Pokémon Go proved that people will go to incredible lengths–literally to the ends of their cities–in augmented reality gameplay. Now, Verizon is trying to ride that trend by launching Snapchat’s first augmented reality-based treasure hunt. The prize is a total of 256 iPhone 8s, which will be given out throughout this week. Snapchat users in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, and Atlanta will see an ad in the app that invites them to take part in the scavenger hunt. By following clues throughout the day, they’ll travel from point to point in the city. After they find the last clue, a special Snapchat iPhone 8 Lens will be unlocked. They’ll be prompted to take a selfie with a big 8, send it to Verizon, and maybe win the real thing.
Squint through the hype haze, and you can see the future of UX-driven advertising–a world where we’re all hunting for the next mysterious giveaway.
It’s a lot of hubbub for a one-off project. While Snap’s platform offers many of the tools to make a virtual scavenger hunt possible–like geolocation to augmented reality filters–Verizon’s own team had to work extensively with Snap to cobble together this exact experience. Throughout the hunt, Snapchat points users to a Verizon website, and the website points them back. In other words, it’s not native, and some of the UX sounds a bit complicated. “The co-development area is a rich part of this–why we’re doing something for the launch of iPhone that other networks are not,” says Nitti. “I wouldn’t take that away. If it scales and it’s available to everybody, it has less of that specialness to it.”
The next wave of R&D spacial kinetic typography. No more fixed formats with AR & VR pic.twitter.com/pRTMMJq3H4
— Mitch Paone (@DIA_Mitch) September 18, 2017
So while Verizon is the first out of the gate with a Snapchat scavenger hunt, it will almost certainly not be the last. Whether it’s capturing virtual monsters, clipping midair coupons, or snagging a treasure chest hidden at some unknown location, from here on out, there will probably always be someone waving their iPhone around like a metal detector, trying to win them first.