Challenge:

We wanted to change the conversation about McDonald’s. Let’s face it. It’s rough out there, and people could use a little more Lovin’.

Objectives:

Improve sentiment and engagement.

Strategy:

By tapping into a cultural trend around the pervasiveness of negativity, we were able to deliver a unique, impactful countercultural moment of what is possible when we do our part to put more Lovin’ in the world.

Execution:

On America’s largest stage, the Super Bowl, we chose to DO something. We wanted to demonstrate our brand purpose, that “A little more Lovin’ can change a lot” – so we invited customers into our 14,000 US restaurants, and encouraged them to pay with, instead of money, acts of Lovin’. We showed the world that we value Lovin’ so much, we see it as a form of currency.

And we did it big, through email blasts, teaser campaign, social activations, media mentions, crew/management inspiration, and a complete system training activation. More than 1.5 million people over 2 weeks paid with love, and we believe that we showed a little more Lovin’ really can change a lot.

Outcome:

1. Pay With Lovin’ saw the largest increase in purchase consideration (+8.1) among all Super Bowl advertisers.

2. Top Share of Voice among Super Bowl advertisers.

3. McDonald’s overall sentiment score came in at 83% due to the activation.

4. #paywithlovin (a consumer created hashtag) trended on Twitter.

5. Consumer engagement increased 300%.

6. The :60 spot was viewed over 16 million times on YouTube.

Launching a promotion of this scale with a system as large and complex was no easy task.

In order to make it happen, we engaged owner-operates, regional staff, operations, crew and their managers to each play their own special part in it. We created a system to identify randomly selected customers in over 14,000 restaurants every day for 2 weeks.

Before the Super bowl, we pre-launched a teaser, sent an email blast, and engaged in owned social platforms.

For added impact, our commercial used 100% real customer reactions, which generated interest by local news who interviewed the families involved.

For two weeks, we captured customers’ reactions as they paid with Lovin’. We created POS materials and badges that facilitated social media sharing of their experience.

We aggregated selected posts that displayed lovin’ Payments from all over the country and encouraged viewers to continue to share their Lovin’.

1. Pay With Lovin’ saw the largest increase in purchase consideration (+8.1) among all advertisers during the Super Bowl.

2. McDonald’s had the top Share of Voice among Super Bowl advertisers.

3. McDonald’s overall sentiment score came in at 83% due to the activation.

4. #paywithlovin (a consumer created hashtag) trended on Twitter.

5. Consumer engagement increased 300%.

6. The :60 spot was viewed over 16 million times on YouTube.