CREATING charity events that are fun and different is difficult, but The Smith Family did just that with an SMS team challenge.
The campaign was developed by Start Corporation as an event for teams to raise much needed funds for The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program, which helps educate children from financially disadvantaged families.
The SMS challenge was a cross between a treasure hunt, orienteering and Trivial Pursuit. Competing teams were required to solve a series of puzzles during the course, including trivia, observational and navigational problems. The wrong answer prevented teams from moving ahead or led them on a longer path.
Half-way through the course, a member of each team was required to visit a half-way checkpoint station to obtain a unique code to SMS so the second half of the course could be revealed.
At any stage, participants could reply HELP to get assistance if they got lost or stuck in a game.
The game was powered by Start’s mobile messaging application called ContactExecutive.
Around 150 participants took part. Almost 3000 text messages were sent and the event proved how offline components can be combined with online.
