Hamra Jewelers and the $12,000 Diamond Dash

Young couples with a flair for treasure hunting should be marking their calendars for March 6, when Hamra Jewelers will be hiding $12,000 dollar diamond ring in Old Town Scottsdale.

The dash is organized by Hamra Jewelers as an inventive new marketing campaign. According to Meghan Stern, head of the marketing team and ASU marketing student, the goal is to get the jewelers name publicity and to convince couples to have Hamra Jewelers “first in their mind” when shopping for an engagement ring.

Judging by Stern’s expected turnout for the event, 400-600 couples, it just might work.

The idea for the event came from a math problem posed by a Princeton University student that was eventually translated into a real life business model. After a successful trial run in an unrelated Philadelphia Diamond Dash, Hamra Jewelers decided to pick up the event for Phoenix.

Ideally, Stern says, only couples or those working for the benefit of couples will be attending the event, but anyone is free to sign up. All that’s required in an application is a first and last name, cell phone carrier and number and a brief explanation as to why the applicant deserves to be chosen for the hunt.

The Facebook fan page for the Diamond Dash is littered with examples of couples from different backgrounds planning to participate. Stories feature everything from a returning army veteran and his wife with a new son to a man who refuses to let his good friend propose to his wife using “the ring he found in the Cracker Jack Box.”

Couples will gather at Old Town Scottsdale’s Civic Center at 11:00 a.m. where clues and riddles will be sent to their cell phones, hinting at the final location of the ring. The Diamond Dash covers several square miles of Old Town and, win or lose, provides a pleasant afternoon for couples.

Contact the reporter at clecher@asu.edu

Tagged as: dash, diamond, events, game, Money, ring, scottsdale