The Campaign

What is the right kind of burger- one with the cheese above or the one below? Well, McDonald’s restaurants do it both ways, depending on the construct of the burger. And each burger tastes as delicious as the other. Perhaps, because they have one thing in common. They’re all from McDonald’s. That’s how we decided to end the debate. No matter where the cheese, a burger will always be delicious- as long as it’s from McDonald’s. We told this to the world in a matter of hours, with a simple digital video.

Creative Execution

The world wide web was buzzing with the #BurgerEmoji debate at the time but as they say, the internet’s memory can put a goldfish to shame. We knew that we had to move quick. We conceptualised, executed and released the video in a matter of hours. It was initially released across our social media channels- on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but this campaign gained immense momentum when it was picked up by key marketing blogs and fan pages. All of this was entirely organic- not a single dollar was spent. The overwhelmingly positive response to the video made it clear that we had re-established ourselves as the one true burger restaurant, in all of one day.

Results

Our video achieved tremendous results- both online and in-store, without spending a single dollar. -It received 87 million earned media impressions within a span of a week - There was a 505% increase in conversations generated for McDonald's India - 386% more conversations that quarter than their top 2 competitors, combined. - An increase in footfalls at our restaurants, with many customers specifically asking for cheese in a way they preferred. - 14 million burger sales in the next two months. - 3 million unit increase in burger sales.

Our digital video led to a massive response from customers- not just online, but even in terms of store visits. It declared, that contrary to the big internet debate, burgers taste great no matter where you place the cheese- as long as the burgers are from McDonald’s. Not only did this video get us responses and coverage online, it got burger lovers to come to McDonald’s and actually order burgers with cheese placed in a certain way.

Our strategy was to not take sides in this debate, since McDonald’s itself places their cheese differently on different burgers, and even so, every burger tastes as delicious as the other. Since it was a debate that started on the internet, we thought it best to resolve it on the same medium- with a simple video that spoke the truth to people who had, in recent times, started visiting other newly-opened restaurants for burgers. It was the right time to remind them who knew burgers best.