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Montecampione - The best app for your holidays on the slopes
Written by GoodBarber Team on
Hello GoodBarbers, I'm Giacomo, I'm a strategic planner, and I work with a kind of unusual colleague: a chimpanzee that orbits in "digital" communication space. That is why my business is called Space Chimp Design and it was founded with the purpose of transmitting a fundamental principle for me: There are no impossible projects (as it would have been impossible for a chimpanzee to be in space before 1961), the important thing is to always think that they are "#StrategicallyPossible".
Your project concerns an app for a ski resort, Montecampione. Could you tell us why you decided to create this app and what are the benefits that you think an app can bring to this business?
Last year, in November, I started working with the Montecampione Ski Area in order to study the communication strategy of the ski station, a place that needed to find new motivation and an important stimulus for change. The first need was to structure a new website, a more dynamic and articulated one that offered (together with a communication plan through social media) content updated real-time, which is basic for a ski area.
During the study of the communication plan, a fundamental need emerged: How can we offer this real-time content to our users? How can we provide them the information they need, just when they need it, and also, what can we offer them that most ski resorts in Italy do not already have?
The answer to all these questions was almost natural: the responsive website was not enough; it didn't give us the opportunity to interact with those with skiing on their mind, communicating all the news in a timely manner, the updates, promotions etc... An SMS marketing strategy, on the other hand, would not have had the communication effectiveness that an image of a snow covered area, and the ability to make instant ski resort plans may have had. We were faced with the need to create an application that would give everyone the chance to have a digital ski guide, always updated, in their pockets, to consult in any situation and at any time of day.
What are the advantages? Surely the ability to send push notifications related to the communication of a new promotion and reminders about offers and initiatives, such as the weekly "Thursday in pink" dedicated to the women of the family. The ability to send geolocated notifications also gave us the opportunity to incorporate those who live in the area, giving them a sense of involvement.
Users creating accounts with their Facebook profiles also allowed us to get photos and videos of them on the slopes, and to build a gallery from crowdsourcing. This helped the app to become a personal tool, direct and customized.
During the study of the communication plan, a fundamental need emerged: How can we offer this real-time content to our users? How can we provide them the information they need, just when they need it, and also, what can we offer them that most ski resorts in Italy do not already have?
The answer to all these questions was almost natural: the responsive website was not enough; it didn't give us the opportunity to interact with those with skiing on their mind, communicating all the news in a timely manner, the updates, promotions etc... An SMS marketing strategy, on the other hand, would not have had the communication effectiveness that an image of a snow covered area, and the ability to make instant ski resort plans may have had. We were faced with the need to create an application that would give everyone the chance to have a digital ski guide, always updated, in their pockets, to consult in any situation and at any time of day.
What are the advantages? Surely the ability to send push notifications related to the communication of a new promotion and reminders about offers and initiatives, such as the weekly "Thursday in pink" dedicated to the women of the family. The ability to send geolocated notifications also gave us the opportunity to incorporate those who live in the area, giving them a sense of involvement.
Users creating accounts with their Facebook profiles also allowed us to get photos and videos of them on the slopes, and to build a gallery from crowdsourcing. This helped the app to become a personal tool, direct and customized.
Why did you choose GoodBarber to create your project?
The time and the cost of developing an application would have definitely been an obstacle for this project. We would have been faced with the dilemma of the chimpanzee (as I like to call it): Is there a "strategically possible" solution to implement this project? The answer, as in 99% of cases, is obviously YES. Sometimes it can takes a lot of effort and commitment, but this time GoodBarber allowed us to create the app in just a week, and to complete a communication strategy that, from the day one, has been time sensitive.
As an expert of content marketing, and referring to your professional experience, which feature is an absolute must-have in a tourism app?
Rather than a specific feature, which can be personal and unique to each project (especially in the vast field of tourism), I would say that the most important thing to consider at the strategic level in the planning stage is : the uniqueness.
Apps today have flooded the digital market. The fundamental aspect, however, is not so much to evaluate how many downloads we have received or expect to receive, but rather to make a great analysis on how to keep the app on the smartphones of your users and make them really use it! If we only report static content that we find, identical to the responsive version of our website, then our commitment is one step short of what is required to create an application that can be defined as original and useful.
When deciding how to design an app, always ask yourself this question: What can I offer to my clients (or to my readers if we are talking about content marketing) that they do not already have? If we begin to think about the habits of our peers, not only with a strictly business mind, we will find the winning answer to this question, which will give us the key to building a successful application.
Apps today have flooded the digital market. The fundamental aspect, however, is not so much to evaluate how many downloads we have received or expect to receive, but rather to make a great analysis on how to keep the app on the smartphones of your users and make them really use it! If we only report static content that we find, identical to the responsive version of our website, then our commitment is one step short of what is required to create an application that can be defined as original and useful.
When deciding how to design an app, always ask yourself this question: What can I offer to my clients (or to my readers if we are talking about content marketing) that they do not already have? If we begin to think about the habits of our peers, not only with a strictly business mind, we will find the winning answer to this question, which will give us the key to building a successful application.