Title | EATQUAL |
Brand | MCDONALD'S |
Product / Service | MCDONALD'S |
Category | G07. Corporate Purpose & Social Responsibility |
Entrant | DDB MUDRA Mumbai, INDIA |
Idea Creation | DDB MUDRA Mumbai, INDIA |
PR | DDB MUDRA Mumbai, INDIA |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Rahul Mathew | Ddb Mudra Group | Creative |
Aditya Kanthy | DDB Mudra Group | Planning |
Ashish Phatak | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Shagun Seda | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Siddhesh Khatavkar | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Harshada Menon | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Vilsen Gonsalves | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Roy Sebastian | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Vivek Bhatia | DDB Mudra Group | Creative Team |
Shruti Parulekar | DDB Mudra Group | Creative Team |
Asha Deora | DDB Mudra Group | Creative Team |
Urja Patel | DDB Mudra Group | Creative Team |
Aishwarya Likhite | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Rahul Sharma | DDB Mudra Group | Creative |
Anurag Tandon | DDB Mudra Group | Business Management |
Murli Krishnan | DDB Mudra Group | Business Management |
Debjani Roychoudhury | DDB Mudra Group | Business Management |
Anchal Bhojwani | DDB Mudra Group | Business Management |
Gaurav Magotra | Ddb Mudra | Business Management |
Sonali Savla | DDB Mudra Group | Business Management |
Bunsi Issar | DDB Mudra Group | Business Management |
Mehak Jaini | DDB Mudra Group | Planning |
Jaiprakash Tekwani | DDB Mudra Group | Planning |
Somdatta Roychowdhuri | DDB Mudra Group | Planning |
jay Gaikwad | DDB Mudra Group | Agency Production |
Hrushikesh Inamdar | DDB Mudra Group | Agency Production |
Avadhut Hembade | QENCH STUDIOZ | Photographer |
Sunil Naik | Sunil Naik | Photographer |
Vishal Sane | Vishal Sane | Photographer |
Harshik Suraiya | Vanilla Films | Director |
Kashif Memon | Mothership Production | Producer |
Millions of people around the world, with limited hand mobility, can’t eat a burger the way others can. With two able hands. A burger often strips them of their dignity and self-reliance. On 3rd December 2020, International Day of Disabled Persons, we launched EatQual. A case specifically designed with the help of ergonomic experts, disability specialists, NGO’s and the differently abled community. The case holds your burger for you, so you can eat it even with one hand. This simple case became the face of our campaign. EatQual engaged customers and helped deliver our message of equality and inclusivity.
2% of India’s population is disabled, that’s nearly 27 million people - more than the entire population of Australia. 27 million individuals who are routinely left out of marketing efforts, national initiatives and even the most basic experiences, because of our deep-set apathy towards the disabled. Disability is an invisible problem in India, with the government and most companies doing the bare minimum. As McDonald’s, our mission was to ‘Make Delicious Feel-Good Moments Easy For Everyone’. But when we discussed disability, we somehow only fixated on the easy i.e., access and not feel-good experience. We realised that for many people with limited upper limb mobility the feel-good burger experience probably rated zero. Our objective was to right this wrong in a way that drove true inclusivity at McDonald’s – capturing the country’s attention, improving people’s perception of our brand and inviting audiences that had long been ignored by Food Retail.
Everyone loves a burger, unfortunately it takes two able hands to hold the burger and bite into its delicious, juicy goodness. Introducing, EATQUAL: A small step in designing experience for the disabled, A giant leap for access and inclusivity in food retail. We worked with NASEOH (National Society For Equal Opportunities For the Handicapped) India to understand the challenges and requirements of the target group. Prototyping and running trials until we found the perfect solution. We were a team on a mission, looking to prove that the joy of eating a burger isn’t reliant on whether a person has both their hands. And thus, a unique packaging design solution was born that reimagined the McDonald’s experience for millions of people struggling with limited upper limb mobility. A hexagonal packaging system which locks the burger and its contents into the package so that our disabled customers can enjoy it.
For most, eating a burger has been a very familiar experience. In pop culture and even in everyday life, the two-hand hold became an iconic code for burger eating. But for people with limited upper limb mobility, eating their favorite burger often meant loss of dignity and independence, and a whole lot of embarrassment. Our research revealed that instead of being able to focus on the taste, they worried about making a mess or looking clumsy in a restaurant. “She refuses to eat her burger with everyone at the party because she’s afraid it will all fall apart, and they’ll make fun of her” – Mother of a girl with limited upper arm mobility. Many even confessed to not having eaten out in public in years due to the stares and looks of pity they usually get in restaurants.
We partnered with NGOs and disability experts to create a case called EatQual. A specially designed case that holds the contents of a burger together for those with mobility issues, so they can eat it with just one hand. We launched our full-fledged campaign with a digital post on 3rd December 2020, ‘International Day of Disabled Persons’. We followed it with a film, that featured a real-life electrocution survivor with limited hand mobility. Print, social media, radio, instore communication drove home the message of EatQual In-store events were organised in three cities: Mumbai, Pune & Chennai; where children with disabilities were invited to enjoy our burgers with the new packaging. On social media, we collaborated with influencers from the differently abled community like Deepa Malik - a Paralympic winner , Suyash Jadhav - Indian Para Swimmer and Dhaval Khatri - a differently abled painter.
EatQual Captured the Country’s attention • Impressions: 13.4 Million • Reach: 11.1 Million • Earned PR worth ₹7.2mn with just a meagre ₹200k spent on marketing • Garnered 300k+ organic views in just 10 days • Overall giving us a 35x return on investment Improving McDonald’s Brand Scores • 33% Increase in Brand Trust • 67% Increase in Brand Interest Inviting new audiences that had been long ignored by Food Retail • Usage of our EatQual packs grew 7x in last 3 months – That’s Nearly 1000 Disabled guests enjoying burgers equally Eatqual received unprecedented love and praise from our fans and from the disabled community, successfully changing the narrative of inclusivity in an apathetic country who sat up and took notice of a problem that we had long overlooked.
McDonald’s has always stood for equality and inclusivity. People feel at ease at our restaurant, it has an unintimidating atmosphere where people can be carefree and socialise. They can spill their drink and yet there will be smiles around, drop ketchup on clothes, no one will bat an eyelid. These are the little things that make our store experience & brand inclusive. Yet, there was a set of audience that wasn’t feeling it - our differently abled customers. For them, their disability shines the most in social situations where they feel they are being watched and it’s uncomfortable when you have to depend on others for a basic activity like eating. A lot of our restaurants have amenities like ramp & PWD washroom but the McDonald’s experience is not just about offering the best burger it comes down to the experience of enjoying a burger.