Scavenger Hunts for Events: The Complete Planning Guide
What Makes a Scavenger Hunt "Custom" (vs. Pre-Packaged Options)
When it comes to scavenger hunt planning, if you want a “typical” scavenger hunt for events, there are many pre-packaged, interactive event ideas you could find. Want a nature scavenger hunt you could host during your next family outing? Or a photo scavenger hunt for your bachelorette party? You can pick up many event scavenger hunt ideas for free online to accommodate this. Need a scavenger hunt that highlights information about your company or specific location? Not so much…
Now it’s time to call in a professional who knows what it takes to create one that:
· Educates by seamlessly weaving in whatever you want participants to walk away knowing more about, such as product attributes, training information, how to get around your campus, the top restaurants/shops in your location, and more!
· Entertains instead of preaches. When players discover hidden gems as they hunt down GPS markers and solve clues using information that tie into your objectives, your training is met with an “aha” moment instead of a glazed over stare, your corporate event entertainment exceeds all expectations, and your target market is bowled over.
· Engages your participants, whether it’s a small or a large group scavenger hunt. The goal is to ensure they have so much fun as they’re playing, they will fondly remember the experience and retain your messaging.
Top Applications & Use Cases for Scavenger Hunts
There is truly no limit as to how scavenger hunts for events can be used, however some of the most popular uses include:
Internal Corporate: Here are some corporate scavenger hunt ideas – use them for:
Orientation – Starting a new job is like drinking from a fire hose. Added to the learning curve of what your job entails is having to remember where everything is. A scavenger hunt can get people to these locations and attach a memory to it, making it stick in new hires’ consciousness.
Training – Ever wonder if your team is really absorbing all that training? Put it to the test by incorporating it into clues in a custom scavenger hunt or escape room experience. Or deliver it from the get-go in a way that entertains while educating.
Meetings & Conferences – Conference scavenger hunt ideas include engaging your in-person attendees or gaining a connection amongst those who participate remotely during a virtual meeting. Custom scavenger hunts allow your team to play outside the cubicle (or ballroom) and build camaraderie in a unique way.
Corporate Event Entertainment – Have employees get to know each other better as they solve clues together during an afternoon team-based scavenger hunt, or create a networking scavenger hunt that encourages individuals to mix and mingle during a reception event.
Marketing: Some of the event scavenger hunt ideas that get your message out include:
Product and Press Launches – How do you get people excited about your new offering? You immerse them in it! Not only will players get to experience it, you make it a newsworthy activity for media engagement.
Trade Show Enhancement – Bypass the typical “get a stamp on a passport from every trade show booth” game. Instead, free up exhibitors from being interrupted as they talk with real prospects only to stamp players’ cards. Encourage attendees to interact with exhibitor content in a more memorable way that highlights their product or service. Trade show scavenger hunt challenges can run the gamut from simply answering a question that is gleaned from information on display in the booth, to taking a deeper dive and using this information to solve clues.
Tours – A custom scavenger hunt can free up staff time, as guests go on a self-guided tour, courtesy of a GPS scavenger hunt that leads them to locations and then engages them with what is there when they arrive. This is the perfect way for visitors to explore your campus, attraction, hotel, community, city, or other location!
Programming - Some of the ways scavenger hunts for events can be used include:
Special Events – A custom scavenger hunt can spice up your typical holiday offering, or create a “holiday” unique to you by attracting guests to visit your location during off-peak times to participate in a custom scavenger hunt.
Promotions – If you’re looking for an interactive event idea, an entire custom scavenger hunt can be built to promote your offering, or build promotions into each challenge within the custom scavenger hunt. For instance, upon visiting a vendor’s location – for which you obtained sponsorship money – a coupon code can be provided to players to activate the scavenger hunt.
Recreation Programs – Need to add activities to your calendar of events, but don’t have the resources to dedicate to it? A custom scavenger hunt can be designed so individuals can do this on their own at any time with no staffing required. Or it can be a “happening” for a large group scavenger hunt that can be led with minimal staffing.
Considerations For Custom Scavenger Hunts
Now that you know you want a custom scavenger hunt, it’s time to start creating event scavenger hunt ideas for the clues and challenges that comprise it. When it comes to scavenger hunt planning, you have to assess three different elements – the type of scavenger hunt you want, how you wish players to participate in it and delivery method.
