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A Week in WebAR: Halloween Edition

by Jennifer DeFalco

What’s the latest in web AR? We celebrate commemorate Halloween by highlighting this week’s holiday-themed AR activations: Nextdoor’s Treat Map is Back, Ghostbusters Sends Users on a Candy Hunt, McDonald’s Brings Halloween Home and Ricolino Clowns Around.

Even though most trick-or-treaters are staying home this year, there’s still lots of spooky fun to be had in augmented reality. Bring the haunt into your house with these creative Halloween WebAR activations powered by 8th Wall.

Nextdoor’s Treat Map

Nextdoor’s annual Treat Map is back with new features in WebAR. The neighborhood app partnered with Party City to create an interactive map that offers alternatives to trick-or-treating and an original augmented reality experience, so that you can celebrate Halloween safely this year. Simply add your home to the Treat Map and let your neighbors know which lower risk festivities you plan on participating in: Haunted Decor, Pumpkin Projects, or a Costume Wave Parade.

Explore the map to see how other locals are celebrating and then go on a nighttime sight-seeing route to see the festive Halloween decorations in your area. Created by agency Seven2, a spooky WebAR experience lets you bring to life “Virtual Visitor” ghouls found on the Treat Map which you can snap a photo of and share to your Nextdoor newsfeed to scare your neighbors. New characters are released throughout the Halloween season, and you can also locate Party City stores on the map to unlock all of the characters while shopping in-store.

🎃 Try the Treat Map on here (must be logged into Nextdoor).

Ferrara + Ghostbusters’ Haunted Candy Hunt

Ferrara collaborated with Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters to create a fun WebAR experience that lets families hunt for ghosts (and candy!) from the comfort of their home. Created by agency Trigger, the Haunted Candy Hunt takes players on a Halloween adventure where they can walk around their living room, kitchen and backyard to find classic Ghostbusters ghouls including Slimer, as well as new characters created just for the game.

“While Halloween may look different this year, now more than ever consumers are seeking out new ways to enjoy Halloween traditions and celebrate the season,” said Mariah Havens, Senior Brand Manager of Seasonal Marketing at Ferrara. “This year, we’re thrilled to work with Sony Pictures and the iconic Ghostbusters franchise to offer a virtual spin on the classic neighborhood trick-or-treating experience. This augmented reality game allows fans to hunt for candy, ghosts and more!”

Users can capture the ghosts for a chance to win prizes including the Hasbro™ Ghostbusters Plasma Series and Kenner Series newly-released action figures — as well as a grand prize of a Sony® Home Theater Package, including a 55″ Sony 55X900H TV, WS1 Immersive Wearable Speaker, Blu-ray player and PlayStation 4.

👻 Play the Haunted Candy Hunt.

McDonald’s Brings Halloween Home

As a part of their #BringHalloweenHome campaign, McDonald’s Canada created a WebAR experience that brings the trick-or-treat experience directly to Canadian customers. A yellow McDelivery door appears in augmented reality that can be opened by “knocking,” which reveals a virtual Halloween world to explore and has an exclusive McDelivery offer. Users can snap photos while in the experience of their spooky encounter with a vampire.

Created by Canadian-based agency Cossette and produced by Paris-based agency Nedd, McDonald’s #BringHalloweenHome experience will be available to mobile users Oct. 29–31. The McDelivery service itself is available from more than 1,000 restaurants in Canada via Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes and DoorDash.

🦇 Read more about McDonald’s #BringHalloweenHome experience.

A Spooky Adventure with Ricolino Candy

Candy brand Ricolino launched a Halloween WebAR experience that’s activated by scanning a QR code on a poster. Created by agency Inmersys, the experience reveals an animated clown dressed as a vampire in augmented reality who greets the user before diving headfirst into a mysterious portal.

At the end of the AR experience, the user is invited to download the Ricolino app in order to find out where the clown has disappeared to. The promotion was created by agency Inmersys with the purpose of generating awareness and driving traffic to the candy brand’s app.

A Favorite from Halloween 2019: Jagermeister “Darke Spirit”

This spooky WebAR experience was created by agency WULF Arts, Inc. in collaboration with Foundry512 and Foursquare for Jagermeister. The spirit of bartenders past haunts pubs, lounges and clubs and users who find them (in augmented reality) are prompted to post a screenshot of their ghoulish encounter on social media with #DarkeSpirit for the chance to win one of 16 exclusive Jagermeister Halloween party packs.

https://youtu.be/eqCwP1IHvKM

🦌 Read more about Jagermeister’s “Darke Spirit” in AdAge.

Jennifer DeFalco is Brand Manager at 8th Wall. A version of this post originally appeared on 8th Wall’s Medium, contributed here by the author.

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