Chevy’s Mobile Scavenger Hunt

Hoping to seize on the mobile gaming craze, Chevrolet is rolling out its second physical-digital treasure hunt this year. The prize? One of twenty-seven sedans that dealers will give away in twenty-seven American cities.

Partnering with Omnicom's Agency 720 and Google Ventures-backed tech startup SCVNGR, the automaker's dealers are staging a series of one day promotional stunts. Residents in Albany, NY, Omaha, NE, Portland, OR, and 24 other U.S. cities will be invited to traipse around their towns in pairs, using smart phones to solve Chevy-themed riddles prompted by the location-based SCVNGR app. Players  rack up points by answering correctly, and the duo with the most points at the end of each city's game day—between Oct. 22 and Nov. 20 depending on the city—will win a 2012 Chevy Sonic 2LT.

The campaign, meant to drum up buzz for the new model, is a larger version of an 8-city promotion for the Chevy Cruze that dealers staged with SCVNGR earlier this year. “We’re introducing the all-new Sonic to an audience that is eager to discover new things every day,” says John Konkel, director of sales operations for Chevrolet.  “Mobile gaming is a hot trend so these scavenger hunts make perfect sense as a way to introduce Sonic, while also giving contestants a day of fun.”

Agency 720, headquartered in Detroit, handles local retail marketing for Chevrolet's dealers. The brand itself, meanwhile, has been gearing up for its Nov. 2 centennial. Last week, it rolled out two new digital campaigns—one created by Mother New York, and the second by Chevrolet's lead creative agency, Omnicom's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.