An HTML5 interactive banner built for Bolt's delivery app, where every click progressively transforms the burger, gamifying the ad experience before revealing the CTA, and lifting both app sessions and food orders.

THE CHALLENGE

Bolt needed to drive more sessions within its delivery app and grow McDonald's order volume in Georgia. Standard display banners had become invisible, users scrolled past static ads without registering the message, let alone converting. The challenge was to design an ad format that created genuine interaction before the call to action ever appeared, turning passive impressions into moments of engagement.

STRATEGY

Ad Geeks identified that the core problem wasn't reach, it was attention quality. A static banner delivers a message once and hopes it lands. An interactive format creates a micro-experience, giving users something to do rather than something to see. The strategy centered on one key insight: if the user acts first, the CTA lands harder.

The approach was built around three strategic pillars:

• Gamified Engagement First - Design the banner so the interaction is the hook, not the offer. The McDonald's burger visual serves as a tactile trigger: every click produces a visible transformation, rewarding the user before asking anything of them.
  
  

• Dual Trigger Architecture - Build two pathways to the CTA: one for active users who engage with the interaction sequence, and one for passive users who do not interact within 4 seconds, using a motion-triggered CTA to recapture their attention.
  
  

• Creative Brief Alignment - The client specified the experience should feel “appetizing.” Every visual element, the burger, the interaction animation, the CTA copy, was aligned with this brief, ensuring brand consistency with both Bolt and McDonald's.

  
  

EXECUTION

The campaign was built around a single HTML5 interactive banner unit, custom-developed to run within Bolt's delivery app environment. The creative execution centered on a McDonald's burger rendered in the ad frame, but unlike a static image, it dynamically responded to user interaction.

Each click triggered a progressive visual change: the burger transitioned through multiple states with every interaction, creating a satisfying feedback loop that made the ad feel more like an experience than a promotion. After the interaction sequence was completed, a clear CTA appeared, timed to land when the user was already engaged.

For users who did not interact within the first 4 seconds, a fallback motion trigger activated, the CTA emerged with a smooth animation effect, giving passive viewers a second opportunity to convert without requiring the full interaction sequence.

The campaign's core assets and their delivery formats are summarized below:

KEY INSIGHT