Why is this work relevant for Media?

As the Big Mac has lost its shine with Hong Kong’s youths, McDonald’s used a multi-channel approach across the high impact, engaging, interactive formats to revive it amongst Youngsters. In this campaign, McDonald’s ensured they effectively reached a younger audience who consume various media across various devices, including: OOH, social, digital, audio, and TV. It has partnered with a local pop idol - Keung B, to bring a new image of Big Mac to the millennials and Gen Zs. The campaign has gained great success and the brand image was also built by using the next level of experience design.

Background

Going back to the 80s, Big Mac used to be the icon of McDonald’s, the old Big Mac Chant was also a legend, having the spirit-lifting jingle: “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame-seed bun.” But, when there is a wide range of food to choose from, Big Mac was no longer new and exciting, pople started to lose interest in it, especially the millennials and GenZ. They no longer see the Big Mac as an icon, McDonald's realized the need to reintroduce the once-popular menu item and create a cultural moment for Gen Z. To re-establish the Big Mac's cultural resonance among Hong Kong's youth, McDonald’s Hong Kong is adding bacon to the burger and a new chant, while partnering with the city’s hottest pop idol, Keung To. Trying to bring the new big mac to the new generation by using a multi-channel approach

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

The iconic McDonald's Big Mac has slowly been losing relevance and gaining a reputation amongst younger generations a the "Dad burger." McDonald’s recognized they needed to revive the once loved menu staple and create a cultural moment for Gen Z to excite youngsters and reinstate Big Mac's iconic status. To bring the world-famous Big Mac back in popularity, McDonald's partnered with rising star Keung B, a member of Mirror, a popular boy band amongst Gen Z, to promote the rejuvenated Big Mac with Bacon. A unique Big Mac set – the Keung B Meal- was exclusively available with collectible idol cards during a limited campaign period. Applying the insight from the previous campaign of the success of the Tongue Twister, McDonald’s developed a special in-store Augmented Reality experience with dance activations and a karaoke Instagram filter to build further momentum and create a movement amongst Gen Z’ers.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

McDonald’s used a multi-channel approach across high-impact, engaging, interactive formats to revive the Big Mac amongst Youngsters. Levering OOH, social, digital, audio, and TV, MacDonald’s ensured they effectively reached a younger audience who consume various media across various devices. With celebrity Keung To as the face of the campaign, McDonald's strategically dominated CWB Island Beverly OOH, a fan-favorite destination for Fanart. They drew further attention with static and video panels across OOH all over Hong Kong. They reached audiences with tailored video, audio, and social content disseminated efficiently across the different secondary audience groups, such as Keung To Fans and Gen Z, and promoted a brand-new Big Mac Tongue Twister across social media to inspire a trend and stand out! Every touchpoint amplification, including Facebook Livestream, on-packaging AR, and an IG filter, allowed GenZ to show its love for the new Big Mac.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The campaign extended thematic communication with an interactive 'Tongue Twister Dance' activation across different media channels, revealed gradually, starting with Keung To, followed by Mirror and Error members, to mass audiences. Kickstarting with Keung To's Facebook and Instagram live stream events, the campaign put Big Mac with Bacon under the spotlight by elevating the message of "B for Bacon" with a catchy chant. McDonald drove further interest by connecting with the popular show "King Maker," inviting Error, Mirror, and 11 up-and-coming influencers to participate in the Chant challenge and impress the audiences with their unique rendition of the chant and dance moves. McDonald's also adopted cinema ads to tie with popular movies at that period – for example, "The Way We Keep Dancing," which matched the 'dance' theme of the tongue twister dance, deepening that association and cementing a cultural movement.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign was a success from the start and Keung B Meal sold out within two weeks. The campaign has gained over $15 million in earned media, having over 3.5 million social video views and 57,514 user-generated content. In the various distributed platforms, there are 115K cumulative opens of Instagram filter and over 10K viewers for the live event. It has also successfully regained the Big Mac chant cultural status among youngsters, as the GenZ branding scores have increased 21.6%. With such an innovative strategy, McDonald’s has sold over 1.3 million burgers and 56.2% were from millennials and GenZ. The campaign proved to be one of the driving forces of McDonald’s Big Mac Bacon’s sales growth. The overall performance of the campaign outperformed the target.