Restaurant chain Hooters launched a summer-long mobile scavenger hunt in northeast states Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island, which will award winners a 1934 $500 bill.

Hooters sends trivia questions to subscribers and correct answers will be directed to certain Hooters locations to claim their prizes. Through member subscriptions, Hooters is able to grow its list of contacts and literally lead the public into its restaurant locations.

“With the numerous mobile technologies available, including apps, social media, QR codes and location-based technology, it is easy to lose sight of the most direct method of what drives traffic and sales,” said Sean McKesson, CEO of State of Text, Atlanta.

“We at State of Text know that SMS is the most direct mobile method to reach your customer via their cell phone even with or without a smartphone.”

Hooters used State of Text, a mobile business solutions company, for the building and planning of the scavenger hunt.

Clued in
Hooters has promoted the scavenger hunt on its Facebook northeast Philly page.

The public can register on their mobile phones or online by entering their mobile phone number.

An example of a trivia question is “Where is the original Hooters located?” When subscribers answer correctly, they will be directed to a Hooters location in one of the prior mentioned northeast locations to claim their prize.

First place winners will receive a $500 bill, second place winners will receive a $50 gift card to Hooters and third place winners will receive a $25 gift card. The contest began May 25 and will continue through Aug. 15.

Hooters will likely use subscribers’ phone numbers for future contact by sending coupons, promotional deals and other branded messages.

Through the scavenger hunt campaign, Hooters will be promoting the 18^th annual Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant, which will take place at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas July 23.

Scavengers unite
Brands can often recognize a more determined follower through hosting scavenger hunts and similar promotional campaigns as a way to regularly familiarize the consumer of the brand.

Electronics manufacturing company Casio drove awareness and sales for its new camouflage watch series with a mobile-enabled scavenger hunt.

Local players physically participated in Miami, as others took part online for the #NeverBlendin artistic celebration. Local participants used the G-Shock application to connect directly with Google Maps to navigate through the hunt and Google Street view to locate G-Shock (see story).

Similarly, BeaconCrawl, an interactive bar crawl event supporting bars in lower New York that were hit by 2012?s Superstorm Sandy, integrated beacons with a mobile application to drum up business.

Beacons were installed in the sponsor venues and various locations along the way, guiding crawlers to secret locations via on-screen instructions, where they enjoyed special drinks, perks and were presented challenges and information, thereby enhancing social interaction. BeaconCrawl took place on May 20 in New York and the event was created by Aurnhammer (see story).

Activating the consumer proves to be a successful marketing strategy.

“We wanted to increase interactions with our brand, and build more positive brand associations,” said Jenna Folk, vice president of marketing at Attila Wings, Philadelphia. “This campaign helped our guests engage with our brand on multiple occasions.”

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon, editorial assistant for Mobile Commerce Daily, New York