The Brief

The objective of the campaign was to get families back into McDonald’s again. Over the past few years, families had been coming less and less, with Hong Kong’s notoriously demanding “tiger parents” avoiding the restaurant in their unending quest to nurture the “perfect child”.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

This summer, we had to reconnect with kids and family. But how do you get parents to bring their children to McDonald’s when the kids’ summer is already filled with tutoring classes and extra curricula activity? We gave them another activity to work on, one that let the kids express their creativity and showed their parents’ how amazing their kids can be when they are allowed to just be kids.

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

5.2 million in earned media. Within the space of 3 weeks we got over 10,000 entries. Close to 60,000 votes for the designs. Sold all the items in the store and raised almost $500,000 for charity. And the result we are most proud. Thousands of happy kids and parents.

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

We ran a promotion that only McDonald’s would be able to do. Namely, to build the world’s only McDonald’s restaurant that was entirely designed by kids, for kids. No other brand could engage as many people at such a scale, especially as McDonald’s has 220 stores in Hong Kong, where the population is only 7 million. McDonald’s is also a family brand, so the link between “happy children” and the Golden Arches was firmly entrenched.