2021 Bronze Best Integrated Campaign

Agency: Armadillo, Leo Burnett, OMD UK and Red Consultanc

Client: McDonald's Restaurants UK

Campaign Name: McDonald's: I'm Lovin' It Live

Campaign Overview

Customers flocked back to McDonald's when restaurants reopened after the first lockdown.

But with digital targets under pressure and another national closure looming, the chain needed an activation strategy to boost adoption and retention on the My McDonald's app.

Strategy

McDonald’s required a bold strategy to acquire and activate customers authentically, and in a way that would avoid mass acquisition, followed by mass exodus.

I'm Lovin' It Live was born. The team created a unique, scalable and ownable brand event, promoted across multiple touchpoints.

The event inspired customers to download the app with a programme of offers delivered via data-driven journeys to keep them ordering, and use the brand's scale to repay people for their loyalty in difficult times

Creativity

I'm Lovin' It Live was created as a truly democratic brand event.

The centrepiece of the campaign became the biggest music event of the year: three days of livestreamed gigs through the My McDonald's app from Stormzy, Lewis Capaldi, Jess Glynne and more.

The challenge was to create a visual campaign that allowed the visceral emotions associated with live events to resurface and invigorate our audience. The sensory experience only found at music festivals and events was replicated through exuberant golden typography, contrasted against a dark background: a vivid yet luxurious representation of the venues beyond our reach while at home.

This evocative style was used throughout the campaign across social, TV, email, push, and in-app first to tease the event, then to announce the line-up not only generating excitement for the live shows, but also acquiring new customers for the My McDonald's app.

To build on this experience and ensure the conversion of both one-off and regular app users, we introduced an app-exclusive 30% off deal, available for two weeks after the live event, which was promoted through a series of CRM communications.

These announced and then reminded our customers of our new, unmissable offer, in the same campaign style.

Results

Unprecedented engagement: 750,000 streams of the biggest live music event of the year, 12% increase in social following and 8% improvement in brand affinity scores.

Two Great British Bake Off TV spots alone drove 4.5m impacts in one evening and coincided with a 5% increase in app engagement immediately after airing.

Influencer content drove 3m views, as well as 34,000 merchandise competition entries - the most McDonald's has ever seen in a competition. McDonald's UK social channels increased their following by 12% overall. As customers shared the message further, the brand’s highest-ever levels of positive social sentiment were recorded.

The music event itself was a success, garnering streams equal to 375% of the campaign target.

Commercial results: 304% increase in app acquisition, 178% increase in app orders and an overall campaign ROI of 6:1. Meanwhile, 28-day active users increased by 186% and app order volumes grew by 178%.

The modular content approach also allowed McDonald’s to adapt comms quickly and efficiently; for example, swapping product modules affected by market-wide supply chain issues.

The Team

Armadillo - Jo Penn, Client Partner - Hannah Waters, Creative Director - Emily Sowden, Copywriter - Steph Dearing, Developer - Jim Green, Head Of Analysis - Chris Quenon, Designer - Rob Pellow, Innovation Director - Nick Beevors, Strategy Director - Becky Howell, Account Director - Alex Mills, Campaign Manager