A viral initiative on social networks made thousands of people play hidden treasure again in the midst of the economic crisis. This is Duende.ba, an account instagram and TikTok that tEvery week he leaves green envelopes with gifts in different emblematic places in Argentina.
Duende.ba has gained so much popularity in recent weeks that each of its publications mobilizes in just a few minutes dozens of people trying to keep the prizes.
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Behind this account, there is a group of young students who began hiding gifts in Argentina after seeing that a European influencer was doing something similar in the Old Continent. To differentiate themselves and give their own imprint to the project, they added the idea that in our country it is a mysterious goblin who leaves the treasures.
“We want to give our followers the illusion that there really is an elf hiding treasures around the city. The main idea is that this is a fun game and that people are entertained,” highlighted one of the creators of the project, who He doesn’t want to reveal his identity so as not to break the magic.
The founders of Duende.ba have already hidden cash, shopping orders, free dinner vouchers and school supply kits in cities such as Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Plata and San Miguel de Tucumán. When they hide a new gift, they upload a video to social media showing where in the country they hid the treasure.
“We always try to hide the gifts in emblematic places in the city. We want people to leave their house for a walk, have fun and possibly win a prize,” explained one of the “elves” whose identity was withheld.
Finding the prize: a task against the clock
Every time the Leprechaun’s account warns that he hid a new gift, dozens of people run out to look for it. And no, it is not a metaphor. Men and women of different ages and professions start a race to get to the place where the prize is first.
Daniel, for example, is a tour guide from the City of Buenos Aires who arrived agitated at Plaza Francia after learning from instagram that the Duende had left an envelope with cash in one of the English-type telephone booths in the Recoleta neighborhood.
Accelerated, he tried to open one of the red booths and couldn’t. He struggled with the door of another: there was no case either. When he was leaving the square with a feeling of defeat, he realized that on the opposite sidewalk, hidden between two trees, there was a third cabin without a door where no one had looked.either. When he arrived at the place, running, he saw the green envelope: it had 10 thousand pesos in cash inside.
“I saw the post 7 minutes ago, I got dressed right away and ran out. When I arrived, I saw that there were about five more people looking for him, but in the wrong booths. The envelope was in the only cabin that didn’t have a door, so I won!” the treasure winner said happily. According to what he said, he plans to spend the cash on “going out to eat or inviting someone to the movies.”
Other people who approached the square a few minutes later did not have the same luck. Gustavo, for example, a Colombian artisan, lamented that he arrived “too late” to keep the gift: “If I won it, I planned to send money to my son who is in Colombia and has his birthday coming up.”
In a period of half an hour, two delivery drivers, a design student, three workers from a logistics company, two men in their 40s, a resident of Recoleta, a young couple, a boy also came to look for the treasure. on a bike and another on a motorcycle.
How is the initiative financed?
The founders of Duende.ba said that, in the first envelopes they gave away, there was money in cash that came from their “own pockets.” Now, however, they finance themselves with the money they charge brands or businesses “for hiding their products.” “It is something that serves our followers because they win prizes from those stores and it also serves the business as advertising,” they detailed.
In less than two months, the popularity of the account grew exponentially: Duende.ba has already accumulated more than 220 thousand followers on Instagram and 33 thousand on TikTok, while it has thousands of interactions on each publication. They also have thousands of followers on the accounts of La Plata (Duende.lp), Tucumán (Duende.tuc) and Córdoba (Duende.cba).
But not all the repercussions of the Duende are good: some users distrust the veracity of the project and others criticize the creators for leaving gifts in areas of high purchasing power.
The response from the anonymous elves is that “it is very difficult to satisfy everyone”: “We try to do the best we can and make the game as fun as possible.” Meanwhile, they plan to continue expanding the initiative and start leaving gifts in cities like Mendoza, Bariloche and Mar del Plata.
