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00:13 Chris Ronan: Well, hello, there. This is Inside Geocaching HQ. This is our podcast about the stuff that is going on at Geocaching HQ in Seattle. My name is Chris Ronan. My username is Rock Chalk, and I am one of the 80 or so lackeys who work for Geocaching HQ. Thank you so much for checking out our podcast, hope you enjoy it. Today, we are going to be talking about the Memory Lane souvenir challenge that begins on June 1st. So I have found Brigitte from the marketing team. She and the marketing team are the ones who come up with these great ideas for souvenir challenges, and then work with a lot of people from throughout Geocaching HQ to make it all happen. So we’re going to check in with Brigitte and see how this promotion works. And yeah, that’s what we got this time. So here we go, me and Brigitte from the marketing team.

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01:23 CR: Hi, Brigitte.

01:29 Brigitte Charest: Hi, Chris.

01:32 CR: How is it going? 

01:33 BC: It’s going well. How about you? 

01:35 CR: I’m okay. I was just saying we haven’t seen each other since this whole thing started. It’s been a couple of months now. What is it… We started working from home I think on March 5th in HQ.

01:45 BC: Yeah.

01:46 CR: And so, it’s been almost three months and we haven’t been in the same… Sometimes, at work, we do these virtual happy hours and virtual lunch rooms. And I know we’ve been in a couple of the all-company meetings together, but it’s hard when you’ve got 80 people in a Zoom call to see everybody.

02:05 BC: Yeah. Well, it’s been funny seeing everybody and how long their hair is getting and untamed and unkempt. But you seem to be a…

02:14 CR: Am I holding up? [chuckle]

02:15 BC: Yeah, you seem to be holding up pretty well.

02:18 CR: Not a whole lot of difference. I thought about if I would have been thinking about it when this whole thing first started about doing some sort of a big, thick beard or something, I could have done that, but I didn’t. And now, we’re three months into it and I’m like, “It would be silly to start it now. I’m just gonna keep going.”

02:36 BC: Well, you’ll never know how long this is gonna last. It might be a pretty long haul.

02:38 CR: That’s true, that’s true, that’s true. Well, we wanted to talk about the Memory Lane promotion that was just announced. Before we do that, it’s been a while since you have done the podcast, so maybe we can just start by refreshing people on what your title is and your day-to-day work at HQ.

03:00 CR: Sounds good. So my name is Brigitte, but my username is melton.moose. And I am a Senior Marketing Manager here at HQ, so I work with a few other people on the marketing team, but I specifically focus more on content and product marketing. So if you are a subscriber to our logbook newsletter or geocaching monthly, I help create, curate and send that newsletter. And I also work with our product teams to help communicate when there are new feature and product releases that come out.

03:37 BC: And the marketing team works on these occasional souvenir challenges and Memory Lane is this new one. When does the work for something like Memory Lane begin? When do you start trying to dream up what one of the souvenir challenges will look like? 

03:56 CR: Sure. So we actually have a shared Google Doc where we always are just adding ideas to them when we hear fun things in the community, or have a fun theme idea. But Memory Lane was a little bit different because it was gonna be celebrating and is celebrating our 20th year of geocaching. So we actually started thinking about this in early 2019, but the idea really started to come together and we started involving more people at HQ in the fall.

04:27 CR: And how many people are involved? And this is something that tends to span most of the company, doesn’t it? 

04:34 BC: Yeah, it’s definitely a labor of love across HQ. So, of course, marketing is involved, our product and engineering, our design and creative teams, shop teams, community. These challenges pretty much touch nearly every team in the company.

04:54 CR: So you’ve got this Google Doc, you’ve got ideas that you’re always looking at. When do you say, “Okay, Memory Lane. This is going to be Spring of 2020.” Was this last fall? Was it first of year? How far in advance exactly? 

05:17 BC: The idea for Memory Lane actually came up when we were brainstorming for Cache Carnival our spring campaign from 2019. But we thought it just fits so nicely with looking back at the past 20 years of geocaching that we kind of put it in our back pocket and revisited it in the fall after we had completed mystery at the museum and we’re ready to really start gearing up for the next souvenir challenge. And that’s when we then have a brainstorm with our creative teams and community teams to bring the idea to life and figure out more of the details of what it will look like.

05:58 CR: And of course, a big wrench was thrown into the whole process with this pandemic. I think this challenge was supposed to start around the 1st of April or the first week, wasn’t it, originally? 

06:10 BC: It was supposed to start in early April, but the world had other plans for us. So we actually had to move our start date for Memory Lane back two times, just because we wanted to be mindful of the situation going on worldwide and to make sure that we could present the challenge in a way that was gonna be safe and accessible to people wherever they were.

