Mars Wrigley’s is a multinational manufacturer with a purpose to deliver more smiles through brands like M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, SKITTLES® and TWIX®. Drawing on principles of quality, responsibility, mutuality, and efficiency, Mars works to build a better world for generations to come, creating the world we want tomorrow today. Our powerful partnership with Mars is based in identifying changes in the product landscape, meeting the challenge of new needs with technology and design expertise, and creating experiences for an ever-shifting world.

In June 2020, we joined forces to meet a changing digital landscape quickly, efficiently, and as a team. Come June, a beloved American holiday would call for new ways to celebrate. Due to social distancing mandates and stay-at-home orders, a beloved holiday, Halloween, was in jeopardy and called for new ways to celebrate. Mars Wrigley reached out with a big ask: to take Halloween from the streets to screens.

Mars Wrigley’s purpose is to deliver better moments and smiles through iconic brands like M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, SKITTLES® and TWIX®. In June 2020, we joined forces to meet a changing digital landscape quickly, efficiently, and as a team. Due to social distancing mandates and stay-at-home orders, a beloved holiday was in jeopardy and called for new ways to celebrate.

Enter TREAT TOWN™, a virtual experience taking Halloween from streets to screens, making trick-or-treating safe for the whole family.

TREAT TOWN™ gives families the chance to virtually go door-to-door, collect candy credits, and redeem real candy from retailer locations. Users could fully transact on the app, visit Walgreens or a grocery store, show a code, and walk out the door with candy. Our creative idea helped the brand address the “last mile” problem—from economics to scalability to avoiding channel conflict—to ultimately allow customers to leverage retailers as experience and fulfillment centers.

Balancing a sudden sales strategy pivot, fast timeline, and complex requirements was an ongoing process. Halloween falls on October 31st every year—we needed to create a safe, fun experience that captured the Mars brand voice.

Our cross-functional teams brought design, development, and Mars together: we often collaborated solutions on the fly, physically designing and executing mid-conversation to manifest ideas into concrete action.

A library of creative assets features a world of spooky options and scary sounds, letting families express their creativity. Parents can fill “bowls” with virtual candy, create profiles for trick-or-treaters, and let them loose to customize costumes. The global route features arcade games like Tricky Trivia, fun-filled attractions like M&Ms World, and daily candy giveaways.

Leveraging open-source mapping platform Mapbox, we created virtual pathways, turning contextual hotspots into candy-collection waypoints. Working with Stripe, Shoppable, Snipp, and American Express allowed partnering with retailers, turning virtual candy into real sweets.

Our hands-on approach with Mars made it possible to cross the country with a swipe, design custom doors and avatars, explore sponsored attractions, and of course, give out America’s favorite candy. In 12 weeks, we co-innovated at rapid speed to create a family-first digital experience. Drawing on design thinking, mobile-first technology, scalable architecture, and multi-retailer solutions, we took a tangible experience online.

Environment and candy redemption were key pillars of the experience. Open-source mapping platform Mapbox helped lay the groundwork for virtual trick-or-treating pathways, turning contextual hotspots into candy collection waypoints. Working with Stripe, Shoppable, Snipp, and American Express made it possible to partner with retailers, turning virtual candy into real sweets. Throughout the project, in-person and remote usability testing helped refine user flows, creating an experience as smooth as it was functional. Customizing platforms via experience design, we brought the physical and virtual world together to help celebrate a beloved American ritual.

TREAT TOWN™ created a community unbound by geography. While exploring TREAT TOWN™, users could travel to attractions, such as Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, M&M’S® World in Times Square, and a pit stop at the No. 18 M&M’S® Toyota, driven by Kyle Busch.

We helped Mars Wrigley un-cancel Halloween for 500,000 families, in all 50 states, in just one month. Together, we turned a 2,000-year old tradition into a spooktacular sensation. In October 2020, TREAT TOWN™ became one of the top apps in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store with over 500,000 downloads. TREAT TOWN™ was used in 250,000 households and achieved 8.7 million in-app impressions. The initiative sparked the imagination and excitement of media and consumers alike, garnering over 3 billion earned media impressions through a multi-phased earned reach plan.

In October 2020, TREAT TOWN™ became one of the top apps in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store with over 500,000 downloads. TREAT TOWN™ was used in 250,000 households and achieved 8.7 million in-app impressions. The initiative sparked the imagination and excitement of media and consumers alike, garnering over 3 billion earned media impressions through a multi-phased earned reach plan.

We helped Mars Wrigley un-cancel Halloween for 500,000 families, in all 50 states, in just one month. Together, we turned a 2,000-year old tradition into a spooktacular sensation.

With TREAT TOWN™, Mars was able to not only celebrate their beloved candy consumers, but also creatively pivot commerce in a challenging year by elevating their retailer partners as experience and fulfillment centers.