Brief Explanation

McTollbooth aimed to draw positive attention to the McDonald’s brand in the face of millennial consumers who have short attention spans and consume information and entertainment across multiple screens. The activation was to provide “moments of joy” on-ground which would be amplified online by the brand with the objective of having consumers spontaneously spread and share the experience, creating brand conversations. A simple act of giving free McDonald’s breakfast and waiving toll fees in high-stress areas that are the tollbooths of traffic-jammed expressways would elicit positive sentiments about the brand. Furthermore, free McDonald’s coffee coupons in the giveaway bags would also drive motorists to McDonald’s drive-thrus and restaurants. Motorists unable to pass through the McTollbooth could also still win free breakfast by simply uploading their group pictures (groupfies) inside their vehicles to the McDonald’s Philippines Twitter page.

The Brief

McDonald’s was launching imlovinit24 globally to bring “24 acts of joy to 24 cities over 24 hours, connecting with the millennial consumer. By gifting them with little gifts of joy – not ads -- that would catch their attention and spark positive conversations about the brand. To make joy highly palpable, in the Philippines we focused on a daily source of unhappiness: rush hour traffic. The agony is magnified at the tollways where consumers endure traffic and still need to pay for toll. To cheer up motorists, we transformed tollbooths into McTollbooths that waived toll fees and gave out free breakfast.

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

Considering that the total investment for the McTollbooth activation was only USD 154,000, the ROI was clearly remarkable. On-ground reaction was 100% positive with motorists grateful for the waived toll fees and free breakfast. Motorists and non-motorists alike spontaneously and massively shared the McTollbooth experience online: - over 7 million views and counting - Top 5 in Ad Age Viral Video Chart - 33.7 million online impressions - over 42.6 million netizens reached - nearly USD 1.15 million media value earned on just USD 72,000 media spend Analyzing the online comments, McTollbooth elicited 99% positive sentiments for McDonald’s with a lot of comments specific on Philippine operations. Among all the global imlovinit24 acts, McTollbooth was also the most viewed. Conversation share of voice (SOV) for McDonald’s Philippines grew by 119% during the campaign period while competitors Jollibee and KFC had negative growth of -41% and -50%, respectively.

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

In the early hours of 24 March 2015, tollbooths in Manila’s major expressways were transformed to mimic McDonald’s drive-thru booths. Then during the morning rush hour, the McTollbooths waived toll fees and gave out bags of free McDonald’s breakfast to motorists who drove through. To extend the experience, included in the bags too were coupons for free McDonald’s premium roast coffee that they could redeem via drive-thru or in-store. Celebrities helped man the booths. News and social coverage amplified the experience via on-the-spot reporting, tweeting and photo/video uploads. Motorists who missed out still won free breakfast by simply uploading their group pictures (groupfies) inside their vehicles to the McDonald’s Philippines Twitter page with the imlovinit24 and McTollbooth hashtags. 24 hours later, a McTollbooth recap video was posted on social media to spike more conversations. More press, broadcast and online media coverage followed, including global. Generally, everything went according to plan.