The Vietnamese Fast Food market is estimated at over 500 mln$ annually, with KFC, Burger King, Lotteria, Jollibee having over 400 outlets across the country. McDonalds entered the Vietnamese market in 2014, and opened the first Drive-Thu in the country in March 2014.

The number of motorbikes in Vietnam has risen from 4 million in 1996 to 39 million in 2015. And yet surprisingly in a country with so much mobility, the concept of Drive-Thru is not one that the Vietnamese are really familiar with.

What we needed to do was showcase the benefits of McDonalds Drive-Thru to our Vietnamese target audience in an interesting way. To do this we created a new 24h Drive-Thru World record attempt.

We invited people to participate in our attempt, experiencing the Drive-Thru, receiving the free promotional Meal Set (Cheeseburger, Fries, and specially designed Coke can) and having the most fun while they did it.

We created the event to break the Drive-Thru world record. Three weeks prior the event we started communicating and inviting people through social, PR and the leading youth music TV channel. Importantly, we included a promotional free meal set (Cheeseburger + Fries + specially designed Coke can) to reward every participant. For 24h, starting 8pm March 23th to 8pm March 24th, we created entertaining performances including artists, celebrities, bike shows, and others.

In 24 hours 15,740 people went through the Drive Thru, received and enjoyed promotional McDonalds meal set, shared their moments of joy with others. And in addition, we smashed the existing world record five times over – 3280 meals served in 24 hours.

Post event, the social media and new channels were all buzzing about the McDonalds Drive Thru, creating interest and boosting awareness of McDonald’s first Vietnamese Drive-Thru.

Business Result: Campaign generated 29% increase of McDonald's Drive-Thru sales recorded within the month following the campaign. (Source: McDonald's Vietnam sales data).

Marketing Results: Awareness of the McDonald's Drive-Thru increased by 956% versus the prior-campaign period (source: Buzzmetrics). Campaign reached in Social, PR and Online over 3 mln people (source: McDonald's post campaign analysis)

Event Results: During the Drive-Thru event in 24h we served 15.740 consumers (beating 5 times previous world record of 3.280 meals served in 24h). In the peak hour we served 1.212 meals (beating 2.5 times McDonald's world record of Drive-Thru servings per hour). It was the first non-stop 24h branded event in Vietnam with continuous entertaining activities.

In overall campaign strongly delivered on McDonald's Vietnam strategic objective of developing Drive-Thru offering to mobile/motorbike’s Vietnamese consumers.