For one night only, WD-40 is encouraging creaky doors. Just in time for Halloween, the brand has launched an app that adds the eerie sound of a creaky door to the trick-or-treating experience.
Triggered by motion, the “Haunted Door” app will play one of three spooky sounds each time a door opens: Door of the Dead, The Exdoorcist or Paradoormal Activity. To use the app, a consumer simply puts their smartphone in a bag and hangs it from a door handle.
WD-40 Haunted Door App from BIMM on Vimeo.
The brand is promoting “Haunted Door” with a video showing the app at work on a string of unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. Within the app itself, the brand reminds users that on the 364 less-spooky days of the year, WD-40 can fix creaky doors – a problem the company says 80% of consumers simply learn to live with rather than fixing.
The app was originally pitched by a copywriter at the brand’s creative agency, Bimm. Though WD-40 doesn’t typically do promotions for Halloween – or any holiday – it was intrigued enough to sign off on the idea and build its first app.
“It’s the last brand that you would expect to jump on the Halloween bandwagon, which I think makes it almost more intriguing,” said Rene Rouleau, creative director at Bimm.
Though it may seem outside the box, the brand saw a natural fit between the product and the creepy, iconic creak of a door from horror films. “If WD-40 takes the creaks out of doors, then the one night of year you really want creaks – it’s a very logical hero position to be in,” Rouleau said.
In addition to the creaky door sounds, users are directed to the brand’s website from within the app where they can find 2,000 uses for the product.
Bimm also created a custom door hanger to hold a phone in, which it sent out as a mailer to press, influencers and bloggers. The artwork for both the app and the door hangers are inspired by Mexican holiday, Day of the Dead, with nuts, bolts and pliers forming a skull rather than the traditional flowers.
The promotion is aimed at the Canadian market, but the app is available globally on iOS and Android.
