The Campaign

For the 2010/2011 Summer, McDonald’s launched a new ‘limited time only’ chicken range. And through its advertising wanted to prove that their chicken was the tastiest going around. In fact, their chicken was so delicious it was branded, ‘Chicken so tasty it sells itself’. As their target market were males between the ages of 16-35, who spent their summer watching and playing cricket, they then signed on the world’s most infamous cricketer, Australian spin bowler, Shane Warne, to help promote it. But was a famous spokesman, really necessary to sell a product that ‘sells itself’'? The answer… No. So using humour McDonald’s set about doing their best not to focus on the man they had signed on to help sell their product.

Success of the Campaign

The public soon knew that McDonald’s was a major player in the chicken market, as it managed to capture the market it was after. As a result, total chicken sales at McDonald’s increased by 80%. Chicken burger sales increased by 92%. McBites sales were 60% above their forecast. And 2 weeks after launch, McDonald’s New Zealand recorded their highest sales week EVER in the history of being open in this country. And to top it all off, not long after the campaign launched, Shane Warne was seen canoodling with English model/actress, Liz Hurley. Coincidence? Who can tell?

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

Chicken became the hero of this campaign, while Shane Warne was forced to become, well… an irrelevant extra. In TV, food was used to cover Shane’s face. He was also stuck in the background, cropped out of shot and we even gave him menial tasks like rotating the burger’s plinth. With online, fake loading bars would sit in front of his face. As did a never-ending buffering icon. In other banners users also got the chance to click, drag and remove him from them altogether. In outdoor, when starbursts weren’t covering Shane’s face he could be seen in the background and out of focus. Only to be gone altogether by night. As the light above the billboard was disconnected. Instore, shelf wobblers had burgers hanging in front of Shane, and tray mats saw the product placed over Shane’s face. Everywhere you looked it was chicken selling itself.