Project Overview
How do you build genuine anticipation for something that hasn’t happened yet — and keep people engaged for an entire week?
For McDonald’s Austria’s “Mission World Menu” campaign, the challenge was to transform a simple container into a living, evolving promotional event activation.
Commissioned by Stargate Group and realised in close collaboration with Eventtischlerei Daniel Steinböck, the result was a narrative that unfolded over days — on-site and across social media — with a theatrical finale that people would actually remember.
Problem
Most promotional installations live or die in the first thirty seconds. This one had to last six days. The container needed to continuously attract attention, communicate a clear countdown, and stay engaging without constant supervision on-site. The entire system had to run reliably and fully automated across a multi-day event engagement — no manual intervention, no missed moments, no exceptions.
GOAL
The objective was an interactive installation that builds real curiosity over time and leads to a clearly staged highlight moment. Visitors should be drawn in before the opening, actively engage with the experiential marketing activation along the way, and experience something genuinely memorable at the reveal. Engagement from day one. A moment worth sharing on day six.
SOLUTION
The container was transformed into a multi-layered interactive installation in Vienna — designed for continuous, automated visitor engagement across the full promotion period. A large-scale LED countdown, motion-triggered audio, gamified interaction inside and a theatrical fog-and-light reveal combined into one coherent experience that evolved day by day — and ran entirely without manual intervention from start to finish.
Our Scope of Work
The overall organisation and complete decorative build of the container was handled by Eventtischlerei Daniel Steinböck — creating the physical stage that made everything else possible. The entire technical concept, implementation and programming was handled by Geckow — from initial system design through to on-site commissioning.
LED countdown display — specification, installation and programming of four large-format LED panels running a continuous six-day countdown visible from across the venue.
Motion-triggered audio system — sensor integration and programming of location-aware audio jingles that activated automatically whenever visitors approached, creating constant ambient engagement around the clock.
Custom slot game — concept, development and implementation of an interactive gaming application triggered via a physical burger-shaped interface, combining tactile hardware with digital gameplay and prize mechanics.
Theatrical reveal system — design and implementation of the fog machine integration, dynamic lighting control and a two-button remote trigger system for the precisely timed opening moment.
Full automation — all elements were programmed to run autonomously across the entire promotion period, ensuring consistent and reliable performance without on-site supervision.
Result
Over the course of the Mission World Menu promotion, the McDonald’s Austria container evolved from a static structure into a narrative-driven experiential marketing activation — one that gave people a reason to come back, follow along and share what they saw.
The countdown created daily touchpoints. The interaction mechanics kept dwell times high. And the reveal delivered the kind of moment that the McDonald’s Austria team — and the visitors — had been building towards all week.
The activation was further amplified through influencer marketing — with @satansbratan, @pam_becci, @andyblizzyand @gregpueh reporting daily from the venue, bringing the promotion to a much wider audience and extending its impact well beyond the physical installation in Vienna.
Thank you to Stargate Group for the trust, and to Eventtischlerei Daniel Steinböck for the outstanding collaboration — again.
Planning a multi-day brand activation or promotional event? We design and deliver interactive installations that engage audiences from day one — and keep them coming back. As an experienced brand activation agency in Austria, Geckow handles everything from concept and technical implementation to on-site commissioning — plug-and-play ready, wherever you need us.
