RIPPLE100 Micromarketing

New Hampshire wants you to visit – and is luring you with a Dream Vacation Scavenger Hunt. There’s one grand prize winner and 12 sweepstakes winners, but the real prize may be sheer thrills. Entries accepted up to August 16, 2009. 

Here’s how I graded NH Dream Vacation on our 4-way test:

• A for Authenticity! NH knows what makes a genuinely great vacation. The promise, the idea, the images, the memories, the whole experience. They capture all that in a good old-fashioned game that’s a natural fit for the activities and itineraries you’d be doing anyway. Their scavenger hunt has you taking pictures at more than 50 points of interests all across NH. Submit your pics to the game site and get the public (your friends really) to vote. The top 25 go to a panel, which picks the winner based on creativity (50%), quality (25%) and originality (25%).  The prize is a $2500 vacation package covering lodging, dining, activities. Treat the family on a pretty luxe weekend. Very timely considering the bad economy (still), rising gas prices (again), and summer junkets (always!). But the $2500 prize is not mentioned at all in the marketing (only in the fine print). NH understands the prize is not the lure. It’s all abut the fun. 

• A for inclusiveness. This is where brands almost always fall short – and kill whatever inroads made on authenticity. Not NH. Where most brands advertise one-way messages (what the messager has to say about itself, obviously self-serving), NH says almost zero about itself. Instead, they give the stage to visitors – to showcase the best of NH. Where most brands don’t even use social media, NH shows them all up with savvy use of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, mobile. In contrast, another New England State tourism site had that ca. 99 look, complete with the governor’s official pitch. Yuck. NH’s use of tech is light years away, and yet it isn’t just tech for the sake of. NH’s is a pretty ingenious word-of-pics campaign, where the state’s best sales pitch comes from the experience of its visitors as told in picutres. 

• A for constructive. They don’t just message you, they get you to do things! Even those nagging photo opps (curious source of tension in my family where the women want to take pictures at every turn and the men don’t) suddenly take on new meaning. Maybe it’s just what guys need to get the competitive juices flowing. Most important, NH gets you to get your friends in on the whole experience. Classic FGF (friend-get-friend) program, except there’s a natural impetus here to share your photos and get friends to vote you up.

• A for mutually rewarding. NH makes it fun, draws you in as an active participant, instead of just doling out hackneyed and self-serving spin. And when you’re there, it reshapes the experience – adds fun, competition and connectedness to the vacation experience. You won’t believe the price tag for NH. Almost zero. Total value of prizes is $3,100, most of which is subsidized by sponsors. Standing ovation on the cost-benefit when you consider the impact on visitor traffic and revenues! Bottom line, win for visitors; win for NH.

Only reason I’m not giving an A+ is I haven’t actually done this scavenger hunt and therefore can’t vouch that the doing will be as good as the idea. And I’m a sucker for classic New England seaside and NH has barely a coastline. But that’s not their fault. Bravissimo, NH!