Brand: M&M's // Ring
Campaign: M&M's X Ring // The Halloween Hack
Format: Social Activation
Agency: T&P
Launch Date: 2025
My Role: Creative Direction
Halloween was crowded with brands fighting for attention. Instead of adding another ad, we found a new place for M&M’S to play: the doorstep.
Activation Overview
For Halloween, M&M’S teamed up with Ring to turn one of the most familiar parts of trick-or-treating into a new brand experience: the front door.
We took over Ring Video Doorbells with limited-edition Quick Replies from Red, M&M’S iconic spokescandy, allowing him to answer the door and challenge unsuspecting trick-or-treaters before they earned their sweets.
From dancing like a bat to riding an imaginary broomstick, each challenge transformed the doorstep into entertainment, with the resulting reactions ready to be captured and shared on social.
The Challenge
Halloween had become a crowded moment in the marketing calendar, with brands competing for attention across the same familiar channels.
For M&M’S, simply adding more Halloween advertising to that noise wasn’t enough.
We wanted to find a role for the brand within Halloween itself, using M&M’S humour and characters to add something to the experience rather than interrupt it.
The opportunity was sitting right at the centre of one of Halloween’s biggest traditions: the moment a trick-or-treater rings the doorbell.
How could M&M’S turn that moment into a media opportunity of its own?
Creative Summary
Instead of fighting for another conventional advertising space, we found one on people’s doorsteps.
The rise of smart doorbells gave us the opportunity to combine a new behaviour with one of Halloween’s oldest traditions.
By partnering with Ring, we transformed its Quick Replies feature into an M&M’S experience, giving Red control of the front door and turning the tables on trick-or-treaters.
They came expecting a treat.
Red made them earn it.
The Concept
What if M&M’S could own the moment before anyone even opened the door?
We turned Ring Video Doorbells across the UK into a new media touchpoint for M&M’S.
For a limited time, Ring customers could replace their standard Quick Replies with a selection of mischievous responses from Red.
But Red didn’t simply answer the door.
He challenged trick-or-treaters to perform for their sweets, from shaking like a skeleton and riding an invisible broomstick to “boogieing like a bat.”
It flipped the familiar trick-or-treating exchange.
The people asking for a trick suddenly had to perform one themselves.
And because it happened through Ring, their reactions could become content too.
The Executiuon
The idea lived inside an existing Ring product feature rather than alongside it.
Ring customers could activate the M&M’S Quick Replies through the Ring app and choose from a series of Halloween responses voiced by Red. When someone rang the doorbell, Red took over, setting them a challenge before the homeowner appeared with the treats.
The challenges were designed around simple, visual behaviours that could create entertaining doorstep reactions.
With Ring Protect, homeowners could watch those reactions back and share them directly with friends or across platforms including Instagram and TikTok. Ring also invited customers to submit their favourite doorstep performances, extending the activation into social content.
Creator partnerships helped demonstrate the experience and encouraged people to activate it themselves, while the wider campaign extended across online video, paid and organic social, CRM, influencer activity, earned media and in-store.
The activation ran across the Halloween period from 1 October to 4 November 2024.
M&M's In Store Experience
Impact
The Halloween Hack created a new touchpoint for M&M’S by taking the brand beyond conventional media and putting it directly into the Halloween experience.
Rather than creating content solely for audiences to consume, the activation encouraged people to participate, capture their own reactions and distribute them through social.
The media plan was projected to deliver more than 10 million impressions.
113M
Impressions
14.6M
Earned Reach
1M
Engagemenets
4%
Engagement Rate
Crucially, the experience was designed so the interaction didn’t end when someone generated a video. Each personalised response became a new piece of shareable media, carrying Snickers into the private conversations where football culture was already happening.
The activation demonstrated how generative AI could extend an established global brand platform through participation and personalisation, while maintaining control over brand and talent safety.
Recognition
The activation received coverage across advertising, technology and mainstream media, including Creative Salon and Ads of the World, where the work was featured as M&M’S “Halloween Doorbell.”
CANNES LION Shortlist
The work also generated coverage across The Sun, Mirror, Campaign, The Verge and Creative Review.
