360PR Blog

Keeping a secret in an office full of hyper-communicators is never easy (is a secret ever safe with Twitter these days?!). And when it comes to keeping the activities of the annual 360PR summer outing under wraps, well, the stakes are even higher.

For the better part of the summer, our team members have tried trickery, bribery and all out guessing to try and uncover the itinerary of one of our favorite days of the year. Luckily, our planning team channeled their inner Cloak & Dagger and we kept them in the dark until the big unveiling this past Friday. Over ‘ritas and lunch at Cottonwood, each 360 team member finally received their “case briefing.”

As part of the clever game produced by Urban Interactive, our team was being sent on a mission throughout downtown Boston working for one of our most unique clients ever – The Society of the Commons. As “urban sleuths,” our mission was to uncover a Colonial relic lost somewhere in Boston.

Armed with a tricked out iTouch, a (limited) map of Boston and four envelopes marked top secret (to be opened along the course of the hunt), our six teams tooks to the streets in search of the relic. Along the way, we met up with rival spies from the SmartMax-86 organization and had to fool them into revealing their secrets to us. Since we’re in PR, we had no touble smooth talking them into that one! Some teams chased down the operatives across Boston Common much to the amusement of sane businesspeople on their lunch breaks, while others wooed them with some on-the-spot musical improv. If our blog had audio, I’d ask Skye to record her fantastic tune which is best accompanied by a ukulele!

Bad Tip: Clearly this donkey didn’t give us the clues we needed: My team came in last, but we had a great time doing it! (l-r) The donkey in front of Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, Skye, Elicia and Mike

By the time 5:00 rolled around, we’d traversed the city, met lots of helpful strangers and were ready for some celebrarory cocktails at Jury’s pub. Some of us arrived faster than others (apparently John has a competitive nature we just never really knew about), and while the relic never was actually located (we’re more Spies Like Us rather than Indiana Jones truth be told!), we had lots of laughs discovering hidden parts of Boston and our team members’ many hidden talents.  Here are some of the superlatives we awarded our colleagues:

• Best Musical Improv (for her SmartMax-86 rap) – Skye
• Best Spy Lingo – Mike
• Best Hula Dance & Cartwheel – Caitlin D.
• Sharpest Eye  - Lindsay
• Sneakiest  – India
• Best Pick-up Line to a SmartMax-86 Agent – Caitlin M.
• Most Competitive – John

The Winning Team (l-r): Stacey, Caroline, Lindsay and Caitlin

Now, if only we can keep the holiday party under wraps until December!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston |