It all began on a 12-hour road trip from Utah to Arizona. Seek Cofounders, Jon Cheney and Mike Snow were brainstorming business ideas when something clicked. The duo decided that they wanted to have a treasure hunt and somehow earn money while doing it.
“After running physical treasure hunts for the private companies for 6 months, Pokemon GO came out and that caught their attention. The game’s viral launch and instant popularity led to a new idea, “creating an augmented reality treasure hunting app”, which was the next step they took. Snow and Cheney acquired funding and brought on Chris White as CTO and co-founder.
The game Seek, which is available for download on Android and iTunes gives users an opportunity to go on a treasure hunt to seek cash prizes, free giveaways, and special discounts. The process is simple–all the users have to do is download the app and their adventure begins.
Treasure chests have been placed throughout the world that users can capture with their camera, requiring them to venture to the physical location and capture them digitally. Unlike Pokemon Go, capturing treasure chests can have tangible value — $1,000 here, a big screen television there, a GoalZero kit everywhere. Seek is also forming partnerships with businesses nationwide that them to engage with consumers and draw more people to their location, the release explained.
“People remember when they do much more than what they would remember when they see or hear something,” explained Cheney. “When you do something, when you experience something, when you win something, you remember what that thing is much better.”
Cheney compared some of the functionality to McDonald’s Monopoly, where businesses can offer customers the lure of a big prize for coming into their store. “Basically, we could give every business in the world the same functionality as McDonald’s Monopoly, but for a fraction of the cost,” he added.
The app is also a unique advertising opportunity for marketers and brands, according to Cheney. Businesses and sponsors can pay a fee to offer discounts, prizes, offers, and additional rewards on the app to attract more customers to their locations.
“I do believe this is kind of the beginning of the future, the location based augmented reality,” Cheney stated. “Somebody being able to see something that’s not really there because its digital but have that advertisement come up somehow as they walk past the store and something pops up to invite them on their display, that’s the future.”
