Wick & Greene Jewelers Hides a $20,000 Lazare Diamond Ring In Asheville!
Local couples will run around Asheville to solve clues to find hidden treasure using their cell phones
September 8, 2009 (Asheville, NC) – There is a $20,000 Lazare Diamond Ring somewhere in the streets of downtown Asheville. No, it’s not missing, it hasn’t been stolen and no one left it there by accident. In fact, Wick & Greene Jewelers has purposefully placed (well, hidden) it there and is hoping for some lucky couple to find (and keep) it. Wick & Greene is turning Asheville into a city-wide game-board and has built a high-tech treasure hunt (powered by SCVNGR Inc.) for couples to try and seek out the diamond!
But, there’s a catch. To participate in the game, couples will have to submit their love stories to Wick & Greene Jewelers at www.ncdiamondringrace.com after August 28th. The best stories are being hand-picked by the folks at Wick & Greene and offered a spot to participate in the city-wide game on Sunday, September 27th.
This game is not your average treasure hunt, it’s a fully interactive high-tech twist on the old favorite pastime, the treasure hunt. All of the clues and challenges are delivered to couples’ mobile phones via text message. Throw in some interactive game commands like HINT, SKIP and SCORE and an intelligent routing algorithm called SmartRoute and you’ve got a high-tech real-world game that’s unlike anything Asheville has seen before.
On Sunday, September 27th at 12:30pm between 200 and 300 couples will meet at the Wick & Greene Plaza to take part in the first annual North Carolina Diamond Ring Race. Once the game kicks off, around 1:00 P.M., the teams will be sent sprinting around Asheville solving clues and riddles delivered to participants’ cell phones via text message. The game will culminate when one lucky couple finds the secret location of The Lazare Diamond Ring worth $20,000.
Wick & Greene Fine Jewelers, serving young lovers searching for engagement rings for almost one hundred years, decided earlier this year that with all the bad news about the economy, it was high-time that someone did something just for fun, something for Asheville residents to look forward to and enjoy. “Some of the most wonderful moments of people’s lives have taken place with us. Lately it seems that happy moments have been put on the back burner. At the North Carolina Diamond Ring Race, everyone will be a winner and one lucky couple will have their dreams come true!” says Michael Greene.
“The North Carolina Diamond Ring Race is designed to give people something to look forward to, win or lose. It’s going to be a ton of fun running and biking around Asheville on a Sunday afternoon. Young couples in love are encouraged to submit their love stories to win one of the limited spots in the competition.”
The event is Sunday, September 27th and there will also be an after event party at The Haywood Park Hotel at approximately 4:00pm following the game hosted by WNC Magazine.
Michael continues that their entire store is buzzing with excitement to get the event under way! Everyone is looking forward to reading the great stories from local Asheville couples.
“I believe it is stories like the ones we will be receiving next month that make this whole event worthwhile. The best part of being in the jewelry business has always been the smiles we get to see. And what better way to make Asheville smile than to hide a giant diamond ring in the city!”
For more information and to submit your love story to win a spot, visit www.ncdiamondringrace.com.
My GF and I were going to go do it but we got sick… After reading the above posts, I’m glad we didn’t go.
I did notice in the rules that they basically said something to the effect of "we can do what we want, how we want and our decisions are final, period."
I am sorry to hear those who went didn’t enjoy themselves.
I would just like to say that the two past comments are completely rude because the couple are my best friends and they deserved it more than anyone and it wasn’t planned on their part what so ever. They are still in shock and can’t believe that it has happened! When you have attitudes like that you do you shouldn’t deserve such an award!
I couldn’t agree with the above poster more. Could they have made it any more obvious that the winners were hand-picked? We busted our butts all day getting "points" and then they didn’t even say how many points the prize winners had compared to others?! Glad to know that we spent a whole Sunday of time and energy involved in a marketing gimmick.
I will say this, 200-250 people left the contest a bit peeved…not sore losers at all…just a bit annoyed that there were no scores or leader board to see how you fared against others; that, and the fact that the winners weren’t even surprised when they were called up as winners. Speeches, poses for the camera, a ready-made proposal….it was all very staged.
We were planning on buying wedding bands with Wick and Greene (since the engagement ring I bought came from there) but now we feel a bit tricked and will be looking elsewhere.
Before the blog comment police arrive, I will say that we had fun and it was a pretty day, but come on, a fair game is a fair game….and there was no semblance of fairness or full disclosure here.
The contest was a fraud. no scores were read at the award ceremony. the ring was given to a couple who conveniently had written a long winded story of their relationship and who proposed on the spot.
advertising gimmick, I certainly won’t bother participating next year.