Marble Mania - Marbles

Enter our enchanting world

How Albert Heijn took maximum advantage of the mania

Some toys never get old, and all it takes is some well-placed attention to create a hype and corresponding consumer desire. In early 2022 Belgium is under the spell of exciting marble races. On Saturday evening, famous Belgians compete against each other in both skill games and spectacular racetracks in the TV show ‘Marble Mania’. Albert Heijn has the opportunity to connect a campaign to the TV show. The challenge: how to make the most of this opportunity, optimally capitalizing on the show’s success and gaining both short and long term benefits?

Collect them all!

For the duration of the TV show, customers of all Albert Heijn supermarkets in Belgium received a free marble with every purchase of 15 Euros.

Each marble displayed one of the Marble Manias, 24 cool and colorful characters developed in-house by Magneds. Quite a straightforward collection campaign at first sight. But ordinary and offline-only, that’s not how we roll at Magneds!

in the spotlight

Unlock your favourite character and race it across the finish line first

And vice versa: a supermarket themed racetrack in the TV show

Each marble came with a unique QR code, unlocking its character in the accompanying Marble Manias app featuring a brand new marble racing game. Scanning more codes earned upgrades to the marbles’ skills, helping the player to finish first and complete a variety of missions. From Albert Heijn’s perspective, the code scanning provided valuable insights on campaign behavior, both individual and overall.

Omnichannel mania

The other power of this campaign was in the seamless connection of all channels:

in-store campaign, social media support, app and TV show. For instance, the 6 theme worlds from the TV show were also featured in both marble collection and app game. And before each broadcast of the TV show, users could guess that night’s winning color via the app. Each correctly guessed color yielded a digital surprise. This continuous interaction between channels increased engagement and hype surrounding the campaign.

Offline, the colorful campaign was completed by a handy collection box and an innovative cardboard build-your-own racetrack to be obtained in store. Captivating from start to finish!

Character design

Meet the Marble Manias: a friendly bunch of young heroes, residents of the different worlds in the Marble Mania TV show. Each with their own talent, but all equally energetic and ready to race. Designed and developed from scratch by the Magneds studio.

shaun

Shaun, from the ‘Winter sports’ world, is laidback and tough. While racing he surprises each opponent with awesome tricks on his snowboard. 360, 180 – he spins in all directions!

Alain

Is he a martian? No, but Alain from the ‘Space’ world is definitely interested in aliens and secretly hopes to run into one someday.

Gert

Gert, from the ‘Music’ world, takes his drum sticks everywhere he goes. He drums up his friends to join the race!

in the spotlight

The Fresh Heads – Marbles