Tweetcracker
- Brand
- Samsung
- Year
- 2011
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Puzzle
- Platform
- Social
- Agency
- The Barbarian Group
Objective
Samsung was launching its premium Series 9 ultrabook, built on Intel processors, and needed to make noise around the release. The brand wanted the buzz itself to be public and trackable, not locked away in a microsite nobody talked about.
Solution
Players landed on tweetcracker.com to find a safe guarded by laser beams, holding a Samsung Series 9 laptop and $10,000 in gold. Cracking it meant guessing a 10-digit combination and posting the guess as a tweet tagged #tweetcracker — that tweet was the entry. Each player got three guesses a day, so they kept coming back, checking the @boostedtweets account and the Boosted Facebook page for clues and the odd spot prize. To play smarter, they could pull a CSV of every combination already tried, cross off dead guesses, and swap tips with other players hunting the same code. The hunt ran for two weeks until someone finally landed the winning combination.
- 1
Arriving at tweetcracker.com, the player finds a digital safe holding a Samsung Series 9 ultrabook and $10,000 in gold, guarded by laser beams; the site lays out the rules and posts running updates on the hunt. Entry is limited to US residents aged 18 or older.
- 2
The player follows the @boostedtweets Twitter account and the Boosted Facebook page, the sources for combination clues, encouragement, and spot prizes throughout the campaign.
- 3
The core action is guessing the safe's 10-digit code and submitting it not on the site but as a tweet tagged #tweetcracker, which is how organizers register the attempt.
- 4
Each player is capped at three guesses per day, then must wait until the next day to try again.
- 5
Every guess is posted publicly as a tweet and logged; a downloadable CSV of all submitted combinations lets players avoid repeating others' guesses and narrow the field, against odds estimated at roughly nine billion to one.
- 6
Players return daily to pick up fresh clues from Twitter and Facebook and spend three more guesses, with spot prizes awarded along the way.
- 7
A correct code kills the laser beams and opens the safe, handing the winner the Series 9 ultrabook and $10,000 in gold, with a third 'mystery' prize also promised.
- 8
The hunt doesn't end there: the safe is restocked with a new laptop and two round-the-world trip tickets, and the chase continues until the campaign closes on August 17.
