• by Sarah Mahoney , July 5, 2017

Jet.com, Wal-Mart’s answer to Amazon, is using a guessing game to make e-shopping a little more amusing this summer.

Called the URLS of Summer, the scavenger-hunt style activation gives shoppers a visual clue using some of the site’s most summery merchandise—beach umbrellas, flamingo pool floats, hammocks and patio lights, for instance. And if they’re the first to guess the goofy name of any one of hundred URLs it created for the contest, they win swag, which runs from sunscreen to diamond necklaces.

“Our core customer and core audience are more urban, more Millennial,” says Sumaiya Balbale, Jet’s VP of marketing, “and we have a very humorous vibe.” She says the new campaign is in keeping with the e-commerce platform’s commitment to “tiny touchpoints.”

Employees might drop a handwritten Valentine into a box of items shipping to a customer, for example, and first-time shoppers are likely to receive a welcome video from founder Marc Lore, using his or her first name. (Lore, who has been running Wal-Mart’s e-commerce operation since it acquired Jet.com for $3.3 billion last year, recorded the videos based on the 1,000 first names that account for about 70 to 80% of its business.) 

“We’re very tongue-in-cheek, very playful, and this campaign—a fun little game you can play while you’re standing in line somewhere—is another way we can give the online shopping experience a more human face,” she tells Marketing Daily.

The campaign, from Joan Creative, is running on the site and on the brand's social channels, as well as with paid social and display support. 

“This reflects the way we want to engage with our customers,” she says, “and it doesn’t feel like traditional advertising. We’re hoping to introduce them to a broader assortment of the things people need to have a great summer, in a way that is fun, gamified and playful.”