After a nationwide, 24-week cyberspace hot dog hunt, Liz Sotirion of Massachusetts finally tracked down “America’s Most Wanted Hot Dog,” “The Delicious One,” and was rewarded a $5,000 bounty for her efforts.
Wienerschnitzel, the world’s largest hot dog chain, creatively combined today’s technology with the old-fashioned treasure hunt to create an online contest that had contestants track clues all over the virtual United States. Participants were challenged to piece tog ether single letter clues hidden weekly online. In the end, the message—”One Spruce Ends Trial of Muir”—was decoded by 41 insightful players who realized that the John Muir trail ended in Lone Pine, California. Lone Pine was the final hiding place of The Delicious One. From these 41, Sotirion was selected randomly to receive the prize money. Other prizes such as free meal coupons were awarded to runners-up, and every participant received a chili dog coupon. Wienerschnitzel employees were also allowed to ” hunt,” and a $1000 prize was awarded internally.
Wienerschnitzel’s website was reported to have received over 358,000 hits during the 24-week period of the contest. The company plans to continue marketing its product as “America’s Most Wanted Hot Dog.”