A 15-year-old boy from Virginia earned a free cruise thanks to his Snapchat account handle.
Darian Lipscomb of Prospect, Virginia, received a request from Carnival Cruise Lines to trade his Snapchat username (@CarnivalCruise) for a free trip, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The company showed up at his home to convince him.
“I answered the door, walked outside and saw my name on a big truck. I was really surprised,” he said.
Lipscomb said he chose the username in 2012 (he was 9 years old at the time) to share snaps from his cruise experiences.
“When I was 9 years old, I went on a cruise and got really excited and wanted to share it with my friends,” he said.
Carnival sought out the name because it’s their brand name. The cruise line began an entire campaign to woo Lipscomb. They sent signs to Lipscomb's hometown to draw the teen's attention, including one on which Carnival Cruise’s new “chief fun officer” Shaquille O’Neal asked if anyone knew about Lipscomb, Fox News reported.
The company showed up at Lipscomb’s home on Tuesday night and offered his family a free trip on their newest ship if he traded them his Snapchat name.
He accepted the deal. He will visit Barcelona on the maiden voyage of the new Carnival Horizon line, according to Fox News.
The trip is worth roughly $5,000. Lipscomb and his family will receive “flights, hotels and other special surprises,” too, according to the Times-Dispatch.
"We thought this would be a fun way to claim our handle and reward a 'superfan' at the same time," said Robyn Fink, a spokeswoman for Carnival Cruise, according to BBC.
Now, Lipscomb will have to think of a new Snapchat handle.
"I’ll have to think up another name. Maybe another company name," Lipscomb said.
