Acer asked Rational to manage a random drawing to win one of their products at a gaming event. Turns out, the product they wanted to give away was their most elite and expensive gaming product: the $9,000 Predator 21X—the world’s first 21 inch curved-screen laptop. We saw this as a much bigger opportunity to engage gamers and, once our clients saw what we had in mind, they agreed with one stipulation: We had to get more than 2,000 participants—the number of attendees expected at the in-person gaming event.

Solution

To tap into gamers’ competitive spirit, we developed the ultimate test of wit and intellect: a digital scavenger hunt that sent them across the Internet in search of clues to help solve challenges and earn entries into a sweepstakes, with the grand prize of a Predator 21X. To draw them in, we created an integrated campaign that spanned social, display, and influencer partnerships, reaching our marketing-adverse audience on the channels and sites they love.

​

My role in the solution: As a designer/production designer on this project, I was tasked with the heavy production needs. This included anything from display banner ads to social posts. This was a quick turn project with a lot of compliant rules to keep top-of-mind. I also helped to design some of the giveaway items such as the custom Predator mouse pad, on-site autograph poster for our influencers, and beer stein.

Results

With 21 challenges over 21 days, the 21 X Hunt was on. And they loved it. Enough to build a community around our campaign—crowd-sourcing solutions and sharing their excitement across the social-sphere. In the end, we went way beyond the 2,000 participants the client asked us to attract—295k+ Participants, 89k+ entries, 178k+ visits to the site, 223k+ engagements, 31.3M impressions—resulting in the most successful Predator brand engagement ever.