A free, city-wide puzzle hunt across the Auckland CBD. Two weeks of play climaxing on the biggest pop-culture weekend of the New Zealand year. One campaign that puts your brand on the street, in players' hands, and inside a story thousands of Aucklanders will spend a fortnight playing.
On Labour Weekend 2026, the country's biggest pop-culture expo brings its largest crowd of the year to Auckland. For the two weeks leading into it, Escape the City turns the CBD into a game board, and hands sponsors the moment on a plate.
This is the first edition of a new Auckland event. There is exactly one presenting partnership and a small number of branded positions. Partners who join now get founding pricing, first choice of position, and first right of renewal for every future edition.
Every tier attaches your brand to a coordinated, month-long campaign across five channels at once: the kind of integrated visibility that costs many times the sponsorship to assemble piece by piece.
A CBD-wide outdoor campaign: large-format posters, ground decals and interactive street installations, live for the full two-week window and refreshed weekly.
Paid social (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook), Google Search and YouTube, running from late September and surging through the climax weekend.
A PR push on two strong angles: a free city-scale game taking over the CBD, landing on the biggest pop-culture weekend of the year.
The companion app: every registration, map view, puzzle and prize screen is inventory your brand appears on.
A first-party email list built through pre-registration, with a post-event content wave and sponsor-offer follow-up.
18–40. In town for the expo or adjacent to someone who is. Puzzle, gaming, tabletop and genre fans who travel for experiences and document everything.
22–45. Couples and friend groups who fill their weekends with events. A free, clever city game with real prizes is exactly their night out.
Reached through the post-event list and a LinkedIn wave. Valuable for partners with team-building, group or gifting offers.
A quick look at where your brand could sit, from presenting partner to neighbourhood supporter. Each sponsor takes a single position; the numbers below are how many of each are available in total. Cash, in-kind and hybrid packages all considered. The full rate card unlocks with the NDA.
The full rate card, the per-tier return-on-investment case, the exact campaign targets and the game itself sit behind a simple mutual NDA, because the puzzle content is the product.
Unlock the full pack →Every figure we quote is a clearly-labelled target, never sold as a guarantee.
Within two weeks: your actual delivered reach, registrations, node engagement, redemptions and media, not averages.
If a committed deliverable isn't delivered, we agree a fair remedy: replacement exposure, extension or pro-rata adjustment.
You approve every use of your marks before it's produced. Nothing goes to print or screen without sign-off.
Documented safety & risk plan, public liability insurance (certificate on request), Auckland Council permits for the full window, 16+ registration.
P7 Agency: Project Seven's strategy and Project 24/7's technology studio, designing, building and running it end-to-end.
You've seen enough to know whether you're keen. Everything that makes the hunt work (the mechanics, the exact numbers, the rate card) is the product itself. Spoilers ruin a puzzle hunt, so we share the detail under a simple mutual NDA. Sign below and the full pack unlocks instantly.
A short, standard two-way confidentiality note. Read it in full, then sign below. Takes 30 seconds.
↑ Open the NDA above to enable the form.
A pentagram has been mapped across five hidden CBD locations. Players hunt down all five nodes, crack the puzzle at each, and collect the keys, tracked live through the companion app, tying the physical streets to the digital game.
All five CBD nodes go live together. Players visit any node, any time in the window, solve its puzzle and collect its key, with real-time scoring and a running leaderboard. AR street activations sit at each node, unlocking content when players arrive. One Sigil Sponsor owns each node.
During the expo weekend (23–26 Oct), a live finale and grand prize draw closes the story and reveals who broke the trap. This is where the Trap Breaker presenting partner takes the stage and the grand prize carries their name.
First to collect every key across all five nodes. Speed-run glory, tracked live on the leaderboard.
Most of the dark urban-fantasy story uncovered, rewarding the players who go deep on the lore.
Every achievement completed. Each track feeds its own prize and the climax grand draw.
Each track is a Key Keeper prize sponsorship, with your brand named on that prize everywhere it appears, and seen by every registrant at sign-up and again at completion.
Every figure here is a first-edition planning target, shown with what it measures and what it's based on. These are working assumptions from our own campaign plan, not guarantees or measured results. Sources are listed at the foot of this section, and every sponsor receives a post-event wrap report with the actual delivered numbers.
Combined gross impressions across every channel: paid social (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook), Google Search and YouTube, organic social, partner cross-promotion, and the CBD street campaign, across the full campaign window.
Basis: the sum of planned per-channel delivery in the campaign & media plan.1
Estimated gross opportunities-to-see for the outdoor street campaign — large-format posters, ground decals and installations — over the 14-day CBD activation window.
Basis: Phantom Billstickers' 14-day CBD placement schedule. Indicative, and to be audited against the delivered site list.2
Unique, verified email sign-ups captured through pre-registration before and during the hunt — the first-party marketing list that outlives the event.
Basis: planned campaign traffic against a ~25% landing-page registration rate.1, 3
Player accounts registered in the companion web app to take part in the hunt (a subset of the pre-registration list who go on to create a player profile).
Basis: pre-registration to app-registration conversion in the campaign funnel.3
Registered players who visit at least one node and actively play at some point across the two-week window.
Basis: registration to active-player conversion in the campaign funnel.3
Distinct local media placements across events, lifestyle and pop-culture outlets (coverage we earn, as opposed to paid advertising).
Basis: the PR outreach plan, built on two angles: a free city-scale game, landing on the biggest pop-culture weekend of the year.1
Redemptions of sponsor offers and vouchers by players within 60 days after the event — a measure of post-event commercial value to sponsors.
Basis: post-event email and offer follow-up to the first-party list.1
This is the first edition of the event, so there is no historical baseline. Every figure above is a working target and planning assumption from our own campaign plan — clearly labelled as a target, never presented as a guaranteed or historical result — and no independent third-party audience data is used. Every sponsor receives a post-event wrap report with the actual delivered numbers within two weeks of the event, and street opportunities-to-see are audited against Phantom Billstickers' delivered placements.
All figures NZD, exclusive of GST. Cash, in-kind and hybrid packages all considered.
Positions confirmed in order of commitment; sponsor logos and offers due to make production deadlines.
Teaser phase, pre-registration opens, paid digital begins to warm up.
CBD-wide Phantom Billstickers presence installed; all five nodes open; the hunt begins.
Live finale and grand prize draw during the expo weekend: the trap breaks.
Every sponsor receives their delivered numbers, node engagement and redemptions.
Or tell us what would make this work for your business and we'll shape a package.
We confirm deliverables, payment and brand approvals in a simple one-pager.
Positions are confirmed in order of commitment: the earlier you're in, the more choice you have.
Tell us which tier fits and a few details. This is an application, not a booking: positions are limited and we confirm each partner after a short vetting, so the lineup stays the right fit. Nothing is locked in until we've both signed a one-page agreement.
Prefer to talk first? Email kody@projectseven.co.nz or paij@projectseven.co.nz.
