Pleasure Hunt Across Amsterdam
- Brand
- Magnum
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- AR & VR
- Agency
- Monterosa
- With
- Lowe Brindfors
Objective
Magnum wanted to give the browser-based Pleasure Hunt franchise, which had already drawn millions of online players, a physical presence for the launch of Magnum Infinity in spring 2012. Moving the game onto the streets of Amsterdam let the brand put the new product directly into people's hands and generate press and social buzz around an early AR experience for consumers.
Solution
Players downloaded a free iPhone app that turned Amsterdam's Nine Streets into a game board for one week, opening first into a practice mode to learn the controls before the hunt began. During the game, a live map showed where chocolate bonbons were hidden and where rival hunters were moving nearby. Walking to a marked spot, the player raised their phone and saw bonbons floating over the real street through the camera, then moved toward them to collect each one; cocoa nibs doubled the score, while animated "greedy mouths" chased the player and had to be dodged. Because bonbons vanished the instant another player grabbed them, every hunt was a race against the clock and against everyone else on the map. Anyone who played walked away with a Magnum Infinity ice cream, and the player with the biggest haul won a trip to New York.
- 1
Ahead of the hunt week, the player downloads the free 'Magnum Pleasure Hunt Across Amsterdam' app and can run a practice mode to learn the controls before the game itself starts.
- 2
The game only activates once the player is physically in Amsterdam during the 22–29 April 2012 window, which the app verifies by GPS.
- 3
A live map shows the play zone across 9 locations in the city, plotting both where bonbons are waiting and where other hunters are moving in real time.
- 4
At a marked spot, raising the phone opens an augmented-reality camera view where chocolate bonbons appear overlaid on the real street; walking onto one collects it and adds to the player's score, drawing from a pool of 150 bonbons spread across the city for the week.
- 5
Cocoa nibs appear alongside the bonbons in the AR view, and catching one doubles the points from that pickup.
- 6
While hunting, the player must dodge 'greedy mouths' that chase them through the AR view, a pursuit mechanic the press likened to a real-world Pac-Man.
- 7
The hunt runs against both the one-week deadline and rival players, since any bonbon another hunter reaches first is removed from play.
- 8
At the end of the week, the player with the most bonbons claimed wins a free trip to New York, while every other participant receives the newly launched Magnum Infinity ice cream.
