McDonald’s transforms an ordinary table into NFC-powered Happy Table for kids

McDonald’s is making its restaurants a yet happier place for kids. The fast food chain has collaborated with DDB Singapore to create an ultimately playable table for its youngest customers at the brand’s venue in Yishun, Singapore. The team behind the project turned a traditional grey table in the restaurant into a playground using Near Field Communication—thanks to a pinch of technology a boring piece of the interior turned into a platform for an interactive game.

To tap into the unprecedented gaming experience, kids are invited to hold their parents’ NFC-enabled smartphones over the table. On the screen of the device, the table’s surface turns into a jolly track—kids are invited to “ride” along it with their phones, collecting points to get on the top of the leaderboard and win various treats from McDonald’s such as pies, burgers, French fries and more.

The magic of the Happy Table is easily explained—the tech team has put a number of NFC tags underside the ordinary-looking table to form a virtual scaletrix track across the McDonald Land that “comes alive” thanks to NFC-enabled smartphones. Each tag activates the new different section of the happy road with its animation, mini games, stories, challenges and more.

The project realized in McDonald’s restaurant in Yishun, Singapore, is a pilot that is said to be followed by the broader launch of the Happy Tables across the region.