McDonald’s Happy Meal VR – The Top Activation at SXSW
The week-long film, music, and interactive media extravaganza is known as South by Southwest is an exciting showcase for brands and Groove Jones premiered an exciting VR pop-up. Event-goers will be treated to keynotes by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. They’ll get to view new film premieres, and listen to indie bands with weird names.
They’ll also get to experience the inside of a McDonald’s Happy Meal.
Here’s how it works: Users wear HTC Vive virtual reality goggles and step inside the “experience.” Using two hand-held controllers, they can then pick their brush or other tool and decorate away. When done, they’ll be able to share their creation across social media.
“The main driver for our presence [at SXSW] is to demonstrate that we’re open for business with the tech ecosystem,” says Atif Rafiq, McDonald’s first chief digital officer.
Groove Jones is proud of the work we did on the McDonald’s V-Artist experience for the SXSW Festival in Austin Texas. Thousands of SXSW attendees had the chance to step into a virtual Happy Meal box and play a series of interactive arcade-style games. The activation was voted the #1 VR experience at this year’s festival and the results were amazing.
“They exceeded expectations. Our leadership was stunned by what we were able to do in such a short time with them, and they were highly regarded by my team.”
– DeLu Jackson
McDonald
Vice President of Global Digital
Positioned right outside the front hall of SXSW, the McDonald’s Loft showcased the V-Artist experience and ran for the duration of the show.
“People lined up to participate. Their amazing work resulted in a lot of press about the Happy Meal VR experience. The number of articles that came out of it, the positive sentiment, and the social sharing tweets were great. It was rated one of the top experiences at South by Southwest.”
– DeLu Jackson, McDonald’s Vice President Global Digital
Participants have access to several different types of creative tools, a paintball shooter, a laser-guided color etcher and a paintbrush that allows you to paint in 3D space in front of you. Along with these awesome tools, you have a palette controller, giving you access to a wide range of colors to have fun with.
Interactive and Engaging
Below is a video of the activation setup and game play.
This experience was designed for VR from the outset, so every element was conceived with that in mind. Our tool designs allow the player to reach out and enact their will on the space, creating an instant loop of gratification feedback, and the tracking capabilities allowed us to take advantage of opportunities to draw on spatialization, like our 3D brush, to increase player’s spatial immersion.
Real-Time Social Sharing
How does a person share their VR experience with their friends? Groove Jones integrated components of our “Groove Tech” platform that allows participants to take photos of what they are doing in VR and we sync them up with cameras that are filming them in real-time. 
Once they take off the headsets, participants can walk over to the kiosks and can share them on their own social channels.
Below is a sample of the video clip that participants shared.
Check out how we share the experience.
Take Away
The kiosks also allow guests to print out their artwork and take a copy with them that is branded for the experience.
VR Art On Display
Throughout the physical space at the McDonald’s Loft are HD screens that display artwork created at the event.
For more information about the hardware used on this activation check out our HTC Vive hardware.
Check out our GrooveTech Video and Camera social share tools – https://www.groovejones.com/video-and-camera-app-development-video-green-screen/
Press Loved It
- AdWeek Magazine – Using VR to Show ‘the Future of Fun’
- CNBC – The Best Brand Experiences of SXSW Interactive
- J. Walter Thompson Intelligence – SXSW 2016: McDonald’s VR Loft
- Fortune – Ever Wondered What it’s Like Inside a McDonald’s Happy Meal?
- TrendHunter – VR Painting Experiences
- USA Today – 5 Awesome Tech Takeaways from SXSW 2016
- ABC News – Virtual Reality Trips Are Everywhere at South by Southwest
Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions about our VR capabilities and activation services.