PropTalk Magazine has been covering the Chesapeake Bay since 2005. Every month, their See the Bay section takes readers to a different waterfront destination, whether that's a tucked-away crab shack on the Patuxent River, a marina town on the Eastern Shore, or a historic port in Virginia. The mission has always been to help boaters (and non-boaters) discover the places that make the Chesapeake worth exploring. Click the image below to watch the video below to see how it works.

This summer, PropTalk took that editorial mission one step further. The See The Bay Challenge turns their coverage into a community-wide adventure, sending participants out to visit the very places the magazine has spent two decades writing about.

What the See The Bay Challenge Is

Running from May 15 through October 15, the See The Bay Challenge is a digital passport event that gets participants out to Chesapeake Bay waterfront destinations across Maryland and Virginia. It costs $10 to register, and participants check in at locations using a Proxi-powered map, logging visits and collecting points throughout the summer.

Each check-in requires a photo showing your presence at the location, something with the menu, signage, or even a copy of PropTalk Magazine. Photos are verified, keeping the leaderboard honest and the competition real. PropTalk has also expanded the map as the challenge has grown, adding lighthouses and maritime museums around the Bay so participants have even more ways to log points.

How Scoring Works

Most locations earn one point per visit, with a limit of one check-in per location per day. But PropTalk supporter locations are worth more, and a handful of bonus point locations are worth five points each.

Extra Points and Prizes

The leaderboard tracks both total locations visited and total points accumulated, so there are two ways to compete and two sets of grand prizes. Hit 25 approved points and you earn a PropTalk t-shirt. Top finishers are in the running for an insulated hard-sided cooler, Costa Tequila, gift cards, and additional sponsor prizes.

But the real prize is probably the summer you have getting there. The challenge runs through mid-October, giving participants five months to work through the map at whatever pace fits their boating schedule.

What It Does for Partners and Local Businesses

For PropTalk's sponsor and supporter locations, the See The Bay Challenge isn't just a mention in an article. It's a reason for motivated, paying customers to walk through the door all summer long.

The five-point bonus locations in particular benefit from being a destination. When participants are actively hunting for high-value stops on the map, those businesses see visits from people who showed up on purpose, not just by chance. A boater who might have passed by Cantler's or Big Owl Tiki Bar ends up making it a dedicated stop because it's worth five points and puts them closer to a prize.

That's a meaningfully different kind of foot traffic than a social media post or a print ad generates. The participant has already decided to go. The business just has to show up on the map.

For PropTalk, this also deepens the relationship with their sponsor and supporter network. Instead of offering ad space, they're delivering documented visits from engaged readers who are literally checking in at the location.

Keeping Participants Engaged with Email

One of the quieter but most meaningful parts of running a passport challenge well is what happens after someone signs up. PropTalk uses Proxi's built-in email tools to stay in touch with participants throughout the summer, and the results are the kind of communication that actually gets opened.

When someone registers for the challenge, they get a welcome email that confirms their participation, explains how check-ins work, and includes their unique participation link so they can get back to the map from any device. It's a triggered email that goes out automatically at registration.

As the challenge evolves, PropTalk has used announcement emails to share updates with the whole participant list. When they added lighthouses and maritime museums to the map, they sent a quick email letting everyone know about the new stops and reminding them of the photo requirements. When they launched a mid-summer giveaway, awarding a PropTalk hat to whoever referred the most new participants, that went out as a broadcast to all challengers.

Proxi supports scheduled emails, announcement emails to your full participant list, and triggered emails that fire automatically based on what someone does: when they register, when they check in at a specific location, or when they earn a reward. For an event running five months, the ability to communicate with participants at the right moment without manually tracking who did what is a significant operational advantage.

Why This Works as a Community Activation

PropTalk's See the Bay Challenge is a good example of what happens when editorial credibility meets community activation. The magazine spent years building trust with Chesapeake Bay boaters, and the See the Bay section earned a loyal readership because it was genuinely useful, covering where to dock, what to eat, and what to do in places people wanted to visit anyway.

The challenge takes that existing reader relationship and gives it a structure. Instead of just reading about these destinations, participants go out and visit them. Local businesses get foot traffic from motivated, engaged visitors. PropTalk gets deeper engagement with their audience and a stronger value proposition for their sponsor network. And participants get a summer's worth of reasons to get on the water.

How Proxi Powers It

The challenge runs on Proxi. Participants access the See the Bay Challenge map, check in at each location, upload their photo, and watch their points accumulate on the leaderboard. The map is accessible from any phone browser, no app download required, and PropTalk encourages participants to save it to their home screen for easy access out on the water.

For media companies, DMOs, or any organization that already has an audience and a set of places they want people to visit, this kind of passport challenge is one of the most practical activations available. You need a map, some locations, and a reason for people to show up.

PropTalk had all three. The See the Bay editorial series gave them the destinations. Their reader community gave them the audience. And Proxi gave them the platform to turn both into something people could participate in all summer long.

If you're thinking about running something similar for your community, we'd love to talk.