The Hunt for More
Sponsor: Dr Pepper
Produced by: SoftCoin Inc., Circle One Marketing, and Promotion Watch
January 23, 2007 through February 21, 2007

Overview:
Dr Pepper began an advertising campaign based on the fact that Dr Pepper is made up of a mix of 23 unique flavors, and they launched The Hunt for More as part of that advertising campaign. They physically hid special prize coins in 23 cities and released clues online to help participants find these coins. Participants could find specially marked bottles of Dr Pepper in stores to obtain codes, and use the codes to unlock more clues. The prize coins could be turned in for cash prizes between $10,000 and $1,000,000. In addition to the 23 live hunts, one virtual treasure hunt was conducted online, with clues leading to a location in a real city, but the prize could only be claimed by calling a special number and stating the exact location. This live treasure hunt was bold and creative, and progressed fairly well until the end. Codes were released at midnight Pacific Time, forcing many participants to hunt at night. Some coins were hidden in poor locations, and the Boston coin hunt had to be shut down with the prize being given to a Boston participant chosen in a random drawing. It had likely been hidden in a cemetery that was closed due to icy conditions. Law enforcement became involved as participants hunting at 3am demanded access. In addition, the status of certain coins that were already found was never released causing people to drive for miles to search for a coin that was no longer there. With so much money on the line, people became easily frustrated with the lack of information available.

Puzzles:
Each prize coin was hidden in a physical location, and the clues were designed to lead you to that location. There were 30 clues for each location, reveled one per day provided you had a new code from a Dr Pepper bottle to unlock the clue. The clues started far away from the final location, and circled in by showing the compass direction of the prize coin from a famous landmark. For example, the 20th clue for the virtual hunt (which was in Hawaii) stated: “Head south and east on your crusade from this place honoring sacrifices made.” The answer to this clue is the Arizona Memorial, so the virtual prize coin was southeast of that location. Overall the clues were very clever, with some more challenging than others, and they taught geography and history to the participants.

Highlights:
This treasure hunt was a bold undertaking involving placing physical coins in 23 cities, and creating 24 sets of 30 clues each. It was revolutionary and exciting. The prizes were fantastic, with one prize equaling $1,000,000, and the smallest prize being $10,000. The clues were challenging, but still simple enough that anyone could play, and you didn't have to solve all of them to keep moving on.

Room for Improvement:
Ideally the specially marked bottles of Dr Pepper with the unique codes would have been available at least a month before the contest began. When the contest did begin bottles with codes were difficult to find and participants had to drink one per day to keep unlocking clues.
Clues could have been released at noon, instead of midnight Pacific Time. Having participants out searching in the middle of the night was dangerous and problematic.
The final locations for several of the prize coins were questionable and more consideration should have been taken to keep out of sacred places like the Boston Cemetery, and potentially dangerous places like the Atlanta location, especially when the codes were reveled in the middle of the night.
The coin status should have been updated immediately online. If a coin was marked as found it would have saved many people countless hours of searching.
The virtual hunt should likely have had the largest prize, as it was the only hunt that people across the country could participate in, without having to potentially drive for hours to find the nearest physical coin. The physical hunts should maybe have been of equal value so that your physical location was not a deciding factor in the value of your potential prize, although the random nature of the prize values made all coins potentially worth $1,000,000 which probably increased participation.

Prize:
There were 24 cash prizes that were randomly distributed:
(1) Grand Prize: A Coin redeemable for $1,000,000.
(1) 1st Prize: A Coin redeemable for $250,000.
(1) 2nd Prize: A Coin redeemable for $100,000.
(2) 3rd Prize: A Coin redeemable for $50,000.
(3) 4th Prize: A Coin redeemable for $25,000.
(3) 5th Prize: A Coin redeemable for $15,000.
(13) 6th Prize: A Coin redeemable for $10,000.
Total Value of all Prizes: $1,700,000.

Prize Locations, Values, and Winners:
Atlanta, GA = $50,000 = John Carroll
Baton Rouge, LA = $15,000 = Charles B.
Birmingham, AL = $10,000 = Eric O.
Boston, MA = $10,000 = Chris L.
Chicago, IL = $10,000 = Alex H.
Dallas, TX = $25,000 = Justin H.
Denver, CO = $10,000 = Micki C.
Houston, TX = $1,000,000 = Laura Janisch, 23
Indianapolis, IN = $25,000 = Rob Hefner, 26
Kansas City, MO = $10,000 = Sue D.
Los Angeles, CA = $50,000 = Catherine M.
Nashville, TN = $100,000 = Cathy P.
New York, NY = $10,000 = Daniel S.
Oklahoma City, OK = $10,000 = Lonnie M.
Philadelphia, PA = $10,000 = John R.
Phoenix, AZ = $15,000 = Jim H.
Pittsburgh, PA = $10,000 = Matt C.
San Francisco, CA = $10,000 = Scott W.
Seattle, WA = $10,000 = Andi M.
Tampa, FL = $250,000 = Simon B.
Washington, DC = $10,000 = David H.
Toronto, Canada = $10,000 = Ben C.
Calgary, Canada = $25,000 = Matt F.
Oahu, HI (virtual coin) = $10,000 = Robert S.

Links:
Article on Million Dollar Winner and picture of coin
Article on issues in Boston
Unofficial The Hunt for More wiki