Celebrate Halloween virtually with Mars Wrigley’s Treat Town
For the first time ever, trick-or-treating and candy giving have gone virtual with candy maker Mars Wrigley’s Treat Town website and app.
Many families are wondering how they can make Halloween special this year, as some neighborhoods remain unsure about how they’ll proceed and a few cities around the country have banned trick-or-treating outright for 2020.
Mars Wrigley, maker of candies including M&M’s, Snickers, Twix, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, Starburst, and Skittles, have taken Halloween digital with virtual trick-or-treating on a customizable platform.
Join in by downloading the free Treat Town app to your iOS or Android device (App Store or Google Play), create an account with the fun or frightening username of your choosing, and enjoy Halloween-inspired activities. Build and decorate a virtual house, customize its front door with spooky sounds and creepy décor, and toggle between your profiles as a Candy Giver and a Trick-or-Treater.
Each Trick-or-Treater can choose to be a monster, vampire, or other character, selecting the facial features, costume, and accessories they like best to further customize their avatar.
And then the real fun starts.
Candy Givers can purchase credits for virtual candies to hand out to Trick-or-Treaters, which can then be redeemed online or in-store at select national retailers for real Mars Wrigley candy. Redeem credits each day, or as a bulk redemption starting Nov. 1.
Purchase credits via the app or on Treat-Town.com with the option to customize your treat-giving to limit your daily hand-out, or to limit how many treats will be given to individual users. You can even “close” your door temporarily as needed.
Who can knock on your virtual door looking for treats? Anyone signed up on the app if you set your door to Public, or just your Friends & Family network if that is your preference. Share your user name through the app to invite specific people outside of your network for a broader experience. It’s a fun, safe way for whole neighborhoods to get involved.
There is a Disney element to Treat Town, too. With the ability to “travel the world” in search of treats, the experience features Treat Town Destinations, allowing participants to visit Disney’s Haunted Mansion, M&M’s World in New York’s Times Square, and the M&M’s 18 Toyota car driven by NASCAR racer Kyle Busch.
Participants who knock on the door for the Haunted Mansion will get a peek at characters and icons from the attraction, and each day from Oct. 23-31, a new Disney-specific avatar costume will become available, too.
Finally, an Arcade feature on the app offers Halloween-inspired games like (Not So) Tricky Trivia, with Spooky Points awarded which can be used to unlock new features, hidden costumes, and monster avatar upgrades.
Tanya Berman, head of seasonal marketing for Mars Wrigley, wraps it up: “Halloween is a mega-moment at Mars Wrigley and we’ve tried to think of everything our consumers might need in 2020 to embrace both familiar and new Halloween traditions. We quickly pivoted to the totally new Treat Town platform so families, friends and communities have the entire month of October for inclusive, digital celebrations that create better moments and more smiles this Halloween season. We’ve partnered with the National Safety Council to help create tips and guidance for a mindful Halloween experience for all during the pandemic. No matter what you’re looking for during Halloween 2020, Mars Wrigley is ready.”
Speaking of “more smiles,” candy credits can be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of America as a cash donation instead of being redeemed for treats. Mars Wrigley will also donate $50,000 to the organization to help build great futures for all young people.
Treat Town account creators must be 18 years or older to sign up, but all ages can play once added by an adult. Treat Town virtual Halloween fun is available throughout the month of October.
For more information visit Treat-Town.com.
This was a great idea in view of covid concerns, but unfortunately was extremely poorly executed. The app was full of bugs which the developers have been working on trying to stop all month, but they haven’t done much to solve the fundamental problem – a lot more people are creating virtual houses and virtual trick or treaters than are actually paying for “candy credits” to hand out. This means that people can spend hours tapping on houses and not get anything to show for their effort. The reviews on the Google Play store are abysmal, with an average 1.9 star rating.
Maybe next year (if they do it again) they will do something to eliminate the deadbeats. But it looks like this year is a wash.
Here’s the problem with this app. It seems like it’s a scam. I spent $50 on candy to hand out so no one can say I’m not participating. However, when my son goes to the houses and the porch lights are on he still gets ghosted. They set up a limit on how much candy you can get in a certain amount of time. My sons got maybe 5 pieces before the app said we had reached our candy limit. Then they require an absurd amount to redeem. The amount you spend on the candy is not the same amount the kids receive. The candies are almost worthless individually. 180 OR 480 to cash out minimum and we can only get 5 or so at a time now before we have to “come back later”. Another thing, one of my kids find a house, gets their candy, then my other son is met with a “ghosted” message. You’re better off just going to the store and buying candy. The app is just going to frustrate your kids, especially the younger ones. Spend Halloween together making treats, doing a Halloween themed egg hunt, playing spooky games outside, etc. Make memories with them.
That’s not true. Redeeming credits is a 12 to $1 value. So 60 pieces of candy (credits) will get your kid $5 worth of candy if you redeem it at the store. If you want to buy candy “online” from Walmart or Walgreens, you will have to cash out 180 credits, which will give your kids $25 worth of candy (180/12=$15 at the store). If you want to cash out “Online” at Target you will have to have 420 to get $50 worth of candy (which would be 420/12=$35 at the store). Because this is virtual, there is no limit to the amount of candy (credits) your child can get. Also keep in mind, that most doors will not be open until Halloween evening.
This app was just for Mars to make money. My daughter knocked on over 300 doors and got 7 candy not even enough for her to get anything. The only thing I got was money deducted out of my account to buy chocolate for trick or treaters. I could have took my child to the store and bought her candy. Would have been cheaper then the money I gave to Mars for their crappy trick or treat app. Good idea but it makes me mad when my child looks sad because every door she knocks on says she has been ghosted. My daughter is handicapped and has multiple medical issues so she could not go trick or treat due to Covid thought this app was going to be good for her all it did was make her sad snd me mad 😡
The game is a good thought, but should’ve been tested more for bugs before being released. There’s gotta be a better way to do it. The kids aren’t even able to enjoy the game because there’s no doors nearby to collect treats from.