Types of Scavenger Hunts
When you hear the term “scavenger hunt” it instantly conjures an image in your mind. But that image will vary greatly depending on your experiences with them. That’s because there are so many different types of scavenger hunts. It could be:
A simple Scavenger Hunt List of items players must find and bring back.
A Photo Scavenger Hunt that has players capturing photos to prove they have found or completed a challenge.
A Point-to-Point Scavenger Hunt, which is a linear hunt that finds players going to a location to solve one clue in order to obtain information that will reveal the location of the next clue.
A Multi-Point Scavenger Hunt that lists all challenges players must complete right at the start of the scavenger hunt, allowing players to choose how they wish to tackle them.
Scavenger Hunt Participation
Next, you need to consider how players will participate in the scavenger hunt. Will this be an ongoing scavenger hunt left open during an extended period of time for people to participate in at their leisure? Or are they participating in an organized hunt led for a set amount of time on a specific day? If the latter, this could be:
In person with the entire group meeting to participate together in one location.
Virtual with the entire group meeting online to participate together.
Hybrid with the entire group participating together in the same custom scavenger hunt, but with part of the group being together in person and the other part playing remotely.
Another consideration to weigh up is if players will be participating as individuals or if you want group scavenger hunt activities to be conducted in teams.
Technology Considerations: Apps vs. Paper & GPS Tracking
Lastly, once you decide on the type of scavenger hunt you want and how players will take part, you have to decide how players will obtain the information:
Traditional Paper – Players receive a handout or booklet. They either have to pick this up from a location or print it out on their own.
App-Based – Players download a scavenger hunt app for events on their phone or tablet and enter or scan a code to access the scavenger hunt. Further to this you need to weigh up if you will have players access challenges by:
Tapping on icons on a game board. This is ideal if your custom scavenger hunt is being held indoors, or if it does not matter where players go to complete challenges. This is perfect for hunts where you wish to give them complete freedom to do challenges wherever they choose, such as if you are offering a hunt where players can participate from wherever home is for them.
Making their way to GPS Hotspots. Challenges only unlock once players get within range of these hotspots. This is idyllic if you wish to drive players to specific locations around the hunt area.
Web-Based – Players visit a web site to access clues and challenges.
Which choice you make really depends on your goals. While some clients express concerns that creating a custom scavenger hunt on an app only increases sceentime rather than actual interpersonal engagement, keep in mind that the app is simply the means of communicating the challenges and actually enhances the experience as the app is able to incorporate images, graphics, and even audio and visual elements. The prevalence of mobile devices and unlimited data plans means players don’t think twice about using this format to access the custom scavenger hunt experience.
The Planning Process & Timeline: What to Expect
People are often overwhelmed when they decide to move forward with scavenger hunt planning. And if they are doing it on their own, there is good reason to be, as it takes a lot of thought, work and finesse to pull it off flawlessly. Which is why working with a professional who understands the inner workings and potential pitfalls is so important. It takes most of the pressure off of you!
That’s not to say you’re not involved at all! A good professional will want your input to fashion the perfect custom scavenger hunt for your needs. When we work with clients to design a custom scavenger hunt, we schedule an initial planning session where we discuss objectives and drill down into desired outcome. Next, we work with you to obtain all the interactive event ideas you have and information you wish to weave into the hunt. That’s not to say you have to figure out the clues and challenges! Although we have had some clients who wanted to do this, most are contracting with a professional because they know our expertise will result in clues and challenges that not only work, but surpass their expectations.
What this looks like for us is our clients provide us with raw information they wish to incorporate into the scavenger hunt– a website, PowerPoints, reports, etc. Or if a location needs to be spotlighted, photos and videos need to be provided or a site visit should be conducted. From there, an outline of clues and challenges is provided for review. Once the content is perfected, the hunt itself is designed, either on paper or programmed into the scavenger hunt app for events. Review happens once again, as sometimes clues and challenges take on a different feel once graphic design is added to it and flow is brought to life. Finally, once you are happy with the end result, the hunt is ready for implementation.
How long this process takes can vary greatly, depending on the breadth of the work and the ability for the client to grant approval. We typically prefer a lead-in time of 8 weeks, but if a client is prepared to move quickly on providing information, reviewing, and providing permission - and workload on our side allows - the process can go faster.
