The Great Cookie Quest
View the case- Brand
- Oreo
- Year
- 2018
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Adventure & Quest
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- The Martin Agency
- With
- Carat
- With
- Gravity Jack
Objective
Riding the wave of mobile AR gaming after Pokémon Go, Oreo set out to turn everyday attention into daily brand engagement. The push doubled as a sales lever: linking play to Oreo's UK 10th-anniversary promo packaging, where scanning a real pack unlocked better rewards and pulled players toward the shelf.
Solution
Each day the app poses a riddle about an ordinary object — "What puts hands on your wrist?" — and the player points their phone's camera at whatever they think the answer is. Once the app recognizes the object, a 3D Oreo cookie materializes on screen over the real-world view, spins open, and reveals a prize. Cookies come in three tiers — chocolate, silver, gold — worth different points, and each find gets logged in a personal "Cookiedex" while the score climbs a leaderboard against friends and other players worldwide. Scanning an actual Oreo pack or cookie unlocks richer rewards, including Google Play vouchers, and enters the player into a sweepstakes for the grand prize.
Results
The campaign generated 1.2 billion impressions and drove 42,000 app installs, with 166,000 accounts created and an average of 8.44 minutes of engagement per user. Tying play to purchase, it lifted retail pre-orders by 273%.
- 1
Promotional media directs players to download the free Great OREO Cookie Quest app (or visit oreoquest.com), and the app opens by having them scan a real OREO cookie to begin the hunt.
- 2
Each day the app poses a riddle about an everyday object, and players search their surroundings and point the camera at real-world items — the riddle's answer or anything else — to check for hidden cookies.
- 3
When the camera recognizes an object, a 3D OREO cookie appears in augmented reality and splits open to reveal its rarity, a point value, and a reward such as video content, social stickers, or wallpaper; the cookie is logged in a "Cookiedex" collection tracker.
- 4
Accumulated points feed a leaderboard where players compare scores against Facebook and Twitter friends and against players worldwide.
- 5
Scanning a real cookie or a promotional pack yields better-than-standard rewards, including entry into a prize drawing.
- 6
A parallel on-pack path lets players who buy a promo pack enter their details and a pack code on the website or in the app for an instant-win reward.
- 7
Players keep collecting cookies to compete for tiered prizes awarded at points thresholds and a top prize for the highest overall score, up to a fixed maximum number of cookies per player.
- 8
Collecting every item on the object list unlocks additional prizes on top of what has already been earned.
- 9
A companion website outside the app offers mini-games and coupons alongside a link to download the app.
