Prairie Dash
- Brand
- High West Distillery
- Year
- 2021
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Makemepulse
- With
- MullenLowe U.S.
Objective
Timed to National Great Outdoors Month, High West built the game to spotlight its decade-long partnership with conservation group American Prairie and rally support for protecting Montana's grasslands. It also aimed to earn goodwill with whiskey drinkers and gamers alike by putting them inside the pronghorn's world rather than just advertising at them, while driving traffic and sales toward the brand's American Prairie Bourbon.
Solution
You open race.highwest.com on your phone and drop straight into a vertical runner, seeing the world through the eyes of a sprinting pronghorn. Press and hold your thumbs on the screen to build up speed toward the animal's real top speed of 61 mph, then react as obstacles rush in: duck under a farmer's fence, dodge or hop over roadside trash, and weave through wandering bison herds. Every run ends with a final score, which converts into two payoffs — a $1 donation to American Prairie (capped at $50,000, once per player per week) and entries into a sweepstakes for a $15,000 trip to Park City, with higher scores earning more entries.
- 1
The game opens on a mobile browser page with a title screen for High West Whiskey's First Annual Prairie Dash and a prompt to start the race.
- 2
Before the race, the game frames the premise: the player takes the role of a pronghorn, the fastest land animal in North America, and each play counts toward a real-world donation to a prairie conservation charity.
- 3
The only control is a press-and-hold: the player keeps both thumbs on the screen to make the pronghorn accelerate, working toward its real top speed of 61 mph.
- 4
The core loop is an endless-runner sprint across an illustrated prairie, where speed and score climb continuously while a stream of quick-time obstacles appears ahead, each demanding a timely reaction.
- 5
Obstacles vary between three types: fences that must be ducked under, debris that must be dodged or hopped over, and bison herds that must be slalomed around, all without losing speed.
- 6
Clearing an obstacle cleanly triggers a positive callout and adds to the running score for that sprint.
- 7
When the run ends, the final score converts into sweepstakes entries toward a trip giveaway.
- 8
Players can replay the sprint as many times as they like to chase a higher score, though the linked charity donation only counts once per player per week.
- 9
The game was playable only for a limited window in June 2021, with the sweepstakes winner announced after entries closed.
