Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hey everyone,

I`m new to the forums here, but it seems like there`s a great community with a lot of knowledge and know how.

I wanted to get some opinions of some others besides friends and family on a new site that should be set to launch January 1st, 2009.  It`s ThePrizePursuit.com.  Now, were not quite yet on our server and domain, but were finishing up all of our testing right now to hopefully launch by the first of next year. 

What we offer is a unique way for companies to engage with consumers.  What we do is we host online scavenger hunts, where players from all around the globe compete for prizes ranging from Nintendo Wii`s, iPods and Plasma TV`s.  Basically players are sent to sponsored sites on each hunt.  Once there the players must navigate the sites in search of answers to a number of clues.  The fastest player to find all the clues on all the sponsor sites wins!  I really think the site does a lot more speaking for itself.  If you wanna check it out head on over to http://thenewmediastudio-labs.com/Joe/index.php and feel free to sign up and give the test hunt we have posted a try.

What does this mean for advertisers?  We feel that engaging consumers with a product, brand or service is much more valuable to a company than purchasing a banner ad or contextual ad, which tend to be much more passive.

We also feel that if a player is sent to a site that interests them, the next time they are looking for that service or product they will be more compelled to do business with that company.

I`d like to hear everyone`s opinions on this idea, and please feel free to give any feedback on the site itself.  There may be one or two bugs, but they should mostly be worked out.  So if you get a chance check it out, and let me know what you think!

http://thenewmediastudio-labs.com/Joe/index.php

Thanks a lot, and I look forward to becoming part of the community here at Startup Nation.

-Joe




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ThePrizePursuit.com

Well it is definitely an original idea :) I can`t say that I have ever heard of such a thing.

What would be cool (if you already haven`t done it) is see if you can get both the multiplayer gaming companies and a GPS company i.e. Garmin to sponsor one of the sites.

Who is your target audience for this venture? Teens, Adults, Women? That is the only potential problem I see- TIME? You would have to say how much time is involved per day? per week and how long the competitions runs. And also the prizes you choose will probably determine what kind of participants you attract.

Hi girlwiredin,

I agree it would be great to get Garmin to sponsor one of the sites.  We`ve been waiting on contacting sponsors a little bit until we are 100% sure all the bugs are worked out.  But I will keep this in mind.

Our target audience is mainly young adults.  However, we hope that we will be able to attract a wide age range.  As you had said, I also believe prize selection will play a big role in this as well.

About your comment on the time, this is the great thing about our site.  Each sponsor site is timed individually, and a hunt could have a number of sponsors ranging from 10-15 etc...  So you can devote as much time as you`d like at any given time.  If you`ve got a lot of time you could do multiple sites in one day.  Or you can find one clue and stop for the day and revisit the site in a week and perform more of the hunt.  So while it`s still a race against the clock, you get to play on your own time, and you decide how much time to put in and when.

The competitions are planned to run for 3-4 weeks per hunt.  And eventually we hope to host multiple hunts in a month.

Hopefully this answers your questions.  Thank you for the input!

-Joe



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ThePrizePursuit.com

I agree that the idea itself is very interesting. It`s certainly a way to move people around to different sponsor sites. The key will be the types of prizes. If they`re worth money, people likely will be willing to do the hunt.

The site itself could use some work. The dark on tan text is low contrast, not easy to read. What you want is for people to instantly understand the point, see where to start, and "go."

One idea is to have a "start" graphic...maybe an "X" with dotted lines leading off the page. Only after someone clicks the "X" would you ask them for a UserID and login.

Lots of people are tired of constantly being told to register for a site, then having to remember thousands of URLs, logins, and ID names. If you could make a graphic representation, like maybe a comic-book "flow chart" of the process, then have the starting point, you`d maybe have faster engagement.

Another thing to contemplate is that I`ll make an argument that the overall corporate model is teetering and starting to fall. The basic business model of making money by offering advertising channels for large businesses may not hold true much longer. I read that football teams are "suddenly" starting to encounter this pull-back in corporate sponsorships as the economy goes down.

If all you have to offer is another venue for advertising, what happens if corporations begin to cut their advertising budgets...or demand some hard numbers for ROI?

Hi Craig,

To start off I like your idea of having a comic book like flow chart running the users through the process.  I`ve seen this on other sites throughout the net and I think it`s more engaging and not so bland. 

The text color we have been contemplating as well.  We`re having a difficult time choosing the text color.  We don`t want to overdo the yellow/gold as our headings for our pages are in this color, and we don`t want the color to be some green or red, as I feel that just wouldn`t flow very well.

As you had mentioned about the budget cuts companies have been making on their advertising campaigns.  This has definitely been in our minds as well.  As you have seen there have been numerous layoffs and advertising budget cuts all over the corporate world.  However, even the simplest advertising ideas can take off with the right amount of buzz and a good story behind the idea.  Take the milliondollarhomepage for example.  A VERY simple idea, that I myself at the start would not have dreamed of taking part in.  But so much buzz arose about it that companies were jumping on left and right.  Now I realize the economy was not in the same recession as we are in now, but hopefully we`ll be able to create some buzz.

As time goes on we will be able to provide the advertisers with hard numbers.  We definitely will not be able to charge the same from the start, as we don`t have the traffic numbers (Uniques, daily page views etc...) to show the advertisers.  But eventually we`d also like to offer players smaller prizes for making purchases from the sponsors, by linking to the sponsors sites through ours when they go to make a purchase.

And I just realized I`ve been rambling enough in this post haha. 

Thank you for the feedback, I will keep these things in mind.

-Joe



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ThePrizePursuit.com

Well we`ve got the site on our domain now! 

www.ThePrizePursuit.com

So please feel free to check it out and participate in our test hunt we have set up.  Throughout the next week we will be setting up a couple more test hunts that players will be able to participate in and get a feel for the site.  This will also be the time we start to contact companies and prepare for our official launch.  Which we hope we will be able to do by January 1st, 2009.

We may be making some small changes in the coming weeks.  But please visit the site and give me your feedback.  It`s more than appreciated.

Thanks a lot and happy hunting!
-Joe



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ThePrizePursuit.com

So I`m curious.

What does everyone feel would be the best way to go about speaking with companies about becoming a sponsor on our site?

Should I email the company first.  Then follow up with a phone call?

Or should I try and get a hold of someone in the company who handles marketing and advertising by calling first?

I worry that an email will just get buried amongst other emails and never be seen.  But I also have a feeling trying to call and get a hold of who I need to speak with will be a painstaking process.

Until some of our press releases and such begin to get published we need to start speaking with companies and getting others on board with what were doing.

Opinions?



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ThePrizePursuit.com

One idea we`ve looked at before is direct mail. There`s a community member, Cartess, who`s brilliant when it comes to direct mail. Over various discussions, I`ve learned a whole lot and it seems the mail format has the most success, generally speaking. IF it`s done well.

What I`m thinking is that if you were to take a quality screen capture of your home page (assuming it explains your message immediately), you could have it done as an oversize postcard in color. Then you could put your marketing content on the flipside, and mail the cards using a direct-mail company to your target market.

Having a physical piece of mail, people could put it in an IN basket or keep it in a pile of things to do later.