@Flyscan goes live! The 24 hour Twitter Challenge!
UPDATE: read how we got on!
Skyscanner sets itself 24 hour challenge to develop, launch and get 1 million tweets for new Twitter flight finder service @FlyScan.
In just 24 hours (starting at 12.00 today GMT) leading travel search site Skyscanner will develop and launch the new @FlyScan Twitter search tool.
Twitter users will be able to tweet their flight request to @FlyScan and receive an immediate tweet back with the best flight price available. The second part of the eye-watering challenge the company has set itself is to send 1 million @FlyScan tweets out by midday tomorrow (24th March 2011).
Dreamed up by some of the Skyscanner team over dinner last night, the @FlyScan project was given the go ahead just this morning.
“We love this idea,” said Skyscanner’s Development Director Bonamy Grimes. “We could have taken our time with this and built it into our development schedule but we thought what the hell, let’s develop it, launch it and get people using it in one day.
“It’s a massive development challenge. Adding the 1 million tweets target just makes it more fun! Will we hit the target? Maybe, maybe not, but 1 million is our new favourite number since we reached a million downloads of the new iPhone app yesterday.”
Follow the team’s progress on the 24 hour challenge on Twitter @FlyScan using #flyscan and on the project blog at flyscan.org.
“We’re already on a roll,” said Bonamy Grimes. “The atmosphere is buzzing and we’re going to make this happen. We’ll be blogging our progress as we go, so check in and see how we’re doing against the deadline. The clock’s ticking!”
To raise the stakes even higher and as an added incentive to the team, Skyscanner has pledged to donate £25,000 to Comic Relief when the 1 million tweet target is reached.
A step-by-step guide to using @FlyScan:
1) Tweet @FlyScan with details of the flight you’re looking for, e.g. @FlyScan London to New York on 14 June, or @FlyScan flights from Edinburgh to Paris in August
2) @FlyScan will send you a customised response with details of your flight
3) Click on the link to go to the Skyscanner website and book your flight!
We have over 5,000 prizes on offer to users tweeting their requests to @FlyScan:
- iPad2
- ebookers discount codes
- Kindle
- £250 lastminute.com vouchers
- Cabin Max bag
- Canon Ixus camera
- Lonely Planet travel guides
- Return flights from London to New York with British Airways
- Return flights to Europe with Monarch
- Return flights to either Berlin or Vienna with British Midland International