Key Design Elements: Puzzles, Challenges, & Branding
As you are creating a custom scavenger hunt, the look of it can 100% be yours, allowing you to incorporate your branding and choose design elements. You can provide a logo, a branding guide, or even provide more complex graphics from an artist, should you prefer.
When you think of a scavenger hunt, I’m sure your mind immediately travels to clues. But the types of challenges that can be incorporated into a custom scavenger hunt, can be more diverse than that. Depending on the format – paper or app-based - you can add in trivia questions, or challenges that require players to take photos or make videos. In an app-based scavenger hunt, these photos and videos can then be provided to use after the event for playback and/or marketing purposes. Also, in our scavenger hunt app for events, players can be encouraged to share certain photos on their own social media platforms for bonus points in the hunt.
One thing we encourage our clients to do is to really think about the players who will participate in the custom scavenger hunt. What are the demographics of the players? What level of clue or type of experience do you think they will enjoy? For corporate event entertainment, you may want lighthearted and easier puzzles along with fun photo and video challenges. To really challenge analytical types in a promotion with a great prize, you may want more difficult clues and puzzles. For families, a mix of the two may be best. Understanding your target market to fashion clues that are a challenging for their level to solve, but not totally overwhelming, is key.
Scalability: Managing Scavenger Hunts for 20 to 2,500+ Participants
The delivery method isn’t what typically determines the scalability of a custom scavenger hunt. You can print out an unlimited number of paper hunts and technology can be ramped up to accommodate group scavenger hunt activities for any size. It’s the external logistics that usually affect how many players can take part such as:
The number of locations being visited. If the custom scavenger hunt is designed so all players must visit the same locations, the capacity of these locations need to be considered for a large group scavenger hunt.
Hunt length is also a factor – if thousands of people must complete the hunt in a short time frame, that can also be a barrier.
The type of location. If this is going to impact a public space, such as a downtown area, you may have to gain permits to conduct a large scavenger hunt.
Measuring Success: Engagement Metrics & ROI
When the custom scavenger hunt is over, you’ll want to assess its performance. Whether your custom scavenger hunt is done on paper or in a scavenger hunt app for events, you can easily keep track of the number of times the hunt was picked up or accessed. If offers were woven into the custom scavenger hunt, you can get a count on this too, such as by asking sponsors how many times a coupon code was redeemed. If it’s a paper hunt, you can also count how many people turned in items requested, such as an answer sheet or photos.
If your hunt was app-based, tracking is a little easier, as scavenger hunt apps for events typically keep tabs on all sorts of statistics. For instance, our app-based scavenger hunts can track the number of guests that participated in the group scavenger hunt activities, even for a large group scavenger hunt; how many players visited each GPS hotspot or tapped on an icon from a game board; and answers to any feedback questions you put in the hunt (i.e. “how would you rank this hunt on a scale from 1-5). The hunt can also be programmed to collect information from players when they enter the hunt, such as name and email address. And you also get access to all photos and videos taken during the hunt.
Budget Considerations & Pricing Factors
By now, you may be wondering how much creation of a custom scavenger hunt would cost. It is impossible to put an exact number on it, as rates can vary greatly depending on a variety of factors - number of guests, length of hunt, number of challenges, the complexity of the development – and of course different providers’ rates will vary. While the starting rate for one of our custom scavenger hunts is $5,000, the average rate leans more towards $10,000-$25,000.
How to Choose the Right Custom Scavenger Hunt Provider
By now, hopefully you can see how a custom scavenger hunt can be the ideal vehicle for your initiatives. All that remains is to find the right professional to work with. You will want to do your due diligence to ensure you find the right provider. And to do that, there are two things you should rely on to make that choice.
The first is your head. Do your homework and ask lots of questions. Check how long the company has been in business. Ask who they’ve worked for and check their references. Do they specialize in one niche, such as corporate scavenger hunt ideas, or do they have a broader reach? Also inquire if they can share examples of past custom scavenger hunts for events they’ve created, so you can check the quality of their work.
The second is to trust your gut. You’ll be spending a bit of time with this company. Do you like the people you’re working with? Do you get a good vibe from them? How flexible are they? Remember, this is supposed to be fun for you too!