06:38 CR: And besides starting in a little bit later, it’s also been extended throughout the end of the year, correct? 

06:44 BC: Yes, that’s the other part where typically these challenges are time-based, so it adds a little bit of a sense of urgency, but that just didn’t feel like the right thing to be encouraging right now when restrictions are still in place. Some are easing, some are going back into stay-at-home orders. So, extending it through the end of the year, we felt, was the best way to still celebrate this geocaching milestone, but allow people to participate at their own pace.

07:13 CR: There’s a blog post about Memory Lane, you can read all about it there. But for folks that haven’t gotten a chance to take a look at that yet, or seen it in the log book email, what’s the overview of what Memory Lane is all about? 

07:27 BC: Sure. So Memory Lane, as I mentioned, celebrates these different milestones that happened in the past 20 years of geocaching. So, we created a really fun game board that you will move along as you complete the campaign that’s in the colors of the original geocaching logo. So, it’s a little bit of a throwback there. But the souvenir milestones are the first Geocache Hidden, the first Geocoin, first mega-event, the first time Geocaching hit one million geocaches, and of course 20 years of geocaching. So, Memory Lane is actually built off the infrastructure of the leader board, which you may be familiar from past campaigns, if you’ve been geocaching for a few years. So, you will earn points through different geocaching actions, which will move you along these different spots on the game board. So, you can earn points for finding geocaches, finding Adventure Lab caches, mystery, multi’s, and extra points for caches with higher favorite points.

08:34 CR: And what’s the point structure like? 

08:39 BC: So, the point structure is any find-it log is five points. A find-it on an Adventure Lab cache is also five, multi-cash is seven, a mystery is seven, and finding a geocache with 10 or more favorite points is 10 points. But in terms of the souvenirs, the first souvenir requires 10 points to achieve, the second is 50, third is 100, fourth is 150, and the final souvenir, that 20 years of geocaching is 200 points.

09:16 CR: Something that we’ve talked about each time that we’ve done something on the podcast about one of these souvenir challenges is the balance that your team tries to find in trying to create something that is accessible and that people can enjoy, hopefully, it also adds a little bit of a challenge, but how difficult it can be to create something that can be both accessible and challenging for the entire community. It’s pretty much almost impossible to do something like that.

09:45 BC: Yeah, it definitely becomes more challenging too when we extend the campaign to seven months long. So, some of our geocachers may look at this and be like, “What? This is so simple, this is so easy. I can finish this in a day,” which maybe they would not have said that if we had time boxed it to our four-week intention. So, this one is definitely unique and hopefully we can get some learning for it in the future, but as you mentioned, it is always a balance that we try and work to get a little closer to in every campaign.

10:19 CR: We were talking before we started recording here, and I was saying how much I enjoyed the Geocoin, the Memory Lane Geocoin. It’s got that game board look to it. And I’m gonna snatch one of those up, because it was so cool looking. What is the process like, just in general, of creating the artwork that goes along with these souvenir challenges like Memory Lane? 

10:41 BC: Sure. So the creative team, and Ainslie in particular, did a really great job with that coin. It’s just so fun and the colors are great. But I think what’s interesting is when we have one of these souvenir challenges that has merchandise that accompanies it, we actually start with the design of the Geocoin first, and that kind of sets the tone for the rest of the theme and all of the art assets that come to it. And that’s because the Geocoin has the longest time frame needed in order to get it produced and to get test samples of it back, so we can review and make sure the colors look right and you can still read everything. So, we start with the Geocoin and then build everything else off of that.

11:27 CR: In general, what kind of, when the marketing team does these souvenir challenges, I know you’re always looking for feedback and trying to see how the community enjoyed it, any ideas they have for the future, how do you guys kind of take in that information and try to apply it to future souvenir challenges that might be coming up? 

11:56 BC: Yeah. So, we get a ton of qualitative data every time we do these campaigns, and those come in through blog comments, and social comments, and emails, and whatnot. So, we try and see are people writing into our community engagement team with positive feedback or more critical feedback? Do they have a lot of questions about the campaign? And then we also send out a survey to a cohort of users after every campaign to ask them for that feedback. How did you find the challenge level? Was it just right, too challenging, too easy? How about the time frame? How far did you get? Did you have to travel really far to complete the campaign? And we try and compile all this data to make the next campaign even better.

