| Title | #MACITBETTER |
| Brand | MCDONALD'S |
| Product / Service | BIG MAC |
| Category | B01. Use of Social Platforms |
| Entrant | DDB Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company | DDB Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Advertising Agency | DDB Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| PR Agency | MANGO Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Toby Talbot | DDB Sydney | Chief Creative Officer |
| Cam Hoelter | DDB Sydney | Deputy Executive Creative Director |
| Steve Jackson | DDB Sydney | Creative Director |
| Ellie Jones | DDB Sydney | Creative Team |
| Avani Maan | DDB Sydney | Creative Team |
| Nicole Taylor | DDB Sydney | Managing Director |
| Josh Davoren | DDB Sydney | Senior Buisness Director |
| Melinda Parris | DDB Sydney | Account Director |
| Fran Clayton | DDB Sydney | Head of Planning |
| Anna Bollinger | DDB Sydney | Planning Director |
| Domenic Bartolo | DDB Sydney | Design Director |
| Tina Alldis | Mango Sydney | Senior Buisness Director |
| Ben Greenslade | Mango Sydney | Senior Sponsorship Director |
| Laura Cario | Mango Sydney | Senior Account Manager |
| Mark Lollback | McDonald's Australia | Chief Marketing Officer |
| Bronwyn Powell | McDonald's Australia | Senior Director of Marketing |
| Jo Feeney | McDonald's Australia | National Marketing Manager |
| Rachel Mialkowski | McDonald's Australia | Senior Brand Manager |
| Skye Oxenham | McDonald's Australia | Senior Corporate Communications Manager |
| Chris Grant | McDonald's Australia | Corporate Communications Manager |
We helped McDonalds reinvigorate a fading icon, by getting the next generation of burger eaters to experience how everything tastes better when it tastes like a Big Mac. To do this we needed to make Big Mac a part of popular conversation again, by taking the most iconic part of the burger, the Special Sauce, to millennials to do what they wanted with it, to #macitbetter. A world first, McDonald’s Australia released the Special Sauce in a limited run of 200 bottles. Our idea first asked our audience to bid for bottle no.1 on eBay driving huge demand for the sauce.
Not only did we receive a highest bid of $23,600 for the charity auction, 3.8 billion PR impressions gained, 6m social impressions generated and 600,000 Sauce tubs distributed, but real business outcomes were generated, with the campaign reflecting the best Big Mac sales ever in Australia! - Best Big Mac sales ever in Australia (over any other 4 week period). - 3.8 billion PR impressions - Additional +6 million Facebook impressions (double the social media target) - +4.5 million more people into McDonalds than the same time last year - Doubled positive social sentiment (week prior to launch at 8% increased to 17% in first week of campaign) - Improved “Brand I love” and “Brand for me” measures.
We needed a big initial impact, to inspire the masses. The eBay auction of our #1 bottle was the perfect launch pad (funds going to Ronald McDonald House Charities). BUT we also relied mostly on earned media. Supporting the auction on owned channels and let the success of the bidding become a story in itself. We then released a limited number of tubs. These were clearly labeled #macitbetter, and encouraged experimentation of the sauce - these tubs became a key media platform for driving engagement. We then took our #macitbetter sampling team and Twitter vending machine to cities to get the sauce into peoples hands.
McDonald's most iconic products, their core range was experiencing a steady decline. A leading contributor was the significant decline of their most iconic burger, the Big Mac, amongst 18-24 year-olds. Young people were disengaged with our most famous product. The problem was attributed to a wider consumer tension: “I like the taste of McDonalds, but I don't feel good about it”. Whilst we couldn’t change the core menu, our opportunity was to change the way millenials felt about it. We needed to restore pride and respect for the Big Mac and most importantly, needed to get the product back into their hands.