Investigative Report: Does Dreamwalk the Mobile Treasure Hunt Actually Work?

An app that lets you win free stuff including food, tvs, and wiis by just going to different locations sounds too good to be true, right? That’s what I thought when I first heard of Dreamwalk, so when it was released it was time to put it to the test. The big question is, does this system actually work? The short answer is that it depends. Depends on what, you ask? Well as business knowledge suggests, location, location, location. I live in the Los Angeles area, and looking at the map here you can tell that it’s a good area to test if Dreamwalk works. I began the first day seeing a free Quizno’s sub right on my way home from work, so why not check it out. I found the address, put it in google maps, and drove to the location spotting the physical Quiznos’ and thinking that’s a good place to start. I drove into the parking lot with dreamscape app open, and as I pulled into a parking space a new screen appeared saying “free quiznos sub “ with a little collect button in the top corner. I tapped on that, and the item went into my prize bag valued at $2.79, not bad for my first trip. The item is then stored in your bag until you redeem it which is another button once collected in your prize bag. The conditions come up, and then you get a coupon code for the item to redeem at select Quiznos. This item was just an instant win indicated by a star on the map, there are big prizes though too. Bigger prizes are indicated by stamps, and you need to collect all the stamps spelling the given word to win these prizes. Coincidentally enough there was a stamp (Sharp 19” LCD DTV) on my campus, and I was going to classes that day. After class I went to find this stamp, and it was at the very top away from most of the main buildings. I trek up there, and still wasn’t getting very close, until I went up a driveway by abandoned greenhouses, and I was closing in. I had to walk up a dirt stairway, go to the very edge of a ravine, and the letter V popped up to collect. Once you collect the first letter stamp of a particular prize you then get to see how many more letters are required. It turns out I needed to spell HDTV, and the remaining stamps were at other local universities. Two were right on my way home after school, with the first requiring me to take surface streets instead of the freeway, but no additional miles. The next one was just off the freeway about 15 minutes from my house, so I picked up that one as well. The first of this series was much easier as it was collected right by the administration building. The next one was inside a gate at the university dorms, but it was easy to get in by waiting for someone to leave. If they were as difficult as the one on my campus it would have taken so much longer without knowing the lay of the land. I had DTV collected in just one day, and only needed the H which was a little out of my way. The final stamp was a 20 minute drive from my campus which I was willing to make for $160 TV. I went up there, and it was just as easy as the last two right by the center quad. I collected the V, and the congratulations screen appeared indicating I won the TV. Clicking on the redeem tab required me to enter my contact info of name, address, e-mail, and phone and then I was sent a confirmation e-mail. I had won an e-gift certificate from Newegg.com, that they will e-mail to me at they same e-mail address. Dreamwalk obviously worked for me with no hassle at all. So back to our original question, does Dreamwalk work? Again it depends on where you live, if you live in a major metropolitan area like New York or Los Angeles, than this is one of the best apps in the App Store. If you don’t, well prizes are extremely intermittent with usually a few per state at the most. Another requirement is an iPhone with a GPS chip as that’s how you claim prizes, sorry all ipod touch 1st gen/ iPhone owners. If you’re lucky enough to be in close proximity to prizes, it’s time to get out there, and start your mobile treasure hunt, as this thing is legitimate, with items easy to collect and redeem. The experience itself is worth your time as you have a present day real life treasure hunt. It truly felt like it when I was getting the first letter in the overgrowth areas of my campus. The other items didn’t have the same feeling as you just had to plug the address into google maps or other navigation app, and it guided you right to it. Hopefully more people download this app which will entice companies to join this program to allow for this experience to be enjoyed on a wide scale. It’s time to begin your Dreamwalk. Please watch the video below of 360 degree view of the location of two of the letters in HDTV. Also see all of the screenshots of places I went. [gallery link="file" columns="4"]

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