When General Mills teamed up with Netflix’s Stranger Things to create fan-focused experiences and merchandise in celebration of Stranger Things Day, they gave SGK a seemingly simple task: create an engaging fan experience over the phone.

Our challenge was to capture the nostalgia of the series while still delighting fans using nothing but a voice on the other end of the phone. To do this, we drew inspiration from 1980s Choose Your Own Adventure stories and role-playing games, taking callers on a fully automated journey that challenged them to help close an inter-dimensional rift at General Mills’ corporate office.

Once fans dialed 1-833-NOV-SXTH and selected their paths, they could relive key moments of the series while exploring the Stranger Things world in a lo-fi way that was true to the time period but still fresh and unexpected.