This January, Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW) broke new ground with its first ever digital activity across its Nestle cereal portfolio, blending exciting new technology with one of the oldest promotional marketing tools in the book.

Our ‘New Definition of Childhood’ research in 2010 showed that across Europe alone, nearly 80% of kids are online and tech-savvy from a young age, whilst cereal provided the perfect medium. On average, 64% of children were able to influence the purchasing decisions of their parents when it came to cereal – more than any other item.

Working with the Hot Wheels brand, The Marketing Store called upon its extensive digital capabilities to create a unique 3D augmented reality game experience, activated via the cardboard packaging of the cereal boxes themselves.

Each promotional pack featured a cut-out steering wheel and 3D glasses, as well as a link to a special Hot Wheels micro site. Using a simple web-cam to recognise the steering wheel, kids were able to immediately engage with a sophisticated virtual racing experience, featuring up to four unlockable tracks – all thanks to a cereal box!

The Results

In just three weeks we’ve seen...

· 40,617 visits – putting us on track for 60,000 in a month!

· Kids (and perhaps even some adults!) spent average of 10 minutes on the site