Issue/Solution: Pirates Treasure Hunt Challenge

ksalwoski
Aug 31, 2017
2 min read

For the first time in 2007, we had no group booked for Memorial Day weekend, and forecasted an empty resort.

Our leisure market was the Florida resident, and there was already plenty of clutter (and low rates) in that segment. Indeed, a standard "Memorial Day BBQ" package would fall flat on its PR face.

Looking for PR sizzle and marketing sexiness, we conceived a weekend-long treasure hunt... complete with a $10,000 prize. It was cheaper than booking a concert (another idea we had), yet it had much more potential. Consider:

Pirates were hot -- Disney's latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie was about to debut in theatres. Since the original installment debuted in 2003, interest in pirates had catapulted. For instance, 'pirate costumes' was the most popular costume-specific Halloween search term in 2006, capturing 24 percent of all search terms containing the word costume, according to Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service.
Reality TV had reached a new level of popularity... and we thought the general public was ready to compete for their prize, too. Hit reality television shows like "Survivor," "The Amazing Race" and "Treasure Hunters" and movies like "National Treasure" had increased the appeal of scavenger hunts to the family audience.
Experience was everything -- and we knew people were looking for something to blog about, post pictures about on social media, and share with the co-workers.

Activities such as the Gaylord Palms Pirates Treasure Hunt Challenge were the natural progression of these trends. It give families a safe and controlled way to put themselves in the middle of the action while competing for their own treasure -- just as they have seen on television or in the movies.

To preview the concept, we invited the news media a few months prior to try a shortened version with their family or friends. The winning team family was awarded a prize to their favorite charity.

Results: We found a highly appealing PR story... a hit Promotions vehicle... and a successful weekend. The Memorial Day weekend was so successful, we followed this up with the Summer Treasure Hunt Challenge in 2008, and found the longer-running encore equally newsworthy and exciting.