They ramped up for the new Batman movie with a behind-the-scenes video about people getting into character and coverage from the midnight premiere. And “American Idol” fans already have what they need to prep for the auditions in Jacksonville in August.
In this Q&A, Denise Reagan, AME for Visuals, talks about what it took to create a scavenger hunt contest timed to the opening of another blockbuster movie.
Sara Quinn: Tell me about the film contest. How did it come about?
Denise Reagan: It was a seven-day citywide scavenger hunt that combined print and online. The contest was timed to the release of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
This was the third time The Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville.com had done a scavenger hunt related to the release of a movie. The first two were smaller in scale. A desire to do more reader-interactive ventures led us to come up with a contest for this new film.
Here’s how it worked for “Indiana Jones”:
1. A treasure map ran each day on Page 2 of our Life section and on Jacksonville.com/treasurequest.
2. Readers went to the area shown with an X on the map.
3. Readers used the accompanying limerick to find the day’s clue.
4. Readers typed in the clue on Jacksonville.com by 8 p.m. each day to enter a random drawing for the day’s prize.
5. For the grand prize, readers typed in all seven correct clues to enter the random drawing.
6. Daily winners were announced on the front page of the Times-Union each day. The grand prize winner was announced on the front of the Life section.
Sets of four movie passes were given as daily prizes in addition to a different prize each day: an Official Indiana Jones whip, a set of seven Indiana Jones paperback books, framed Indiana Jones posters and a set of all three Indiana Jones DVDs. The grand prize was a Honda scooter, a Sony PSP Portable Gaming System and the LEGO “Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures” game.
How did these ideas get started?
Reagan: The first one was for “The Da Vinci Code.” It was a rather small-scale contest with little promotion, but it still generated some interest.
Next, we came up with a contest for the Memorial Day release of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” We simplified the rules, allowed people to play for just a day or the whole week, added better prizes, ramped up the Web site and promoted the heck out of it on A-1 starting a week in advance.
Hundreds of people were playing each day and the response we received from people telling how much their kids were looking forward to getting the paper each day for the next clue was exciting. When we learned that “Indiana Jones” was scheduled for Memorial Day this year, we knew we would repeat the contest.
Who is the primary audience?
Reagan: Readers, especially those with families, looking for something to do starting on Memorial Day weekend.
How did readers find out about it?
Reagan: We started promoting it in the paper at the bottom of A-1 the Sunday before it started. Each day we ran a limerick that hinted at the nature of the contest and included a refer to the Web site where we ran seven video parodies of the famous line “Snakes, why’d it have to be snakes?” Those were the highest-viewed videos that week.
The contest began on a Friday in the entertainment section. We promoted it at the top of A-1 and it was the cover of the Weekend section.
Each day, the contest was promoted on A-1 and on the Jacksonville.com homepage. We also used Facebook and Digg to gather audience.
Who in the newsroom was involved in the creation of this?
Reagan: This was a group project and an important step in the convergence of the print and online staffs. Several print journalists got to use their newly learned multimedia skills.
Several members of the staff brainstormed and visited locations for the map. Assistant features editor Tom Szaroleta finalized the map locations, wrote the clues as limericks, wrote the quizzes, starred in the “parody videos” and oversaw the whole project.
Joe Black and Craig Sims built the site. Features designer Gary Mills shot and edited the video parodies with the help of video producer Kelly Jordan and multimedia specialist Jason Pratt.
Kyzandrha Z. Pratt built the treasure maps for both print and online and created the Flash component (and had a cameo in one video). Graphic artist Patrick Garvin created illustrations for the word game.
My job was basically to bug everyone about every detail along the way.
How did interactivity help to make this work?
Reagan: The whole game requires readers to be interactive, not just online but around their city. Each clue requires you to go to that place in the city to answer the question.
Readers used the newspaper or the Web to find their clues (on the Web the map is also interactive with audio of the clue), and then they go to the Web site to enter their clues. While they’re there, they can play an Indiana Jones version of hangman, test their Indiana Jones trivia knowledge, watch videos or upload look-alike photos of themselves as Indiana Jones characters.
What sort of feedback did you receive from your audience and from others in the newsroom?
Reagan: Overwhelmingly good. Tom Szaroleta received many calls during the week from readers trying to get the answers.
The site had more than 22,600 visitors over the week. Hundreds of people tried to solve the puzzle each day with an average of 45 people with the correct answer each day. The videos averaged about 850 views each. The word game had more than 7,000 hits.
The winners were uniformly elated with the contest. I delivered several prizes and talked to them about their experiences. They told me how much fun it was to find the clues each day. Several of them reported seeing many others trying to solve the daily puzzle.
What were the important talents involved in producing this project?
Reagan: We had been doing some training in the last few months that paid off on this project. We sent a designer and a graphic artist to a Society for News Design Flash training workshop. Both of them used their new knowledge in the production of the videos and the interactive maps.
We recorded and edited audio and video. We built the site to automate the random selection of winners each day.
We gathered extensive knowledge of the Indiana Jones movies to come up with the list of locations, the trivia quizzes, etc. And Tom practiced incredible limerick-writing ability.
