NutriQuest
- Brand
- Horlicks
- Year
- 2016
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Quiz & Trivia
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Grey Group Singapore
Objective
Malaysian mothers already trusted Horlicks as a nutritious drink, but their own kids didn't want to drink it — GSK needed to win kids over directly, not just their parents. The brand set out to turn its 'tall, strong and sharp' product promise into entertainment children would choose on their own, building daily consumption habits and looping the campaign back into pack purchases at retail.
Solution
Players choose one of four kid heroes and platform through 30 levels split across three worlds — a City, a Jungle and the Horlicks Factory itself — tapping to jump, smash obstacles and dodge Dr. Greedy's Metaloid robots to win the factory back. Three pickups double as the product's own selling points: Tall boosts jump height, Strong lets the hero punch through walls, and Sharp keeps them holding on longer through a wobbling, virtual-reality-styled stretch of levels. Codes printed inside specially marked Horlicks packs unlock bonus arcade levels in the app and can be redeemed for real merchandise, so clearing a level often sent players back to the shelf for another pack.
Results
The free game logged 113,367 downloads across iOS and Android and held a Top 100 spot on Google Play for six weeks. The tie-in promotion drove 2,000+ NutriCoin redemptions and 20,999 merchandise items claimed, on top of 24 million digital impressions — near Malaysia's entire population — and a 36% increase in sales.
- 1
Players download Horlicks NutriQuest for free from the App Store or Google Play; the game carries no in-app purchases. The story opens with an evil scientist, Dr. Greedy, and his Metaloid robots seizing the Horlicks factory and hoarding the world's Horlicks supply, giving the hero a mission to retake it.
- 2
Players pick one of four heroes — Damien, Omair, Akin or Ida — or build a custom character resembling themselves before starting the quest.
- 3
The core loop is a 2.5D run-and-jump platformer across 30 levels split evenly among three worlds (City, Jungle, The Horlicks Factory): players dash and leap past obstacles toward a flag-topped podium, collecting coins, stars and hidden trophies while dodging Metaloid enemies that slash, shoot or drop bombs.
- 4
Power-up boosters modify traversal and combat: Tall lets players jump higher to reach elevated platforms, Strong lets them smash walls and throw objects farther, and Sharp extends how long they can stay in the Virtual Reality world.
- 5
Tapping a joystick icon drops players into a parallel Virtual Reality world, where they search for keys that unlock escalators and lifts back in the main game.
- 6
Coins collected on levels are spent to upgrade the hero's skills and health, and advancing to a new world requires banking enough stars from earlier levels, forcing replays of any level that falls short.
- 7
Each world ends in a boss fight: level 10 pits players against Crank Tank using a yo-yo weapon, level 20 against Slazer using the Sharp booster to power a cannon, and level 30 against Dr. Greedy himself to reclaim the factory.
- 8
Buying Horlicks packaging in the real world earns NutriCoins — one for a 200g pack, two for a 400/440g tin, three for a 1kg pack — which players redeem in-game for the '4th Dimension', a set of exclusive levels and five arcade mini-games, or exchange online for physical merchandise such as keychains, caps and watches.
- 9
Offline, the same three booster abilities are re-enacted physically at roadshow stands, where children jump for stars in a 'Tall' zone, punch an inflatable Dr. Greedy in a 'Strong' zone, and shoot at a Dr. Greedy target in a 'Sharp' zone.
