| Title | SURPRISE ALARM |
| Brand | McDONALD'S |
| Product / Service | BREAKFAST MENU |
| Category | A03. Mobile Applications |
| Entrant | DDB GROUP SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE |
| Entrant Company | DDB GROUP SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE |
| Advertising Agency | DDB GROUP SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE |
| Media Agency | OMD Singapore, SINGAPORE |
| Production Company | THE MARKETING STORE Chicago, USA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Neil Johnson | Ddb Group Singapore | Chief Creative Officer |
| Joji Jacob | Ddb Group Singapore | Group Executive Creative Director |
| Jeff Cheong | Ddb Group Singapore | Head Of Tribal |
| Vinod Savio | Ddb Group Singapore | Creative Director |
| Lydia Lim | Ddb Group Singapore | Associate Creative Director |
| Loo Yong Ping/Ong Seow Fen/Sylvester Poh/Ng Xue Wen/Lydia Lim | DDB Group Singapore | Art Director/S) |
| Vinod Savio/Kevin Poh/Shervin Seah/Chen Shanghao | DDB Group Singapore | Copywriter/S) |
| Stuart Nyman | DDB Group | Regional Digital Director |
| Yeo Wee Lee | Ddb Group Singapore | Head Of Technology |
| Yishu See/Earlyn Ang | Ddb Group Singapore | Ux Designer/S) |
| Antonio Valentino | Ddb Group Singapore | Project Manager |
| Kimie Ong/Francis Tan/Hanafi Haffidz/Fizah Rahim/Renjie Sun | Ddb Group Singapore | Agency Producer/S) |
| Fredrick Tong/Siying Goh/Alexis Cheong | Ddb Group Singapore | Content Strategist/S) |
| Andrew Kingham | The Marketing Store | Managing Director |
| Taylor Host/Evan Kroft | The Marketing Store | Digital Strategy Director/S) |
| Martin Chan | The Marketing Store | Head Of Customer Engagement Director |
| Silas Lewis Meilus | Ddb Group Singapore | Customer Engagement Director |
| Jodie Collins | OMD Asia Pacific | Digital Strategy Director |
| Mark Halliday | OMD Asia Pacific | Head Of Airwave |
| Neo Chun Guan | Ddb Group Singapore | Digital Technologist |
The Surprise Alarm serves as both a utility and advertising platform for McDonald's to engage and excite its users directly right at the moment when they wake. As the alarm rings, a smart content management engine sends each user a unique surprise, ranging from tasty McDonald's treats, quirky entertainment, downloadable music tracks, cash prizes and more. Every surprise is automatically stored in a digital wallet. Food rewards are time stamped, giving people a stronger reason to wake up in the morning for a McDonald's breakfast.
By making an everyday routine more rewarding, McDonald's gave people a reason to like mornings a little more. Within days, the app climbed to #1 spot on both Google and Apple app stores. And in 5 weeks, it garnered over 281,000 downloads, 93% registered users, 68,044 shares on social media, and dished out over 2.8 million surprises of which, 400,000 were converted to footfall to restaurants, as users redeemed their rewards. The app surpassed its 6-month download target in 3 weeks.
For years, McDonald's has been trying to build a stronger association with mornings. While initiatives like All-Day Breakfast and National Breakfast Day have resulted in increased spikes in sales during breakfast, these campaigns were not sustainable in the long run. In Singapore, mobile penetration rates are at 156%. 93% are subscribed to 3G. And the first thing that most people do when they wake up is to check their phones for new messages, mail, and to get on social media. We had to create something that is part of people's lives to get ahead of the clutter, to be the first to engage our customers when they wake, and to establish McDonald's as the top-of-mind brand for breakfast. So we decided to turn the boring, ubiquitous alarm into something surprising, and created the McDonald's Surprise Alarm - an app that wakes people up with a new surprise every day.