You don’t have to be a ruthless pirate to be intrigued by a hunt for buried treasure. Exploration. Excitement. Riches. Coincidently, all things that make a great, one-of-a-kind consumer promotion. So when Volvo wanted to generate consumer awareness for their XC90 SUV with the upcoming, long-anticipated release of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, we jumped on board and used our integrated marketing solutions to help create Volvo’s The Hunt.

For The Hunt, a Volvo XC90 was buried in a mystery location somewhere around the world. To find the car, participants picked up treasure maps at Volvo dealers. Treasure hunters competed in skill-based competitions where they were required to correctly solve puzzles to qualify for the next round. Entrants received riddles and clues via email that became more challenging as the contest intensified. When the field narrowed to a select group of finalists, they participated in the last leg to find the buried vehicle.

All treasure hunters received a rebate coupon for participating, which generated the quickest response ever for a Corporate Sales Thank You Coupon. The promotion significantly increased traffic during a heavily decreasing SUV market, increased Volvo awareness and generated millions of PR impressions. The success of The Hunt led Volvo to enhance the marketing promotion for Year Two in conjunction with the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, At World’s End. Our sails were at full mast as we explored uncharted waters to uncover this pirate booty.