Retail Profiles
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Robbins Diamonds' treasure hunt gets Philly on the run
By Joseph Dobrian
April 24, 2009
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| Lil Jerry, with a signature diamond in his beard, mingled with many of the 700 participants who raced around Philadelphia in search of a Hearts On Fire diamond ring valued at $20,000. |
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Philadelphia--Treasure hunts have been popular team-building exercises for generations, but seldom have they led directly to a marriage engagement. But the inaugural Robbins Diamonds Dash--held in Philadelphia this past fall--was meant to send one quick-thinking couple down the aisle, and it succeeded.
Its combination of romance, high technology and madcap adventure made the dash one of the most enjoyable quests since It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World left moviegoers rolling in the aisles in 1963.
"This promotion wasn't tied to a particular sale, but was intended to lead up to the holiday season," says Gordon Robbins, vice president of Robbins Diamonds. "The purpose was to build buzz and brand awareness, and it did a good job of that."
Robbins Diamonds is a fifth-generation jeweler that operates four stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.
"Most of our competitors are luxury jewelers or mom-and-pop operations that try to be everything to everybody," Robbins says. "We, on the other hand, are a bridal superstore. We carry the major designers of engagement rings and wedding bands, and we don't do much in watches or fashion jewelry."
Thus, the bridal-focused prize: a $20,000 Hearts On Fire diamond engagement ring. The contestants: more than 700 people, working as two-person teams. The playing field: the city of Philadelphia, including several of its most prominent landmarks. The equipment: the human brain and a mobile phone.
The event kicked off at 10:00 a.m., on Oct. 18, in front of the city's Municipal Services Building. Over the next three hours, contestants were led to Philadelphia landmarks, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Independence Hall and City Hall.
"We developed a series of clues based on locations all around the city," says Michael Hagan, chief operating officer of SCVNGR, a Boston-based mobile gaming company that created the concept. "The contestants, via a text message on their phones, all get a 'location question' and a 'challenge question.' The location question is a riddle or phrase that directs you to a particular spot; the challenge question verifies that you are at that spot."
Players might be asked "What's the most famous staircase in the city?" and they'd probably name the "Rocky Steps," the main staircase of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, made popular in the movie Rocky.
"Then you're asked, 'What is the seventh word in the plaque at the top of the steps?'" Hagan says. "If you get that right, it verifies that you're there, and you score points. The questions become more difficult as you go along."
The quicker a couple answers a question, of course, the quicker they move on to the next. To ensure that everyone got a chance to win the ring, the final location/challenge question was sent out to all contestants, but on a time delay so that those with the highest point totals got a head start.
SCVNGR's games are used for a range of team-building, orientation and enhanced interactivity for museum exhibits, Hagan says.
"We approached Robbins Diamonds because of its high profile in the community, and presented this concept as an opportunity to let people play with Robbins in a way they never had before," Hagan says. "We identified other partners, including a radio station, to publicize the event and to get people to sign up, and Hearts On Fire as our product partner."
SCVNGR also built a custom-branded Web site, RobbinsDiamondsDash.com, which received all the entries and ended up generating more than 2.5 million Web site impressions, much of that thanks to help from local and regional media coverage.
The concept was aimed at a younger demographic, Hagan says, but "all ages, shapes and colors participated," including a team of two service wives whose husbands were in Iraq.
Robbins Diamonds is the kind of store SCVNGR hopes to work with again.
"We're paid for putting together a custom package and quarterbacking the event--but we work with only one brand in each metro market because most of these are annual recurring events," Hagan says.
And what was the high point of the first event with Robbins? It came at the very end, when one winner proposed to the other (proffering the prize, of course) in front of the LOVE statue in the city's John F. Kennedy Plaza.
TIPS
Gordon Robbins, vice president of Robbins Diamonds, shares tips for a tough economy:
--"The challenges we're facing now are due to the economy, but they're cyclical and they'll pass."
--"If you can show value, you can enjoy a healthy margin. We maintain ours by giving the added value you'd expect from a fifth-generation jeweler."
--"What we like most about this business is our involvement in people's life celebrations, being part of an engagement or an anniversary. When it's time for the children of people who got engaged and married with us to repeat the cycle, that's the best part."
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