In order to bring the spirit of Halloween to Argentina in an authentic way, Zona Paranormal tapped into the local folklore of the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. The immersive horror experience was built in an abandoned warehouse, and was designed as a dark maze that brought consumers through a linear sequence of 7 uniquely terrifying rooms. Groups of 6-8 people worked together in each room to solve a horror challenge that would allow them to move on through the experience. At both the outset and completion of the experience, guests were treated to Quilmes beers at two customized horror-themed bars. For the 125th anniversary of Quilmes, which coincided with Halloween itself, guests were invited to an epic horror celebration complete with a zombie-themed “Thriller" choreographed performance.

Lead by Hollywood’s greatest live special effects team at Blumhouse Productions, the production combined highly technical scare effects with theatrically trained actors, make-up artists, and set-designers to create a fully immersive horror experience.

Built entirely from scratch in an abandoned industrial space, the seven-room escape and maze experienced included a highly sophisticated control board managed by a back of house team who were able to activate real time scares to guests in the maze.

A cast of 30 actors used both scripted and improvisational acting to immerse guests in the Argentinian folklore and help them escape each room’s test.

Two customized bars were built for both the initial waiting area, and post-experience celebratory experience for the guests.

• 1 month of activation – over 10, 000 people – sold out within 24 hours of launch

• Lift in the Quilmes brand in bars 31% during campaign

• Lift of Quilmes sales in retail by 18.6%

• Lift of the Ab InBev portfolio sales in bars by 23% during campaign

• Lift of AB inBev porfolio sales in retail by 10.6%

• 800% increase in website traffic

• Over 12 million views of assets only on YouTube

When was the last time a brand created an experience that sold out in 24-hours, consumers offered to pay, and the event resulted 30% increase in sales? That’s what we accomplished with Zona Paranormal, a live experience marketing program and stunt brought to life in Argentina this past October.

With the horror genre becoming a world wide phenomena, Halloween provided the perfect backdrop to inspire a new consumer behavior around a new drinking occasion in October. In noticing the recent successes in the US around live-horror experiences for adults, Quilmes saw the opportunity to partner with the biggest horror producer in the world, Blumhouse Productions, to create an original experience that blended Halloween into Argentinian culture, and celebrated the “fun of fear.”

The Fun of Fear is exactly as it sounds. It’s Quilmes’ invitation to celebrate the fun season of Halloween by enjoying the collective experience of a great scare and beers with friends.

October is strangely a slow beer drinking month, particularly in Argentina. Quilmes, Argentina’s biggest beer brand wanted to shake up the category and create a new drinking occasion - a reason for friends to come together over a beer. The program centerpiece was a 30-day live immersive horror experience for 10,000 people in Buenos Aires, supported by a multi-dimensional promotional campaign of horror TVC’s, OOH, digital, social, stunts, retail activations and parties for consumers around the country.