A burger with an extra slice of cheese strategically placed on the back. This is the McMullet, the limited edition hamburger concept that McDonald’s has launched in New Zealand to connect with consumers through humor and bringing daring to communication and to the product itself.
The campaign has been developed together with the creative agency McCann New Zealand, the communication agency FleishmanHillard Aotearoa and the media agency OMD New Zealand, and has sought to link the brand with a haircut that is widespread in the country, but also with the attitude towards the world that it represents.
The strategy began with the deployment of a series of pieces on social media that presented the idea of adding an extra slice of cheese to the burger to emulate the hairstyle, which involves cutting the hair so that it is shorter in the front, top and sides, but is longer in the back.
McDonald’s has collaborated to do this with influencers and content creators, whose publications it has shared on its own channels.
The hamburger chain, implying that it was responding to the organic movement of McDonald’s fans on the platform, has named the creation McMullet. And he has promoted the gesture with organic content that has given prominence to the extra slice of cheese as the key to imitating the hairstyle.
These videos have also communicated the carrying out of a special action that took place on April 18 at the McDonald’s restaurant in the Penrose neighborhood of Auckland. There it has opened a temporary space with activations and experiences aimed at all those consumers with a mullet cut, to whom it has given a free hamburger with its corresponding extra cheese to create the McMullet.
However, for all those who did not have the aforementioned hairstyle, McDonald’s made hairdressers and barbers available to consumers to try the cut. In addition, they also gave out personalized t-shirts, merchandising and raffled off combs among attendees to help them maintain their particular hairstyle.
The company claims that activation is a fun way to interact with fans and test ideas in real time. “It’s certainly a joke, but also a fun way to bring new ideas to life with a live test to see how many mullet-wearing New Zealanders show up to claim their burger. It’s a fitting tribute to the discerning legion of mullet-wearing New Zealanders!“commented Luke Rive, Marketing Director of McDonald’s New Zealand, according to Little Black Book.
“The mullet is not just a haircut, it is an attitude. It has a proud history here, and it’s great that McDonald’s can be part of this beloved yet controversial cultural trend.“; commented, for his part, Gary Steele, Creative Director of McCann New Zealand. He assures that generation Z has turned a haircut questioned years ago into a sign of personal identity, and that is the energy with which they wanted to link to the brand.
