After surprising in New Zealand with an activation that converted the traffic jams into consumption opportunities through traffic data, McDonald’s Back again to intervene routine from a strategic perspective. This time he does it in the United Kingdom, by the hand of the Leo Burnett agency, with a campaign that raises the power of the detour: “McDonald’s Side Missions.”
Inspired by The logic of video gamesthe campaign starts from a universal truth among fans: a visit to McDonald’s may not be the main destination, but it is always the favorite stop. Under this insight, the brand aims to transform everyday consumption moments into a kind of secondary missions integrating storytelling, data, media, promotions and Gamer culture.
The activation, developed by which it is now called Leo UK, together with the producer Love Song and director Elliott Power, has a 360 approach which includes the spot but also a social media strategy, a special menu, IN -app actions and collaborations with influential gamers. All this articulated under a logic that converts each craving into a challenge and each prize into a reason to return.
Like its recent campaign “Yum Only Takes A Moment” in New Zealand, where the company used Google Maps data and its internal waiting times to encourage spontaneous stops in the middle of traffic, “McDonald’s Side Missions” It takes this idea one step further: it transforms the act of deviating to the restaurant into a playful ecosystem full of rewards and visual codes of video games.
From asking for potatoes for size in record time to unlocking a Big Mac by 1.99 pounds or facing the “difficult mode” eating in extreme situations; Each mission is activated through the MyMCDonald’s app, which offers daily challenges, awards and cumulative rewards. The CRM -Gesting by TMW, by Accenture Song- thus becomes a progression system for players-consumers, who can collect Digital badges As if it were a real game.
In addition, the campaign will have the collaboration of renowned streamers, including Angry Ginge, and will be amplified in Tiktok with the first “brand mission” on the platform, in which users can co-create content and compete for awards.
The experience is completed with creativity abroad, where gamified messages will be updated daily and will adapt to physical contexts through digital screens that invite to “deviate” at the right time. A strategy that reminds the contextual dooh approach of “Yum Only Takes A Moment”where the relevance of the message was the key to the campaign.
If that campaign played with utility and geolocation, this time entertainment and emotional connection are the pillars of The “Secondary Mission” strategy raised by McDonald’s.
As James Millers, Executive Creative Director in Leo Burnett: “Side Missions is our love letter to each spontaneous getaway to an McDonald’s who, in some way, is more exciting than what you had to do.”
On the other hand Matthew Reischauer, Marketing Director at McDonald’s UK, emphasizes that “Side Missions gives fans new ways to celebrate the trip of life: as important as destiny.”
