Where Has Benny Been?
A gamified scavenger hunt that turns casual fans into loyal community members — Benny the monkey mascot hides in plain sight, fans find him, earn rewards.
- Product
- Where Has Benny Been?
- Industry
- Fan engagement & community application
- Type
- Owned MMC product
About the project
Where Has Benny Been? is fan engagement disguised as a game. Benny — the cartoon monkey mascot of the Mad Monkey universe — appears in real-world settings (a coffee shop, a music venue, a record store, a t-shirt drop), and fans find him, photograph him, submit the find, and earn rewards.
It's a community application: every find becomes a story, every story builds the Mad Monkey universe, and every reward gives fans a reason to keep paying attention to the parent brands. Apparel drops, EP releases, content uploads — Benny lives in all of them.
Mad Monkey Creative designed and built the entire system: the Benny character and storyline, the find-submission app, the rewards mechanic, and the marketing that drives discovery.
Project goals
- Turn passive followers into active participants in the Mad Monkey brand universe
- Create real-world touchpoints that connect digital fans to physical moments
- Build a rewards mechanic that makes ongoing engagement worth it
- Use Benny as the connecting thread across all Mad Monkey brands (apparel, music, kids)
- Generate user-submitted content that fuels social and email marketing
Services used
Brand & Story
- Benny character design and storyline
- Adventure narrative — where Benny goes and why
- Rewards-tier structure and naming
- Marketing campaign creative
Build & Run
- Find-submission web application
- Rewards account and ledger system
- Admin tools for verifying submissions
- Marketing site and onboarding flow
- Cross-brand integration with Mad Monkey Creations / Mad Monkey Kidz
Technologies & platforms
- Web application — submission, account, and rewards UI
- Image upload pipeline — fans photograph Benny, system validates
- Account system — rewards ledger and user history
- Static brand site — onboarding and storyline
Visit Where Has Benny Been?
See the live product and how it works.