|
The Hunt
Sponsor: Volvo
June 12, 2006 through July 11, 2006
Overview:
One of the true ground breakers in the online Treasure Hunt realm,
Volvo's The Hunt was a creative and engaging experience that pushed
boundaries and set the standard for years to come. The Hunt was
created by Volvo and inspired by Disney's “Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man's Chest.” Volvo and Disney likely teamed up on this
venture after Disney entered the Volvo Ocean Race with a Pirates
of the Caribbean themed ship dubbed The Black Pearl. The Hunt allowed
participants to play online while taking a virtual trip around the
world, solving puzzles and competing for a chance to be a finalist
in a live hunt. Finalists then competed head to head on several
islands in the Caribbean for a chance to win the grand prize, a
Pirates of the Caribbean themed Volvo XC90. Commercials on television
advertised The Hunt by showing a work crew burying the prize Volvo
with the voice over saying “find it, and it's yours.”
Viewers were directed to visit their local Volvo dealer to receive
a map with a unique code, which was required to play. Online participants
competed in a series of 15 puzzles, with the solution to one puzzle
giving a latitude and longitude coordinate for the next virtual
location and puzzle. When the final two puzzles online were released
the first 3 Americans to solve them became finalists for the live
hunt. They were joined by the first person to solve a similar puzzle
in each of 4 other countries including Japan, England, Austria,
and Spain. The live hunt took place on several islands in the Bahamas
with the winner finding the buried Volvo XC90. In a surprise twist
Volvo awarded all of the other finalists their own new Volvos. Over
100,000 people from 5 countries participated in this contest.
Puzzles:
Online play was a combination of 15 location puzzles plus several
puzzles using a virtual map. The solution to each location puzzle
was a series of numbers representing a latitude and longitude coordinate
which was the location of the next puzzle. Typically solving the
location puzzles followed a pattern of first finding the numbers
that made up the answer, and then finding the correct sequence for
those numbers. Moving from puzzle to puzzle the participant went
sailing on a virtual trip around the world with stops in such places
as Cozumel, Cape Horn, and Isla Culebra. Solving these puzzles involved
tasks such as counting lightning strikes or ladder rungs. Every
few puzzles a code word was required to unlock the next puzzle.
The participant had to uncover the code words using a virtual map.
This map interacted with dice, a compass, key, cards, and other
items to reveal the code words. The final two location puzzles determined
the live hunt finalists, with the second to last being especially
tricky. This puzzle required you to go back to the thirteen earlier
puzzles and find newly added numbers which could be used to create
the latitude and longitude coordinate of the final puzzle. If the
participant had not paid attention to these previous puzzles it
was unlikely that they would notice the changes. The final online
puzzle involved digging up a virtual box and lid on an island, and
deciphering the code inscribed inside. Participants in each country
had a different code on this final puzzle, making it difficult to
share an answer between countries. The live hunt included a scavenger
hunt, a memory concentration game, a logic puzzle, and a final race
to the prize location after assembling a torn map.
Highlights:
The graphics and music from this contest were of high quality and
very entertaining. Many of the elements were somewhat inspired by
the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, making them familiar while
still being new. The teaser commercial was both enticing and entertaining.
The use of an offical blog and support for other online collaboration
sites was a refreshing acceptance of how online communities love
to collaborate on these contests. The prize was large enough to
be attractive, and the extra cash to help cover the taxes on the
prize was both generous and classy of Volvo. Giving all of the finalists
their own Volvos was extremely generous and showed that Volvo understood
that a contest like this should inspire the goodwill of potential
customers and not try to mimic a cut throat winner-take-all show
like Survivor. The 14th puzzle which required everyone retrace their
steps and find things that had changed was a huge benefit to those
that had invested the time to solve those puzzles rather than simply
finding the answers online. The live hunt was a fun way to end the
quest and made entertaining video.
Room for Improvement:
Launching the online final puzzles around the world at different
times gave each time zone a comfortable starting time, but ultimately
allowed contestants in some countries a sneak peak at what was to
come. Ideally all of the final puzzles would have been launched
together, regardless of what time it was in each country.
Two of the American finalists were family members, which isn't surprising
considering that collaboration was encouraged. Ideally finalists
would be limited to one per family.
Prize:
The Grand Prize was a custom Volvo XC90 inspired by Disney's Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, valued at $82,340, and $29,000
in cash for paying the taxes on the prize. Total = $111,340.
In a surprise twist Volvo awarded each of the finalists a new Volvo.
Winner:
David Hutz, 30, a computer programmer from Herndon, VA.
Finalists:
Jenny Buckalew, 35, Newnan, Ga.
James Hutz, 57, Carefree, Ariz.
Karl Lloyd, 33, Surrey, England
Susanne Kalintsch, 44, Trieben, Austria
Akihiro Horibe, 36, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Jose Luis Dominguez Monge, 31, Valladolid, Spain
Links:
Commercial
Official
Blog
Swedespeed
article about prize vehicle
|
|