Burger King urges kids to guard virtual eggs in new AR game

Dive Brief:

Burger King is offering a web-based augmented reality (AR) experience for King Jr. kids meals as part of a collaboration with Rovio Entertainment, the software developer best known for the Angry Birds franchise. Smartphone users who scan QR codes on Burger King's plush toy tags, box packaging and signage inside participating locations will activate a mobile game, per an announcement shared with Marketing Dive.
The video game challenges players to defend three 3D eggs from waves of AR Hatchlings that try to steal them. By tapping on the Hatchlings to move them away or using catapults of slime to slow the Hatchlings, players can successfully protect their eggs and receive power-up rewards. The game also lets players save a photo of the experience to share with friends.
Rovio is using WebAR technology from Zappar, which lets brands offer web-based AR experiences in their campaigns instead of app-based experiences that require a separate download. The web-based AR technology lets Burger King increase the scale of its campaign to thousands of locations worldwide, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

Burger King is employing mobile technology to engage a tech-savvy generation of consumers through its new web-based AR game from Rovio and Zappar. The game helps to reinforce the idea that Burger King is a fun and welcoming brand for families, especially as more regions lift lockdown measures on restaurants and many people return to pre-pandemic behaviors. Because the web-based AR game can be activated worldwide, Burger King's participating locations can engage people who either come into restaurants to order kids meals or have them delivered.

The effort is another sign of how the restaurant chain has integrated its brand with video games to appeal to younger consumers. Earlier this year, King Jr. meals included toys based on popular Nintendo games like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, according to Attractions Magazine. Burger King Spain in March sought to engage players of basketball video game NBA 2K21 by offering them free food for completing tough shots on a custom court. To promote the effort, Burger King partnered with Spanish content creators to share its messaging with their viewers on Twitch and YouTube.

The Burger King campaign is also an opportunity for Rovio and Zappar to showcase web-based AR experiences for brands, which can potentially reach more than 3.5 billion connected devices that support the technology, according to Zappar. The company in the past couple of years has provided the technology for brands that seek to engage their customers with AR experiences without the need to download an app. Sportswear brand Puma offered the first visitors to its flagship store in New York a chance to scan QR codes on signs and shoe tags to see branded content in its mobile web app. Constellation Brands' Modelo beer created an out-of-home campaign for Day of the Dead that used Zappar technology to bring billboards to life in AR.

As more people venture outside their homes to visit stores and restaurants amid the lifting of pandemic restrictions, interest in web-based AR experiences could grow among brands that seek to engage consumers with contactless experiences, whether they are real-world or digital customers.