One of my favorite things about the ski industry is both the number of agencies that have been around for a really, really long time and the loyalty that exists to those agencies.

Propeller is certainly one of those.

And like other agencies, I’ve loved watching Dave Gibson and company merge all those design and developments skills with the gaps they see among resorts to build not just one-off solutions for individual mountains, but scalable web apps or products multiple resorts can benefit from.

propAPPS
There are two such products in this case that I’ve kept my eye on the most. The first is propMAPS. According to Dave:

“Our propMAPS interactive trail map has really grown into a very functional and robust product that can be embedded into any website with very little fuss. I think people intuitively get the value of this – as we all rely so much on maps today. Add to that the value for the guest who hasn’t memorized all your trail names. Now they can simply look at the map to see what’s open. “

And propDISPLAYS. Again, here’s Dave’s take:

“The other app in that suite that is getting more attention is our propDISPLAYS. This is a digital signage application that enable resorts to push graphics, video, interactive map, conditions, and instagram to an unlimited number of displays around the resort. In particular, I love how this enables those guest who simply know where their favorite trail is to look up to the screen and see if its open.”

I really do love this. Well-built tools to solve a clear problem, delivered by a group that is committed to ski.

My Favorite
Yes, I love me some web apps. But you know what I love even more? Sharing ideas and examples of what does (or could) put more skiers on slopes. Which is why I love Moving the Needle, a video series which Dave calls his “project of love” for this year.

I’d highly suggest you watch all of them (I’m on my second round through the series) but one of the most interesting is Dennis Eshbaugh’s (specifically starting at 2:00):

I love Propeller’s commitment to ski, I love that they’re building new tools that can scale outside of the typical agency model, and I love that Dave’s passion project isn’t so mobile app he hopes will get acquired by Google, but a roadtrip through the industry to gather as many bits of “how do we grow this sport” wisdom as possible.

Keep up the awesome work, Propeller.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.