Results and Effectiveness

For the short 2-weeks of the campaign duration, M&M’s Ghostbusters drove over 140,000 app downloads across the six participating cities, 340% higher than forecast for such a restricted regional focus and short campaign time frame. Game players also shared the novel experience with friends, with over 14,000 conversations on Weibo defining it as “very funny and surprising!” and “so interesting!”. This all translated into helping the Halloween “GhostBuster” game sustain M&M’s status of irresistibility. Sales rose by +38% in October, vs. same period year ago, proving once again that success in business does not preclude having fun!

Creative Execution

SpokesCandies Red and Yellow were “hidden” in six Chinese cities and we launched “M&M’s Ghostbuster”: a competition to find these cheeky characters. Bus shelters, instore displays and ads across YouKu promoted the experience, inviting people to download the “M&M’s Ghostbuster” app and join the Halloween manhunt. Whenever they were near a hidden M&M’s, the app would signal an alert. Users could then activate AR technology to look for Red and Yellow, who were “hiding” in the streets, dressed in hilarious, Halloween-themed costumes. While it was easy to find the M&M’s, catching them on screen was tricky, but the more M&M’s users caught, the greater the chances of a Halloween treat. We provided online maps for where people could find other M&M’s encouraging them to seek out hidden spokecandies rather than just rely on proximity. All of these interactions were designed to trigger sharing via social networks.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

With chocolate largely regarded in China as a “heaty” winter food and with snacking preferences still biased to savory/salty nibbles, giving fresh reasons to consume M&M’s year-round is an ongoing challenge. China’s frequent national holidays are mobbed by seasonal food advertisers so we needed to create new occasions that would tempt youthful, brand-savvy city-dwellers to enter the fun world of M&Ms. Talking to urban teens and young-adults, we learned that in contrast to Chinese holidays (with the requirement to obey cultural/family observances), Western holidays present an obligation-free excuse to have fun with friends. In 2011 we helped M&Ms successfully introduce April-Fools pranking to China and with its irreverent spirit, Halloween was another perfect match to fill a “gap” in the calendar. As advocates of “irresistible fun”, our SpokesCandies were going to use the beloved smart-phone to unite friends in a virtual “GhostHunt”, injecting excitement into the boredom of city commuting.