Michael Pang

Someone once asked Phillip Karuppiah “Can’t you think of a better way to spend your weekend than getting up at 6am, being cooped up in a car for 5 hours with three other people and straining your neck all day staring at signboards”?

He responded immediately “I can’t think of anything better”!!!

I spotted Phillip among the sea of hunters at this year’s hunt and can’t help wondering how he felt seeing something he stared  grew to be such a huge success.  I asked him about it a few days later after the hunt.

“It was exhilarating to say the least!”

“We knew when we started it many years ago that it would be successful and would have a huge following in the years ahead. Congratulations to Joehari and his team for sticking to the principles we formulated and further improving on the overall organization.”

Phillip was the group director for market development for Nexnews, which had just re-launched theSun as a free newspaper. He needed a customer outreach event that would achieve two goals - increase the prominence of the brand and allow theSun to interact with its readers.

“As you know, both Joe and I had already been bitten by the treasure hunt bug by then! I also knew that treasure hunting as a past-time was also increasingly becoming popular. We immediately realized that it would resonate with our readers - especially given the demographics that theSun was targeting - urban, middle class, English speaking readers”

It was a “dream” project for both Phillip and Joe, but they did not want to organise just another  hunt, they wanted  something groundbreaking.

“As treasure hunters, Joe and I had taken part in numerous hunts and whilst we always enjoyed ourselves tremendously, we were also dissatisfied with various aspects of the manner in which the Hunts had been organized”.  So we asked ourselves this question: “What if we ourselves organized an annual Hunt and organized it in such a fashion that would rectify all the shortcomings we were experiencing as hunters in other hunts”?

Phillip with team mates Joehari and Julius receiving their rat traps for coming in last at a private CNY hunt earlier this year. Photo by Jayaram Menon.

The key changes that Phillip wanted for theSun Hunt were:-

“Prizes - we had taken part in many hunts where we won a prize - but it was a single hamper that the four team members had to share. We were quite fed up of this and knew immediately that we would need to give all 4 members in a team individual prizes. Also, we wanted as many teams to go home “with a smile” as we put it - hence we made sure of this. This was done by getting in as many sponsors as possible and putting as much as the funds as possible into prizes. It really made our day when one of the participants fondly referred to theSun Hunt as “the mother of all hunts” because of this.

Another key initiative that  has contributed to the success and brought in a whole new bunch of hunters into the fraternity is the Masters/ Open category.

“We knew instantly that we had to “separate” these experienced hunters from the rest as we wanted to motivate the newcomers to participate in more hunts and what better way that to give them an opportunity at what we called a “rostrum finish”. That’s how the Masters category came into being in theSun Hunt. We were careful to ensure the Masters were not shortchanged and got the respect they deserved - hence we ensured that ALL the Masters teams got a prize and it was of equivalent value as the corresponding Open category”.

Another “must” that Phillip ensured when he mooted the idea many years back was in the overall hunt presentation.

“I think theSun Hunt to this day is known for its slick organization - no delays, great food etc”

And the rest as they say is history

Asked if he has any words for the hunters out there, he has this to say

“It’s important to support the organizers by taking part. Only when the hunting fraternity gets bigger will new organizers come into the fold and organise new Hunts. And that’s in the interest of all parties - hunters, COCs, Sponsors and organizers”

“So hunters - go out there and enjoy!”

Indeed, Phillip is looking forward to go out there and enjoy himself at the Mensa Hunt next month.