Background
In early 2018, McDonald's in the US saw a decline in business. According to a survey by McDonald's, only one in five Millennials were willing to spend money on Big Mac - the burger that made the brand of this fast food chain. This threatened the throne of Big Mac as the most favorite burger of all time.
Not to mention, 2018 also marked the 50th birthday of this fast food brand.
For the above two reasons, McDonald's decided to launch the "Big Mac 50" campaign - issuing exclusive MacCoin coins to improve business and celebrate Big Mac's birthday in the most unique way.
Objective
- Increase brand awareness and brand love.
- Increase revenue for McDonald's.
Strategy
The campaign focused on earned media to promote the MacCoin to draw consumer attention to McDonald's 50th anniversary.
The fast food brand produced over 6.2 million MacCoins and distributed them to McDonald's stores worldwide so that customers could redeem them for Big Macs.
Big Idea
"If it’s good enough to measure the value of 48 global currencies, it’s good enough to BE a global currency."
Back in 1986, the Economist created the Big Mac Index to measure purchasing power parity across countries, using the price of a McDonald’s Big Mac burger as a benchmark.
From there, McDonald’s came up with the idea of turning this index into real money called MacCoin so that consumers could buy a Big Mac at any McDonald’s store around the world on the burger’s 50th birthday.
Execution
The campaign ran from August to December 2018, focusing on earned media and social media promotions. Under the supervision of McDonald’s and its global agency team, each McDonald’s chain in each country would create its own culturally appropriate communication plan based on the common idea.
Preparation
In the 6 months before the campaign began, McDonald’s produced more than 6.2 million MacCoins with 5 different designs, representing the 5 decades that the Big Mac has gone through.
- The 1968-1978 coins were designed with the theme of art and flowers.
- The 1978-1988 coins were designed with the theme of pop art.
- The 1988-1998 coins were designed with the theme of abstract art.
- The 1998-2008 coins were designed with the theme of "the development of digital technology", and "cloud computing" was the symbol printed on the coin.
- The 2008-2018 coins were designed with the theme of "social networks", "like button, smiley face" were the symbols printed on the coin.
In particular, these 5 coins use the 7 most popular languages in the world: Arabic, English, Indonesian, Chinese, Portuguese, French and Spanish to distribute to 50 countries with McDonald's stores in the world before July 2018.
The 60-second video records the production process of MacCoin as well as the journey through major cities around the world from California to Shanghai, before reaching Big Mac fans.
This video is to announce the release of McDonald's MacCoin coins to Big Mac fans around the world.
Action
On August 2, 2018 (Big Mac's birthday), customers will receive free MacCoin when buying Big Mac at 14,000 McDonald's stores worldwide. In addition, customers can accumulate points on McDonald's membership cards to exchange for MacCoin or buy directly on eBay and Amazon.
From August 3, 2018 through the end of 2018, customers will visit McDonald’s stores worldwide to exchange MacCoin for Big Macs. Each MacCoin is worth 1 Big Mac and has no circulating value like cash or cryptocurrency.
Media
On July 29, McDonald’s issued a global press release to media outlets about the MacCoin coin issuance and distribution campaign with the 60-second video above.
The campaign has attracted the attention of major US newspapers such as USA Today, Fast Company, Today.com, Quartz, Fortune and more than 930 other media outlets worldwide.
“From the beginning, the Big Mac was the star. McDonald’s didn’t need to hire any stars for this campaign to be successful,” Carolin Dettman, Creative Director of Golin, told USA Today.
To promote the campaign, McDonald’s in each country will follow its own style, suitable for the local culture.
In the US, on the day of the MacCoin launch, the famous game show “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Alexa” praised the unique idea of this campaign.
In China, McDonald’s held a press conference attended by hundreds of media and Big Mac fans to announce the new global currency.
McDonald’s in New Zealand, Chile, Portugal and Perto Rico distributed MacCoins across the country in MacCoin-printed trucks.
In Argentina, MacCoins were used to start a professional soccer match.
Results
Thanks to the unique concept, the campaign brought in extremely impressive numbers. The campaign reached 3 billion impressions and media reach, more than any other campaign at the global level. The campaign reached 85,000 mentions and comments on social media with 95% of comments being positive.
Commercially, after the campaign launched, McDonald's sold 800 Big Macs every 30 seconds globally, causing global Big Mac sales to increase by 6%, pushing the value of MacCoin up accordingly.
In the US, on the first day alone, Big Mac sales increased by 40%, equivalent to 2 million USD, because more than 400,000 Big Macs were sold.
In New Zealand, McDonald's total sales increased by 5.6%, while Big Mac sales alone reached 21%.
In China, after the campaign launched for 3 hours, 1.2 million Mac Coins were sold, and 300,000 Big Mac meals were sold.
In Canada, Big Mac sales increased by 7% in the first week of the campaign.
The Big Mac 50 campaign was successful not only because of its unique idea, but also because McDonald's created emotions for consumers. They don't just go to McDonald's to buy a Big Mac, they also go to McDonald's to express their love for the burger. This campaign makes consumers love McDonald's more and promotes business growth in 2018.
