A text message on my Telus mobile phone asks a rather puzzling question: ‘If the scent of coffee is in the air, where might you be?’ Hmm, where indeed? Brazil, maybe? Perhaps Colombia? I reply back with my answer and await a response, hoping I’m not wrong again.

In the first two-way text messaging contest in Canada, questions like this are appearing on Telus phones in Ontario and Quebec. It’s all part of the ‘Find Fresh’ promotion, a neo-scavenger hunt from the Toronto-based tele-communications giant asking participants to use the messaging application to win prizes.

The five-week contest, running from Aug. 26 to Sept. 28, began with a series of clues each week that grow increasingly specific, leading users towards the undisclosed location of Fresh. Fresh could be anywhere – from the Eiffel Tower to the CN Tower – and at the end of each week, the location is revealed and those users smart enough to have figured it out might be rewarded by winning one of four prizes.

One grand prize and three secondary ones are given out each week, but the prizes grow more lavish as the contest continues: the grand prize is an adventure vacation for two, others range from gift certificates to CD players.

However, the catch is that the game is conducted through the Get Fresh Web site, www.getfresh.com, or www.pensezneo.com in Quebec. Each day, a code word is posted on the site; users have to send it in text message format to (777) 777-7777 to receive that day’s clue. For example, in order to get the ‘coffee’ clue, users had to send a message with the code word, ‘simple.’

Overall, for Telus, the Find Fresh promotion has a twofold goal: to drive traffic to the Web site, and to introduce new customers to the new applications a Telus phone is now capable of.

‘Two-way text messaging is really big with the youth market,’ says Rick Seifeddine, VP marketing and communications, Telus Mobility. ‘Under the new Fresh mandate, we see untapped potential with the first two-way text messaging scavenger hunt in Canada. It’s a cool technology, but it’s not just for the 17-25s, it’s more for anyone who feels youthful.’

Seifeddine explains that Find Fresh is merely a test-run, so expectations aren’t of the highest priority. Rather he wants to know if it engages the people involved. He hopes to find out if people spend much time on the site and if sales of the Telus products and accessories increase. While concrete results aren’t yet available, he adds for the first week, the scavenger hunt resonated best with Quebecers, but he warns not to read too much into this as the contest was just getting under way at press time.

Advertisements for Get Fresh, running Aug. 19 to Sept. 30, continue the Telus tradition of using animals in the creative. Designed by Toronto agency Taxi, the executions this time feature cute, furry monkeys with lime green encircling the Get Fresh logo. One ad in particular displays a monkey with a sock puppet; the tagline reads, ‘Friends can’t talk? Try 2-way messaging.’ The media buy includes indoor transit and backlit billboards, along with ads in urban magazines like Now and Eye, and youth pubs like Chart and Verve.

Street teams in Montreal and Toronto are supporting the promotion. In clubs and universities, the teams are handing out Get Fresh-branded car FRESHeners, temporary tattoos, T-shirts, stickers, glow sticks and water bottles. In addition, Telus stores (40 in Ontario and 20 in Quebec) now contain a ‘Fresh Zone,’ an in-store area dedicated to youth-oriented accessories, like a lava lamp-styled phone purse or a camouflaged faceplate.