Vail Resorts Announces EpicMix™ Statistics for 2010-2011 Ski and Snowboard Season
Nearly 100,000 Vail Resorts Guests Activated EpicMix Accounts This Season, Generating Over 35 Million Social Impressions and Racking up over 55 Billion Vertical Feet of Skiing and Snowboarding at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly in California/Nevada
BROOMFIELD, Colo. – April 21, 2011 – Today, Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) announced results and usage statistics forEpicMix™ Nearly 100,000 Vail Resorts guests activated EpicMix accounts this season, generating over 35 million social impressions and racking up over 55 billion vertical feet of skiing and snowboarding at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly, in California/Nevada. EpicMix is a first-of-its-kind online and mobile application launched for the 2010-2011 ski and snowboard season which allows Vail Resorts guests, at five of its world-class mountain resorts, Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly, to effortlessly utilize technology to digitally capture their ski and ride experience and share it with friends and family.
Nearly 100,000 Vail Resorts guests activated EpicMix accounts this season which roughly accounts for an almost 15-percent adoption rate by eligible guests. Also, almost 40,000 guests downloaded the EpicMix application to their mobile phone.
Additionally 45 percent of EpicMix accounts are “public”; meaning that guests opted to share their ski day statistics with friends and family on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. EpicMix also generated 275,000 social posts on Facebook and Twitter and over 35 million social impressions (based on Facebook’s estimate of 130 friends per user). Also, EpicMix drove1.7 million web and mobile visits this ski and snowboard season.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the success and positive feedback of EpicMix from our guests. The 15 percent adoption rate of EpicMix compares very favorably with the typical first-year experience for new mobile applications,” said Rob Katz, chairman and chief executive officer of Vail Resorts. “The concept of EpicMix naturally fits into the experience at our resorts. Skiing and riding have always been about sharing and re-living your epic ski day with friends and family. With Epic Mix guests can now share their accomplishments on the mountain online with their social networks on Facebook and Twitter. We are hard at work on EpicMix 2.0 for the 2011-2012 ski and snowboard season that will offer some new groundbreaking functionality and user engagement, and will be fully operational at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort.”
"Skiing and snowboarding are inherently social activities that are better with friends," said Katie Mitic, director of platform marketing at Facebook. "Epic Mix brings the fun of the mountain to life online by giving people a way to share their runs and accomplishments with their friends in real time."
About EpicMix
EpicMix is a digital application that Vail Resorts guests can access online, at their computer, or via a free mobile application that can be downloaded to iPhone and Android devices or accessed via other smart phones. EpicMix captures the activity of guests throughout each of its resorts, by leveraging Vail Resorts’ state-of-the-art radio frequency (RF) scanners that are installed at each of its 89 lifts across all five mountain resorts. An RF-enabled chip embedded in Vail Resorts’ season passes and PEAKS lift tickets automatically track guests’ lift rides, calculating vertical feet skied and days on the mountain and recognizes special achievements and accomplishments by granting guests commemorative, collectible digital pins. Epic Mix offers hundreds of available digital pins for a multitude of unique experiences available at each resort.
EpicMix allows guests to share their statistics and accomplishments through updates on Twitter and Facebook. Guests can create special EpicMix leaderboards with their Facebook friends and share their skiing and riding experience on a personal EpicMix Facebook page. The EpicMix mobile application alerts guests when any of their Facebook friends are skiing and allows guests to send messages to their private groups of Facebook friends on the mountain. The mobile application also provides trail and grooming information, snow and weather reports, as well as resort news and traffic updates. EpicMix also has a special website for kids under the age of 14, which allows them to connect with their parents’ accounts, but has content designed specifically for them and unique pins only kids can earn. The kids’ site also has special privacy restrictions.
The basic functionality of EpicMix does not require Vail Resorts’ guests to do anything but ski and ride as they always have. There is nothing to buy and no required check-ins with their mobile devices. The application automatically works with Vail Resorts’ existing season passes or PEAKS lift tickets and can be used by any guest at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly- whether they purchase a season pass or a PEAKS single day lift ticket. Next season, EpicMix will also be available at Northstar-at-Tahoe.
For broadcast-quality video footage and photos, visit: public.me.com/vail.resorts. Please credit Vail Resorts for the both photos and video.
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About Vail Resorts
Vail Resorts, Inc., through its subsidiaries, is the leading mountain resort operator in the United States. The Company's subsidiaries operate the mountain resort properties of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone mountain resorts in Colorado, and the Heavenly Ski Resort and Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Company's subsidiary, RockResorts, a luxury resort property and hotel company, manages casually elegant properties across the United States and in the Caribbean. Vail Resorts Development Company is the real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary of Vail Resorts, Inc. Vail Resorts is a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MTN). The Vail Resorts company website is www.vailresorts.com and consumer website is www.snow.com.