12:43 CR: Outside of Memory Lane, you are responsible for a lot of blog writing. People will probably see your name quite a bit on HQ blogs. And one of the things that HQ has been trying to do is communicate during this whole COVID-19 situation, and you’ve been very involved in that. And with just marketing, in general, it’s been an interesting thing to experience from that standpoint. Maybe we could just talk a little bit about how HQ has tried to approach communications and trying to keep the community informed about what’s going on from our standpoint and how you can continue to enjoy geocaching while there are restrictions in place.

13:28 BC: Yeah. Well, Chris, I’m sure you’re familiar with this, having been an author in a few of the articles on that subject, but I think it’s definitely been tricky, because for many people, this is the time of year when geocaching is usually in full swing and people are out there, and they’re finding geocachers, and kind of getting geared up for, at least in the northern hemisphere, a summer season. But it’s important to know that such a large part of geocaching is the community that surrounds it. And so we really, really wanna define ways to keep this community strong, even in a way when we can’t physically go geocaching, and we have to either stay super local or can’t even go out at all. So, we’ve been trying to get really creative with our content to find ways to keep that spirit alive, whether it’s watching past gift film reels, or planning future adventures, finding lonely geocaches, or we have content sneak peek coming up around how to safely geocache in these times, like what other tools of the trade might you need in your geocaching tool kit right now that were not necessary this time last year or even last Fall. So, but we’re definitely trying to be mindful that in many places, people can go geocaching safely, but also other people are really having a hard time not being able to go right now. So, it’s a balance, but we’re trying to keep that positive spirit and sense of community with geocaching.

15:00 CR: Well, I know, I think we’ve talked in the past when you’ve been on the podcast about your own geocaching, and you tend to do some pretty significant hikes during the summer time here in the Northwest. Has that been able to start for you just yet? 

15:17 BC: Not just yet. A lot of the hikes that I enjoy are still snow-covered, which makes it a little more challenging to find geocaches, but I have really been enjoying the logs that I get on my geocaches. I feel like during this time, people have been writing longer logs about their experience, because geocaching’s almost like a treat to get to do right now. It’s something, at least in the Seattle area, you can do locally and safely as long as you’re social distancing properly. So, I’ve seen a lot of fun logs of people who found it as a fun escape with their family or they’re rediscovering geocaching after several years of not playing it. So, it’s been fun to see those.

16:00 CR: So, have you got a plan ready for how you’re gonna attack Memory Lane then? 

16:06 BC: I need too. I’ve been so focused on getting this out the door in a safe way that now I can finally transition into being a geocacher again.

[laughter]

16:16 CR: And of course, I’m sure the marketing team is already looking ahead to, if not just the next souvenir challenge, probably the next couple of souvenir challenges, right? 

[chuckle]

16:26 BC: We just might be. Mum’s the word.

16:30 CR: Oh God, I thought I could trick you into saying something about it.

16:34 BC: Nope, I knew this was coming.

16:37 CR: You knew it was… Yeah, I know. I probably gave it away. I said I was gonna go all Dateline on you and you probably prepared too much.

16:45 BC: That’s true.

16:46 CR: I’ll have to fly under the radar next time a little better.

[chuckle]

16:50 BC: Yeah, we definitely have some ideas brewing and I think that there’ll be more information soon enough, but we’ve got Memory Lane to focus on and keep us busy right now.

17:02 CR: And so, for people that wanna know more about Memory Lane or any other souvenir challenges, [chuckle] what’s the best way to stay in the loop about this stuff? 

17:11 BC: The best bet is definitely sign up for our newsletter. If you’re a premium member, you can sign up for our log book newsletter and you’ll learn about all these things first. And otherwise, you can take a look at our Geocaching blog and social channels.

17:28 CR: Alright. Well, Brigitte, thank you, and hopefully we’ll see each other sooner than three more months.

[laughter]

17:35 BC: Yeah, looking forward to that hair.

17:37 CR: Yeah, right? And I’m gonna go read more of that Memory Lane and start planning my plan of attack for this thing.

17:46 BC: Sounds good.

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17:48 CR: So there you have it, all the details about the Memory Lane Souvenir Challenge on geocaching.com. Thanks to Brigitte for her time. If you wanna learn more about Memory Lane, just go to the Geocaching blog or go to the homepage at geocaching.com, and you can link off to more Memory Lane information from there. If you wanna see the Memory Lane Geocoin and the tag, and I think there’s a patch, some really fun looking stuff to buy, that’s on Shop Geocaching. So, you can check that out. So again, thanks to Brigitte. And if you have anything you want us to cover on the podcast, why don’t you send us an email? Podcast@geocaching.com is the address. For Brigitte, for myself, for all of the lackeys at Geocaching HQ, until next time, happy caching.