How Riverview Turned a Summer Scavenger Hunt Into a Repeatable Local Business Campaign
April 17, 2026
Helping more people discover more local businesses
Riverview (New Brunswick) wanted a summer campaign that would feel fun for families and valuable for local businesses.
The idea was to send residents and visitors across town to help Benson the Beekeeper find 12 missing bees hidden at local businesses. But the real challenge was keeping people moving from one stop to the next. Without a clear path to follow, participants could miss locations, lose track of clues, or stop after visiting only a few businesses.
Riverview needed a campaign that was easy to join, simple for businesses to support, and strong enough to encourage exploration across all 12 participating locations. Explore Riverview's Campaign
A mobile scavenger hunt built around real-world visits
Riverview used Driftscape to turn Benson the Beekeeper’s Bee Hunt into a self-guided scavenger hunt people could follow on their phones.
At each stop, participants looked for a crocheted bee hidden at or near a local business. Each bee included a letter clue. As players moved through town, they collected letters, unlocked the next stop, and unscrambled a final word to enter the contest.
The format gave people a clear reason to keep going. Instead of treating each business as a separate promotion, the hunt connected all 12 locations through one shared activity.
Families could explore at their own pace, visit local businesses along the way, and complete the experience for a chance to win a prize. Explore Scavenger Hunts
Helping more people discover more local businesses
Riverview (New Brunswick) wanted a summer campaign that would feel fun for families and valuable for local businesses.
The idea was to send residents and visitors across town to help Benson the Beekeeper find 12 missing bees hidden at local businesses. But the real challenge was keeping people moving from one stop to the next. Without a clear path to follow, participants could miss locations, lose track of clues, or stop after visiting only a few businesses.
Riverview needed a campaign that was easy to join, simple for businesses to support, and strong enough to encourage exploration across all 12 participating locations. Explore Riverview's Campaign
A mobile scavenger hunt built around real-world visits
Riverview used Driftscape to turn Benson the Beekeeper’s Bee Hunt into a self-guided scavenger hunt people could follow on their phones.
At each stop, participants looked for a crocheted bee hidden at or near a local business. Each bee included a letter clue. As players moved through town, they collected letters, unlocked the next stop, and unscrambled a final word to enter the contest.
The format gave people a clear reason to keep going. Instead of treating each business as a separate promotion, the hunt connected all 12 locations through one shared activity.
Families could explore at their own pace, visit local businesses along the way, and complete the experience for a chance to win a prize. Explore Scavenger Hunts
How Driftscape helped Riverview build a reusable campaign
Driftscape helped Riverview turn 12 participating businesses into one connected scavenger hunt that was easy to follow and easy to repeat.
The town could guide participants from stop to stop, keep the experience engaging with letter clues and a final reveal, and make the campaign simple to access on a phone. That mattered because Riverview was not just trying to create awareness. It wanted people to keep exploring across town and keep discovering more businesses.
Just as importantly, the same format could be adapted for future campaigns. After the summer hunt, Riverview reused the model for additional seasonal scavenger hunts, giving the town a practical way to keep local engagement going without reinventing the experience each time.
Strong local engagement across 12 businesses
From July 17 to August 17, Riverview recorded 2,675 views across its Driftscape experiences. The Business Scavenger Hunt was the top draw, generating about 2,240 views during the campaign period.
Visitors came from 7 different postal or ZIP code areas, showing the hunt reached people from across the surrounding area. Most visits came from within 10 km, which points to strong local participation and suggests the campaign succeeded in encouraging residents and nearby visitors to spend more time exploring the town.
Just as importantly, the hunt connected 12 local businesses through one shared experience, giving people a clear reason to keep moving from stop to stop.
Why the format kept working
This campaign worked because it gave people more than a list of places to visit. It gave them a simple mission.
Each business became part of the experience. Participants were not just browsing storefronts. They were searching for hidden bees, collecting clues, unlocking the next stop, and working toward a final answer. That made each visit feel connected to the next.
It also worked because the format was easy to repeat. Once Riverview found a structure people responded to, the town could adapt it for new themes and seasons without starting from scratch. That turned a summer activity into a practical model for ongoing community and business engagement.
Takeaways for towns and local business groups
A strong scavenger hunt format can do more than support one campaign.
When the structure is simple, mobile-friendly, and easy to follow, towns can reuse it for different seasons, stories, and shop local promotions.
That means less reinvention, faster campaign planning, and more opportunities to bring people back into local businesses throughout the year.
Want to create a scavenger hunt people will actually follow?
Driftscape helps towns and destination teams create self-guided experiences that encourage people to keep exploring and keep supporting local businesses.
Book a demo to see how a scavenger hunt, seasonal trail, or shop local campaign could work in your community.