Awareness Campaign:
Scavenger Hunt
New Home Construction
Case Study
A scavenger hunt is an effective method of attracting new buyers through piqued curiosity, engagement, and education about your product.
But this is not your average scavenger hunt.
The Challenge
In the new home construction industry, demand has high and low periods. This not only applies to certain months of the year, but economic factors can influence buyers’ decisions to hold off for longer periods of time. For the builder in this case study, demand had waned due to uncertainty in the region’s economic status, despite record low lending rates.
The challenge for this campaign was to pique the interest of cautious buyers and influence them to move off the proverbial fence.
Campaign Goals
The new home builder in this case study was an industry leader, consistently maintaining showhomes and sales centres in over two dozen communities throughout the greater metropolitan area. At the time of this campaign, 33 showhomes were actively operated by members of the sales team.
There were several goals for this campaign:
- Develop new levels of engagement with potential buyers through a unique event
- Drive traffic to the website to increase views of available homes
- Pique interest in builder products by learning more about available home models and styles
- Increase engagement across social media platforms; gain new targeted followers
- Drive traffic to all 33 showhomes to increase viewings and encourage engagement with sales team members
- Increase overall awareness of the builder and its products, as well as gathering fresh data about its potential buyers
The Idea
In order to achieve the goals noted above, driving traffic to both online and offline locations, I knew this campaign needed to be engaging enough that participants would invest time and effort. But I also recognized participants needed to be able to invest on their time, increasing the potential for more participants.
I developed the idea of a nine-week scavenger hunt that lead up to a final prize draw location.
By holding the campaign over nine weeks, it allowed us to give participants enough time to physically attend the showhomes as part of the event, either all at once or one per week, as the campaign progressed.
How It Worked
To attract the highest number of participants possible, we decided the prize needed to be substantial. In the first year of this campaign, the grand prize was a sizable sum of cash to be awarded via a draw from all participants who completed the hunt as required.
The ultimate goal of the scavenger hunt was to determine the location of the grand prize draw box, which would be placed in one of the 33 showhomes.
To avoid excessive travel for the participants, the 33 showhomes were divided up into 4 quadrants of the city, and the hunt was staged identically in all 4 quandrants. This way participants could choose the showhome closest to their location each week to collect clues.
Clues consisted of hints that would lead participants – over the 9 week period – to the eventual location of the grand prize draw box. To find the clues, each week they were printed on cards and hidden somewhere inside one showhome in each of the 4 quadrants. Clues were left in place for the duration of the campaign for participants who chose to collect all at once instead of one per week.
The clues required participants to visit the website and browse home models to help them determine where the grand prize draw box would be.
One clue was released (hidden in a new showhome) per week in each of the 4 quadrants. Social media posts outlined which showhomes contained the new clue.
Bonus clues were released via social media half-way through each week to increase social media engagement and gain new followers.
To ensure each participant was visiting showhomes in person to collect clues themselves (as opposed to sharing with friends online), a passport was issued to each participant at the beginning of the campaign. As clues were released at the showhomes, they would receive a unique color/shape stamp in their passport from each location. This passport became their official entry form once they had completed the hunt.
On the official draw date, the grand prize draw was filmed and posted to social media, as well as sent out via email to all subscribers.
How the Campaign Was Promoted
The event was held over nine weeks from mid-September to end-of-October. These lists are not exhaustive, but outline the general promotional schedule for the campaign.
Lead up:
- Teaser information with participant sign-up forms sent via email to all subscribers several times in the summer before the event
- Teaser information with participant sign-up webpage posted to social media platforms several times in the summer before the event
- Teaser radio campaign sending traffic to website to sign up
- Posters in all 33 showhomes with link to sign-up form.
- Billboards throughout city teasing campaign dates and details.
During campaign:
- Emails to subscribers to capture any last minute participants.
- Social media reminder posts to sign up, along with posts belonging to clue releases.
- Social media hint images for harder-to-find clues.
- Radio campaign for the duration of the event.
- Mobile billboards strategically placed in showhome areas on high-traffic roadways.
- Campaign posters in all 33 showhomes.
- Participants earned additional entries into the draw for each selfie posted to their own social media while in a showhome. A special event hashtag was used to track posts. (Clue location reveals were prohibited.)
Results
Despite the campaign’s intent as awareness-driven, participation and engagement resulted in new home sales. Members of the sales team expressed delight with the fun and light manner in which they could engage with participants, and participants gave tremendous feedback about the showhome floor plans and design.
Since participants were forced to look carefully around each showhome to find the clues, they were able to spend more time experiencing the homes and their floor plans. This drove some participants, who weren’t even considering buying a new home before the campaign, to purchase a new home as the showhomes highlighted pain points they didn’t realize they had.
Participants
1000+
Website Visits
up 32%
Social Media Followers
up 35%
Social Media Engagement
up 27%