Challenges Set for Chevy SXSW Road Trip
By Christopher Barger
Director, Global Social Media, General Motors
And the challenges are in. As the eight teams for the Chevy SXSW Road Trip prepare for departure – actually, three teams (Detroit, New York, North Carolina) already set out this morning – we can officially release the list of 50 challenges laid out for the teams, as submitted by the online communities @Chevrolet and among the eight participating teams.
The challenges are broken down into five categories – image, physical challenge, charity, collection and interaction – and each team will score points for accomplishing them as they make their way toward Austin, Texas, for the SXSW Conference. So here they are!
Image
- Take a team photo with the entire staff of a Chevy dealership
- Family Portrait: Find a Sears Family Portrait or Glamour Shots location and get a team picture taken
- Find and get a pic of the most rundown place that offers Wifi
- Take a picture in front of a sports stadium (football, baseball, whatever)
- Take a picture with a cowboy/cowgirl
- Take a picture of all of the funniest road signs you can find (double entendre, odd places, etc.)
- Find and take a picture of the most uniquely customized Chevy vehicle
- Take a picture with a police officer
- Take a picture of the entire team in the trunk (don’t close it!!!)
- Take a team photo at the Welcome Center for each new state you enter
Physical Challenge
- Have one member of the team get a temporary tattoo of your SXSW team hashtag or the Chevy bowtie
- Hold an eating contest at a roadside stand
- Arm wrestle a diner chef and WIN! (the challenge has not been successfully completed until someone on the team wins)
- Visit a playground where each member of the team must use the slide 10 times then spin around on the merry-go-round for two minutes
- The entire team goes and gets a pedicure. Bonus Points for each male who gets colored polish
- Pull over the car in a safe area (a parking lot for example), have everyone get out, run around the vehicle as quickly as possible, and jump back in different seats
- Aerobics Instructor: Go to a public place and start conducting an aerobics class for the team and try and get as many people as possible to join in
- Road Warriors: Create road warrior costumes/accessories with foil. Stop at a rest area in full foil gear and have stage a faux battle in your costumes
- One member of the team much climb a rock wall and reach the summit
- Mess with Texas. (this is up to your discretion to define, but please make sure to stay within the parameters of the contest rules — no fighting, breaking of laws, etc.)
Charity
- Use the OnStar service in your vehicle to assist a stranded motorist
- Volunteer to walk dogs at an Animal Rescue/Shelter
- Visit a library and read to kids
- Give food to a homeless person and ask them to share their story with you
- Help serve a meal at a homeless shelter
- Clean the windows of someone else’s car as they’re pumping gas
- Literally donate the shirt off your back to a goodwill store
- Stop at a nursing home/retirement community and run a game of bingo
- Clean up a local park
- Go through a drive-thru and pay for the meals of the people in the two cars behind you
Collection
- Collect Pez dispensers that represent the states and cities you pass through.
- Stop at a local gas station and bring back the most creative and funniest trucker hats they sell
- Collect water from at least 6 bodies of water (lakes, rivers, streams, etc.). Please identify where they came from
- Bring back a tacky magnet that represents each state you pass through
- Collect 50 business cards from people who are not in social media — bonus for Chevy dealers
- Bring back the largest piece of promotional material you can find from a Chevy dealership (remember to ask permission before you take)
- Bring back 5 newspapers from small towns you pass through
- Bring back the tackiest postcard possible from every state you pass through
- Bring back 10 brochures of the most random activities and adventures you can find of things to do in the states you pass through (content must come from at least three different states).
Interaction:
- Interview someone who just purchased a new Chevy vehicle
- Get at least three people to do the ChaCha Slide, Electric Slide or Cupid Shuffle with your team
- Interview a waiter or waitress at a truck stop/diner and ask them about their most interesting customer interaction
- Have a picnic on a farm with the animals or farmers
- Get five people to give you one of their shoelaces
- Get a Texan to teach you a line dance
- Devise “Awesome Awards” for strangers. Hand them out randomly, with mini-celebrations
- Order drive-thru in a foreign language
- Play music with a street musician.
- Stage a Tweetup at a college or university.
That’s quite a list! Teams will get three points for each task they complete. One bonus point will be awarded for each challenge that incorporates the team’s Chevy vehicle, and one point will be awarded for every tweet or post the teams send out about their challenges. Finally, teams will receive one point for each retweet or blog comment about their challenges. Good luck, everyone, and may the best — and most creative — team win!
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Yes, quite a list. Almost makes me want to run down to my local Chevy dealer and buy a car, but I’d prefer you concentrate on building quality cars and backing them up with superior service from your dealer network.
we can officially release the list of 50 challenges laid out for the teams, as submitted by the online communities @Chevrolet
Why don’t the people at Chevrolet just concentrate on building better cars?
This site is becoming a waste of my time. Can’t you find anything interesting post about… like I don’t know, cars?
one point will be awarded for every tweet or post the teams send out about their challenges. Finally, teams will receive one point for each retweet or blog comment about their challenges.
That would be a great way to spend the day (not) — reading hundreds of 140-character tweets and re-tweets from a bunch of Millennials on the road. Do you really think that will sell cars? You need to regroup and rethink how to use social media. Right now you’re spinning your wheels.
When you have to get the non productive out of the office so the good work can get done… you have to send them out to play. Don’t worry, the real workers are on top of it.
First of all, I think what they are doing is a good thing. Just because they have a couple of people doing a race, doesn’t mean that their WHOLE company has stopped working. You guys make it sound like the entire GM company is doing this race and the factories and plants are shut down till it’s done. I like that a company can do things to help promote their product in an unusual way, and keep it fun. I’m sure that everyone that commented negatively to this post has a boring job and they do nothing to bring up moral for their employees. Well good for you, I’m sure your company is hard at work to improve themselves, without having a little fun.