The Brief

When you’re a Chinese white collar worker all you know is pressure. The stress of daily life, the need to succeed… Even when you take a break to read the paper all you see is bad news. Our challenge was to help these people “Make Room for Happiness” by driving more of them to McDonalds restaurants for a relaxing break and by doing so increase brand preference.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Our strategy was to invite the white-collar to unleash their inner child and rediscover happiness in the simplest things. Partnering with Sina, the biggest news portal and micro-blog service provider in China, we reinterpreted the daily news with a child’s point of view. We then spread these news on Sina’s micro-blog where everyone was encouraged to forward and share their own child-like viewpoints. By using the hashtag “mini-cone” as they sent their own amusing tweets, they would receive a mobile coupon for a free mini-cone as a reward.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The campaign connected with a wide audience and almost 680,000 people unleashed their inner-child on the Sina micro-blog by sharing their child-like tweets. Everyone participating received a mobile coupon to be redeemed for mini-cones at McDonald’s restaurants. During the campaign period visits increased 19.71% compared with the previous month surpassing client’s objectives of a 10% increase. By creating a new “happiness” habit for grown-ups seeking to recapture a moment of childish fun we expect to see an increase of traffic throughout the year as they visit for the escapism of mini-cone.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

By reaching white-collar workers on news sites and reinterpreting the news to lighten their mood we successfully injected them with the McDonald’s happiness manifesto. Sina’s micro-blog was chosen as the core platform as it is easy to use and news spreads quickly. People can easily express themselves on the go when they have any observation to share. We tapped into our targets’ daily routine and showed them a way to change their mood. Finally, with the mobile coupon, we drove people to McDonald’s stores to claim their mini-cone and deliver on the McDonald’s happiness promise.