hit the slopes more often.
2. Ski Bums Mountain Ralley – transform your mountain into a living adventure park each day.
Ski Bums Mtn. Ralley is a checkin gameplay or call it reality game for multiplayers: Its the first real-time outdoor game for skiers and snowboarders (all ages!!!) and the iPhone app is your compass and access to it. Its a new way to explore the mountain and to switch things up a little bit each day. You can collect points by competing with your friends and get rewarded for your days on the mountain. You can also put your own places and happenings on the interactive map and share them with the community. The app just make things useful where you are – geotility is the key.
The motivation for the app:Ski Bums Mtn Ralley connects the season pass with the mobile phone and location based services – it adds a intelligent memory to the lift pass. It gives the mountain operators the opportunity to reward season pass holders with special incentives as well. The idea: Just get closer to your mountain and make the “hidden” visible. Create revenue with cross-selling products like the Kokanee Saskatch – let people search for him on the mountain by using their iPhone and augmented reality.
3. My Ski Instructor
My Ski instructor helps beginners and kids to become familiar with the world of skiing and snowboarding. They can set up a virtual ski instructor as their personal “company”, watch ski lessons and explore the mountains with the interactive trail map before they even arrive at the resort.
The motivation for the app: My Ski instructor is a great way for resort hosts to get in contact with first time skiers and snowboarders. Its a tool to break down barriers and help encourage beginners, especially kids to explore new opportunities on the mountain in a fun, playful and interactive way. With an update it could also bring customer reviews (rate instructors and such) closer to your fingertips.
4. Ski Patroller
Ski Patroller lets you experience all levels of a real mountain patroller by playing several games and full filling tasks. You can progress from a volunteer to a chief patroller.This game integrates latest augmented reality technology: The app tracks your location and at some point, it even asks you to do avalanche tests and bombings before you hit the slope in real-time.
The motivation for the app: The goal of this game is to educate people about mountain safety and avalanche risks in a playful, responsible way. It’s again connected to your EdgeCard or Season Pass. It’s a great way to reward skiers and snowboarders for riding and playing safe on the mountain.
Thats it: 4 great marketing ideas to connect with the digital, outdoorsy consumer. But, hold on! As a marketing department you would probably think; well it’s quite expensive and risky to develop such an application cause you don’t know if people are going to accept and use it. But let me put it this way: Two years later from now, how many users will you have on your clumsy, old fashioned and overloaded website? You probably already have more visitors on your facebook page than on your website. How much effort does it cost daily to drive a couple of guests to your sites? Where is your website when people are on the mountain? How do you connect with them? The other fact is; people gather around and spend hours on other major social media hubs like facebook, foursquare, twitter and what not. They wanna be where their friends are. And most of them already access those sites via smartphones. You really think you should invest in your website? I don’t think so. But that’s just future-talk.
Never underestimate the power of gaming activities.
“4 Stunning iPhone Ideas for the Perfect Skiing Day on the Mountain.”Marc-Oliver Gern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License. Based on a work at flip-digital. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at flip-digital. 
Tags: Business, iPhone Applications, Marketing, Social Media, User Stories
