Chase For The Charms
Visit the site- Brand
- Lucky Charms
- Year
- 2013
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Ogmento
Objective
Lucky Charms discovered that nearly half its cereal was being eaten by adults — a fanbase the brand had spent decades marketing past, straight to their kids. For St. Patrick's Day, General Mills wanted to hand that grown-up audience a chance to actually play the chase after Lucky's charms they'd only ever watched on TV, tying it to a limited-edition, marshmallow-only box to lift engagement across the brand's social channels.
Solution
Open the free app on St. Patrick's Day and you're dropped straight into a first-person video chase after Lucky the Leprechaun. Then you raise your phone and pan it around your own room: through the camera, Lucky's eight marshmallow charms appear and dart around your real furniture and walls, and you tap each one on screen to catch it. Every charm caught instantly unlocks a prize — a Lucky Charms cereal dispenser, a T-shirt, or a shot at having an animated version of you appear in a national TV spot — plus an entry into a $10,000 real-gold sweepstakes. Catch all eight, one for every marshmallow shape in the box, and the session's over.
Results
The campaign brought Lucky Charms roughly 10,000 new Facebook followers after launch.
- 1
Players download the free "Chase for the Charms" app, marketed as an adult, "not for kids" experience rather than a children's game.
- 2
The app opens on a cinematic, first-person live-video sequence that casts the player as an adult fan chasing the leprechaun Lucky, echoing decades of the brand's television ads.
- 3
The core mechanic is augmented reality: the player raises the phone and the camera shows their real room, with Lucky's magical marshmallow charms appearing on screen; the charms move around the room, and the player taps a charm to catch it.
- 4
Catching a charm doubles as a reward: it instantly may win a branded prize, such as a cereal dispenser, a T-shirt, or a spot in a national TV commercial, and it also adds an entry into a sweepstakes for a $10,000 pot of real gold.
- 5
A full playthrough means catching all eight charms, one for each marshmallow shape in the cereal, with the chase continuing until the full set is collected.
- 6
Sweepstakes rules and prize details live on the campaign site chaseforthecharms.com, tied to a limited-edition, marshmallow-only box sold in stores.
