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I've mentioned in past blogs about Twitter and some of the things that can be done with it as a business tool. Today was the first Sacramento Treasure Hunt (STH) done entirely via Twitter. And I was the number one finder of the treasure - although I didn't win it.
Matt, the creator of the hunt, does the marketing for the local Jiffy Lubes. He worked to get a bunch of other business sponsors for the first STH. Some of the prize contributors were: Round Table Pizza, Quick Quack Car Wash, Jiffy Lube, Rivercats, Kirkwood, and others. His plan is to have treasure hunts a few times a year and bring in more sponsors and make prizes even bigger.
Here's how it worked. Every weekday for a week Matt announced a clue via Twitter. You had to collect the clues and keywords each day. There was no need to go anywhere or buy anything. On Saturday morning he gave the final clue. The first ten people to arrive got a chance at the treasure chest. People from #11-99 would get some sort of voucher/gift card for solving the hunt.
The first ten who arrived were then given each a key to try to open the chest. So even though I was the first to arrive at 9:07 (last clue was 9:00), I still had to wait and try my luck at the treasure chest. Unfortunately, I did not win it. The runners up each got a gift bag with prizes. In this I got a free Jiffy Lube voucher, pizza voucher, Rivercats box seat tickets, and car wash vouchers. We then all enjoyed the cake (above) that Cakegrrl made.
So here are the clues and how I figured out to be the first person there.
Monday Clue: Channel Deirdre Fitzpatrick is on. Channel 3
Keywords "Quick Quack Car Wash"
Tuesday: Clue 2: A Nobel Prize Winner. marconi
Keyword "Sacramento".
I knew this clue would stall some people. Most people don't know that the major streets in the Arden area are named after inventors. All I did was go to the Nobel prize sight and look for Fulton, Watt, Howe, and Marconi since I knew it had to be one of them. Sure enough, Marconi won in 1909.
Wed: Jersey number of Zach Schrader. 4
Keywords "Round Table Pizza".
By this clue I started to look to see if there were any clusterings of the sponsor businesses near each other along Marconi. The best was in Carmichael. At this time I tweeted to say I was feeling pretty good about figuring it out.
Thurs: Clue: Where people watch.
Keywords "River Cats"
This is the clue that threw all of us. It was meant to. Matt meant that people watch their cars being worked on at Jiffy Lube.
Fri. clue: Synonym for street Avenue
(Marconi Ave.)Keywords: Jiffy Lube
I was still not sure. I did look at Google Maps to try to figure out what could be on Marconi that people watch. I also looked at addresses with 3 and 4 in them. But 3400 Marconi is in the middle of the stretch going by the golf course.
Saturday morning I got up and went to the Home Depot on Howe and then to the Starbucks at Town & Country to wait for the last clue at 9 a.m. Sure enough it was:
Sat clue: the square root of 2209 = 47
So I figured 3447 was the Jiffy Lube at the corner of Marconi and Watt. Remember, I had scoped out the Google map and so I knew there was a Jiffy Lube there. Sure enough, I was there at 9:07 and I was the first person!
We had to wait another hour and half to get 9 people there to try the chest. It took the seventh person to open it. The winner was a teenage girl and her mom. The girl had played all week but couldn't win because she was under 18, so she brought her mom. She got $1500 worth of prizes including $500 in AMEX checks and a Flip camera. I'm glad she won although I really felt I should have been given a First To Arrive prize.
View keys being tried on this Youtube video.
Matt says the next hunt will be in March. Now that the first one has been done and we are all blogging or tweeting about it, it will get bigger and draw more sponsors. I'll bet I'll be in the top ten next time too.
