Gap launched a new project to deliver more discounts to its fans ahead of Christmas through a holiday-themed ‘race’ of reindeer. For five days, the brand has been inviting its fans to visit the www.projectreindeer.com page and participate in the competition of the North Pole animals for a chance to pay less at the participating Gap stores across the U.S. The idea behind the project is simple: to save a Gap venue, you had to say the name of the winner of the every day’s challenge and get a discount he or she carries. The competition, which has been running December 15-19, is now over. 

“Every deer has a deal. Every day has a winner. Tweet to boost your favorite,” says the brand on the website of the project. The participants of ProjectReindeer were invited to track the movements of the eight GPS-enabled reindeer on a pasture to pay less for particular items—with kind of discount it would be depended on the horned contestants since each of them represented one deal. For instance, thanks to Chloe, Gap stores customers could get any accessories for just $5, Zoe brought 40% off all women’s items and so on. To get a discount, consumers were supposed to some up to the cashier and say “[The name of the today’s winner]+free.” Still, things were not always going smoothly. On the project’s page on Facebook some people are complaining that sometimes shopping assistances know nothing about the project and so the promotional fun turns into bare arguments.

There were 5 days of competitions with each challenge lasting 24 hours. Yesterday’s ‘goal for tomorrow’s (e.i. today’s) deal’ was to get closest to the North Pole—with the data obtained through GPS they calculate how much the deer travelled around the parks area. Gap was also inviting its fans to “tweet to boost your favorite,” but it didn’t explain how this online encouragement could make the animals move faster. Actually, these Rudolphs are leading their normal lives on the pasture (visitors to the hub can see the live video from the spot) and are not rushing anywhere. So, it turns out that by writing short messages in the micro blog service, people were simply giving this push to the promotional campaign itself.

To learn more about the reindeer, go to Gap’s YouTube profile and the project’s website.