Asia’s First iBeacon Treasure Hunt

Last month saw the implementation of the first iBeacon Treasure Hunt in Asia at Saarang 2016, one of the most popular college fests in India. The event was organized by Clozerr, a customer-retention app that makes use of iBeacon technology. Close to 30 Beaconstac beacons were deployed throughout the event venue (IIT-M campus in Chennai) to create a game for attendees to complete during the fest.

The Hunt was a huge success, with around 150 contestants participating, and four teams (of 3 members each) winning the coveted prizes. The hunt was split into a series of stages (four) – with each stage unfolding on a new day, introducing a higher level of complexity.

Though, Clozerr’s objective behind leveraging iBeacon technology was to increase the app’s user base and create buzz around it, such events can use beacons to achieve wider goals. Globally renowned events such as the CES have leveraged beacons to create unique digital experiences for their attendees and also to get attendees to explore the event.

How it worked

Let’s take a look at the prerequisites for participation, structure of the hunt and how the event progressed.

As we already know, beacons can do nothing by themselves, they can only work in tandem with an app. In this case, all contestants were expected to have the Clozerr app installed on their phones.

To register, participants needed to download the Clozerr app which would give them the first clue. Beacons were installed at several locations inside the campus (library, water tank, canteen etc.,) to sense the presence of the participants and trigger further clues on the app. These clues (both text and visual) would guide participants on what’s the next spot that they should be at. Beacons were placed at strategic locations around the IIT campus, that were hinted at in the app. Monitors were set up at the registration desk tracking participants and giving real-time updates.

When an attendee got close to a beacon, the app would light up, letting them know that a beacon was nearby. Once the participants found all of the beacons for a specific part of their adventure, they would qualify for the next stage. Ultimately, four winning teams (the third runner-up position ended in a tie) received some amazing prizes on the last day of the event.

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The event was highly successful and participants thoroughly enjoyed the thrilling experience that the hunt offered. As with all such events, beyond the technical hurdles, there are a myriad of conceptual details that one needs to get right when designing an experience of this kind. These include things such as ensuring that it is hard to find/decipher the clues, making the prizes as exciting as it can be etc. All of these judgment calls are critical in this or any other proximity based marketing program.

We asked Rahul KR, the CEO of Clozerr, why they chose Beaconstac beacons and the platform for the hunt. He said it was the “flexibility and complete control over beacons offered by Beaconstac” that helped them zero down on the Beaconstac platform. You can set up your own iBeacon scavenger hunt in 5 simple steps. We have discussed these in detail in our blog on how you can set up your own scavenger hunt using Beaconstac.

We expect to see many more such interesting beacon implementations in the future. Are there any interesting beacon use cases you want to implement but are not sure where to get started? Let us know in the comments below.

If you are planning a beacon pilot, take a look at Beaconstac, that includes everything you need to get started. Using Beaconstac you can set up your own campaign, without a developer’s help!