Has your station ever had listeners participate in a "treasure hunt?" Hoping to benefit from your experience/expertise.
How did you structure it?
How long did it run?
How did you make money with it?
What kind of participation did you get from your listeners?
Any and all success stories greatly appreciated.
Samples of your radio ads or promo spots would be fabulous, too!
We did a treasure hunt for a 1 carat diamond for Valentine's Day.
We traded for the diamond and setting. The diamond would be set
in the winner's choice of settings to be provided by the jeweler. All
of this cost was done in trade.
How did you structure it?
Clues posted daily at participating sponsor locations.
In order to get the clues, the listeners had to go to these locations
Clues were not given on air. Promos contained only the locations
where clues could be obtained. As the date for the end of the
promotion got closer, the clues got more definitive and 2 days before
the scheduled end of the promotion, we had a winner.
The object of the hunt was a photo of the diamond that had to be
brought to the studios and verified before we declared a winner.
We used a special background for the diamond so there could
be no cheating.
How long did it run?
We started the hunt on January 15 and
it ran through the second week February/or until we had a winner.
How did you make money with it?
Participating clue locations bought a package that included
a flight of commercials in either January or February, unlimited
live and recorded promos, inclusion on Facebook and website.
What kind of participation did you get from your listeners?
Listeners had to go the participating locations to get the clues
thereby creating traffic for the sponsor. Listeners enjoyed the
hunt and would call in daily to ask if there had been a winner.
Back in the day when Budweiser Beer launched their "Bud Man" campaign, we did a tie in with the beer distributor and local businesses. "Find the Bud Man" would offer clues on air each day describing a plan or business in town and listeners would try to guess where he was that day or daypart. Listeners were automatically entered into a grand prize contest for Budweiser items - and I think if I can remember correctly, we did a big wrap up party at a partner night club and announced the winner there and awarded the grand prize. It was a lot of fun and generated revenue from the distibutor and participating merchants. Generated a lot of street talk in town as well. Hope this helps!
I'm so old, I remember a diamond ring treasure hunt at KWK (AM) in St. Louis in the late 1950's that ended up getting the stations licensed pulled. That was a first ever event for the FCC. The contest was fraudulent. I was with my parents who were trying to find the "treasure" at a location where several hundred other hunters were looking for it, too. The clues had become very specific about the location and that it would be found in hole in a 2x4 piece of lumber. We saw a potato chip company truck (the main sponsor) followed by a car pull up along the road where everyone knew the ring was. The truck stopped on the shoulder of the road. The car stopped behind the truck. A woman got out of the car, a 2x4 was tossed out of the passenger side door on the delivery truck, and the lady picked it up.. SURPRISE, the prize token was in a hole in the 2x4. Winner declared. Needless to say, with so many witnesses, the FCC heard about the obvious fraud right away. It took years to litigate. I'm sure nobody here would do a fraudulent contest. But, there are actually some very strict "Treasure Hunt Contest" guidelines that came from the FCC as a result. Not just about Fraud, either. In the process of that KWK contest, people determined from the clues that the token might be buried. The thousands of people hunting the ring DUG UP shrubs, trees, lawns .. all over St. Louis County causing untold damage to private and public property. What ever you do, place your prize token on public property, in easily accessible locations. One of the hunts I ran years ago had as a token our logo, cut from a window sticker, on a piece of Plexiglas tied in plain sight (once they figured out where to look) hanging from a low limb on a tree, "down a path, up a hill, down a hill', )part of a clue) at a state park that had a lot of hills, and trees. Our contest promo stated specifically it was in plain sight on public and didn't require any climbing, digging or unusual personal effort to recover the prize token. Another treasure hunt I did had a very small token taped under a park bench in a city park. Treasure hunts can be a lot of fun and can generate a lot of listener interest. But, don't take any chances of running afoul of "Uncle Charlie".
Thanks, Vicki!
Thanks, Sandi!
Wow, that piece of fraud was world-class stupidity.
Even though this is from 2016, thank you for the info! If anyone else has experience with Treasure Hunts, please let me know. Would love to see plans that were put together. Thanks!
