McDonald’s Launches AR Halloween Experience

Need to Know

• The McDonald’s mobile website will display a yellow door, on which visitors can “knock” as if they were trick-or-treating.
• The door reveals access to an interactive virtual world, as well as a special McDelivery offer.
• The #BringHalloweenHome campaign encourages users to post selfies of the AR experience on their social media accounts.

Analysis

McDonald’s is offering an interactive online experience that mimics trick-or-treating, in an effort to engage customers—and entice them to order delivery—who are stuck at home for Halloween due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fast-food chain’s new #BringHalloweenHome campaign hinges on an AR experience on its mobile website. A yellow door is displayed to website visitors, who can then “knock” on the door as if they were trick-or-treating. The door opens to reveal an interactive, explorable virtual world, as well as a special McDelivery offer. Users can take photos of their experiences in the interactive portal, which McDonald’s is encouraging them to post to social media using the #BringHalloweenHome hashtag, as a way of celebrating the holiday at home despite the ongoing pandemic.

The #BringHalloweenHome AR experience and corresponding McDelivery offer will be live from October 29 to October 31. McDelivery service is available from more than 1,000 restaurants in Canada via Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, and DoorDash.

McDonald’s is just the latest in a list of companies offering digital Halloween experiences to compensate for a lack of in-person trick-or-treating this year, due to COVID-19. Party City and Nexdoor teamed up for the latter’s annual Treat Map, offering it this year as an augmented reality (AR) experience whereby users can tap on a map to locate Halloween-themed “virtual visitors.”

Walmart, too, has launched an interactive online Halloween experience: the Halloween Camp program is a series of interactive videos, in partnership with Eko, that include craft-making tutorials and a game show hosted by actor Neil Patrick Harris. Walmart is also hosting socially-distanced trick-or-treating events at more than 100 of its locations in the U.S. beginning on October 15.

McDonald’s announced the creation of a digital engagement team in January of this year, with the intention of shifting some focus towards innovation and unique customer engagement on the store’s online channels. In addition to the Halloween AR tool. McDonald’s became one of the first two companies, with Coca-Cola, to use Snapchat’s Snapchat Scan augmented reality tool in January.