M-Escape
- Brand
- Migros
- Year
- 2023
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Retail
- Platform
- Web
Objective
Migros wanted to link its Cumulus loyalty program to a digital experience for the first time, driving stamp collection, repeat store visits and higher basket size among digitally-savvy 25- to 45-year-olds who enjoy escape rooms. Rather than paying out prizes, the brand bet that the pull of the story itself — not the reward — would keep people coming back to shop.
Solution
Players open escape.migros.ch on their phone, pick German, French or Italian, and log in with their Migros Cumulus account to land inside a hand-drawn, abandoned Migros branch rumoured to be haunted. Acting as a detective, they tap through rooms, pick up objects into an inventory and case journal, and solve puzzles along the way — entering codes, sliding tiles, assembling a tangram, wiring up circuits and decoding messages, with hints on offer if they get stuck. Some clues send them outside the game entirely: checking Migros' recipe portal, a character's social media, answering a phone call, or weighing real vegetables on a scale in an actual store. Each of the four chapters ends on a cliffhanger, and unlocking the next one takes a digital stamp, earned for every 10 francs spent in store.
Results
The campaign's social push reached 600,800 views and 6,800 likes; individual videos included the "Spuk in der Migros" teaser at 212,000 views, an influencer clip with Flavio Leu at 106,000 views, and a "play and win" spot at 64,500 views.
- 1
A marketing campaign — posters and in-store materials, prank videos of "ghosts" trashing a store, and influencer stories of people locked in a dark Migros — drives players to a browser-based escape game at a dedicated URL, playable directly on a phone with no app download, in German, French or Italian.
- 2
Players log in with a Migros account, which ties progress to the retailer's Cumulus loyalty program and is required to play and collect rewards.
- 3
The story casts the player as a detective investigating a haunted Migros branch; the free first chapter sets up the mystery and acts as a hook before the rest of the game is paywalled.
- 4
The core loop is room-by-room investigation: players tap objects in a scene, collect items into an inventory, and combine or match them to solve problems, tracking clues and notes in an in-game journal with a branch blueprint viewer.
- 5
Puzzles span eight types — numeric codes, sliding tile puzzles, tangram, wire-connection puzzles, picture and logic puzzles, and message decoding — with a built-in hint system that nudges stuck players without breaking the narrative.
- 6
Some tasks push outside the game itself: players search a fictional dish on a real Migros recipe platform, browse a character's social media, and call a phone number for answers needed to progress.
- 7
One puzzle requires visiting a physical Migros store and entering a code on an in-store vegetable scale to retrieve information, and the game otherwise builds its world from real branch layouts, real Migros products and services, the company jingle, and brand history references.
- 8
Each chapter ends on a cliffhanger with the next chapter locked; players unlock chapters 2 through 4 (roughly one to two hours each, expanding into a story of Migros's inventors, hackers and an AI) and bonus in-game items using digital stamps earned at a rate of one per 10 francs spent in Migros stores.
- 9
Completing the full game enters the player into a prize draw.
