The Campaign

Introducing the #3BitesChallenge. Instead of just announcing the size change via ads, we created a challenge on social media to get them to sample the burger for themselves. We challenged millennials to try and finish the new McChicken in 3 bites, and create a Facebook Live video of the process. Not only did they get to see, touch and taste the new McChicken, they also helped us spread the word to their friends.

Creative Execution

Millennials only resonate with simple and non-complicated acts of communication, and the #3BitesChallenge was exactly that. All they had to do was purchase a McChicken and take a Facebook Live video of themselves finishing the burger in 3 bites. Having to go ‘Live’ was crucial to prove that they could finish the challenge in one sitting. Those who succeeded could redeem another FREE McChicken as a reward. Most Millennials who completed the challenge started tagging their friends, who in turn tagged other friends and so on and so forth. The fear of missing out kicked in and young Malaysians started pushing themselves to take on the #3BitesChallenge. All videos were posted on their own social media accounts with the hashtag 3BitesChallenge and submissions were registered at McDonalds.com.my. The campaign ran for 4 weeks and was promoted via the McDonald’s microsite, Facebook ads as well as consumer word of mouth.

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

The McChicken #3BitesChallenge was fun, simple and highly engaging. The videos went viral as millennials started challenging each other, resulting in over 10,000 video submissions with the #3BitesChallenge. It also garnered over an accumulated 4 million views across all the Facebook Live videos. #3BitesChallenge trended with over 90,000 Malaysian Millennials talking about it at one point (Source: McDonald’s Internal Data). In terms of sales and business, the McChicken sales increased by an average of 100% during the campaign period – 3rd to 30th Nov (Source: McDonald’s Internal Sales Data) What’s more satisfying is that we manage to get the Millennials talking about, and sharing their new McChicken experiences to all their friends. Their videos became ‘more believable’ ads that helped us launch our campaign.

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

#3BitesChallenge effectively engaged consumers to sample the new McChicken and create videos of the experience. These consumer-created videos in turn became the ads that helped successfully promote the new McChicken to our target audience.

We used three key strategies to make the new McChicken compelling and relevant to millennials: • Mobile-first approach as smartphones are embedded as part of their daily routine • Eliminate skepticism of our product size from their mindset. Get them to see it, try it and share it. • One up each other and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) The Millennial’s mind works in such a way that psychologically they will not believe what you show them. But if you put them up to a challenge and pit them against one another, the fear of missing out on something trendy will kick in. We used this to our advantage and created a dare that they couldn’t say ‘no’ to. In essence, by tapping into their psyche, we drove trial to this new product innovation through a simple challenge.