For this year's Halloween festivities, Target is launching a candy app by the name of 'Treatster.'
The mobile app makes the most of Google Maps to show which houses in a neighborhood have the best spirit for the season. To be included on the map, parents need only give votes to a prime spot for trick-or-treating. The more votes, or "treats" an area receives, the larger the pumpkin icon displayed for an area becomes.
Paying heed to safety around Halloween, the app won't let users view houses from street level, or access specific addresses. Voting is only allowed to happen once per property, so that homeowners who give away the best candy have to genuinely earn that title. Rather than disrupting the way trick-or-treat works, this simply adds a new element to help families find the best candy on the block.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Candy-finding Apps
- Halloween-themed candy-finding apps are becoming an increasingly popular trend, particularly those that utilize GPS and crowdsourcing technology to identify prime locations for trick-or-treating.
- Crowdsourcing for Location-based Recommendations
- The success of Treatster demonstrates the potential for crowdsourcing technology to provide reliable, location-based recommendations for other industries, such as restaurants, shopping, and transportation.
- Augmented Reality for Interactive Navigation
- Using Treatster as a model, there is potential for future augmented reality apps that incorporate interactive maps and navigation into the user experience, particularly for location-based events and experiences.
Where This Applies
- Mobile App Industry
- Candy-finding apps like Treatster demonstrate the potential for creative and entertaining mobile app concepts that leverage GPS and crowdsourcing technologies to provide unique experiences for users.
- Retail Industry
- Similar crowdsourced and GPS-enabled technology could be used by retailers to offer shoppers location-based deals and promotions to incentivize consumer purchases.
- Tourism Industry
- Augmented reality and location-based navigation could be particularly useful for the tourism industry, providing interactive and engaging experiences for travelers visiting new or unfamiliar destinations.
