Brief Explanation

¬McDonald's most iconic products, their core range, account for a disproportionate share of overall business performance and brand equity1. As the McDonald's menu expanded over the years, it's most iconic products, their core range, needed to prove their relevancy more than ever. Our challenge was to reinvigorate their most famous product and greatest contributor to sales2: the Big Mac. However, we faced two main challenges: Firstly, the next generation of burger eaters were going elsewhere. We needed to drive reappraisal amongst some of McDonald's and the Big Mac's most apathetic audience – millennials. Informal Eating Out (IEO) eateries such as Grill'd and Chur Burger were appealing better to this audience, so we needed a way to win their hearts and get them back in restaurant. Secondly, Millennials don't share the same fond memories of the Big Mac as previous generations. While the Big Mac held iconic status throughout the 80s, children of the 90s – millennials – haven't developed the same relationship with the famous burger. In part, because the Big Mac isn't the pop-culture powerhouse it once was3. To get the Big Mac into the minds and mouths of the next generation, we needed to prove the Big Mac still had what it takes to be a modern icon. Our communications needed to restore pride and respect for the iconic Big Mac and make it a meaningful part of consumer culture again. In a world first, we helped Big Mac re-enter popular conversation by taking the most iconic part of the burger, the Special Sauce, to millennials to do what they wanted with it, to #macitbetter Not only did McDonald's record the most Big Mac sales EVER in Australia versus any other 4-week period, campaign activity generated a record 3.8 billion PR impressions and delivered a return of $16.64 per dollar spent, helping to ‘mac’ things better across the business overall.