Kraft Heinz owned F. Whitlock & Sons, with the help of Because Creative Experiences and Unbnd, will be taking its Aussie and Kiwi customers “further out of their ordinary” with the launch of an immersive, gamified Web AR Portal adventure.
The industry-first portal was crafted to allow users to access the portal within their immediate environment via a ‘virtual door’.
“Kraft Heinz were looking for an agency that could think outside the box and connect with consumers in a Covid-safe way,” Gareth Brock, Because managing partner, told PKN.
“Initially, the plan was to create a physical immersive experience to trial and taste the new range of Whitlock’s products, including marinades, rubs and beans, but Covid restrictions made that route to market risky with the consistent lockdowns and social distancing rules.
“So, we decided to take a more creative technology approach, which fitted us as an agency perfectly.”
Inspired by the classic escape room format, the portal experience centres around the tales of Whitlock’s hero characters, Chip the Chipotle Pepper and Oscar and Rojo, the Fuego Chilli Beans.
Users are taken on a series of Whitlock’s challenges with interactive objects to obtain, clues to find and rewards to claim. The prizes include money, F. Whitlock & Sons merchandise, cooking recipes, or products within the brand’s new range.
“AR portals are doorways that open entrances to new and exciting virtual worlds. Using AR, people can place virtual portals in real-world locations, which they can walk through and be virtually transported into new dimensions,” explained Brock.
“The Whitlock’s Web AR Portal is like nothing that has been produced before, providing a fully immersive, interactive and gamified experience to explore two different worlds based on the main characters.
“Either go with Chip the hot-headed Chipotle that ventures far and wide and ends up in some firey scenarios, or with Rojo and Oscar who are outlaw bean-pirates who spend their days sailing up and down the Mexican coast.”
The game will also include four grand mystery prizes, where users will need to find hidden numbers in both portals to unlock a four-digit code on the Whitlock’s treasure chest at the end of the experience.
In each experience, the user gets cryptic clues and tasks to take their ingredients to their delicious demise, and have the chance to win prizes throughout.
“We’ve loved working closely with Because to create an AR experience that invites Aussies and Kiwis into the Whitlock’s Portal of Delicious Demise, and let’s them discover what it means to be a Whitlock’s-worthy adventurer,” said Nicola Curran, F. Whitlock & Sons flavour adventurist and brand purveyor.
F. Whitlock & Sons’ creative multi-channeled campaign, Whitlock’s Tales of Delicious Demise, launched earlier this year.
Brock says that two more challenges are set to appear in the new year for customers to look out for.
“The third new world will focus on Louisiana’s Style Rub Pim, Pearl and Thymon, who are a documentary film crew and set out on an adventure to find Reggie The King of Louisiana, in the gator deep swamps of Lake Martin,” said Brock.
“And the fourth world will follow Tomasz and Alba from the Texas BBQ sauce product range who set out across the Chihuahua desert of Texas to avenge the death of their father, who met his own delicious demise at the spikey-hands of the infamous Cactus Cowboy.
“Brands have embraced the need to interact and engage with consumers in new invocative ways digitally, and we have a number of other projects on the boil using creative technologies to solve complex challenges.”
To experience Whitlock’s Web AR Portal, scan any QR code found on F. Whitlock & Sons range in supermarkets to start “the quest on combatting the ordinary”.
