At the time of year when “warm” becomes an advertising cliche, we fought competitors’ cozy cocoon, and went playfully cool. Fifty pound blocks of ice encasing a travel mug and free trial offer delivered the message “cold is coming.” As the ice blocks melted, the mugs were freed and passersby could take them to be filled at the nearest McDonald’s.Another environmental tactic emphasized the message of cold. Real knitted “pole sweaters” were wrapped around poles, hydrants, and hand-railings. Matching knitted java jackets were distributed at the point of purchase. McDonald’s crew served the new product in knitted mittens.

One main goal of this campaign was to deliver premium iced coffee sales, incremental restaurant sales and guest counts, as well as increased restaurant profit for the promotional period. We overdelivered the UPT goal by 14%, with week 3 peaking at 31% over goal. Another goal was to achieve a 1% lift in incremental sales and guest counts. Our promotion overdelivered sales goal by an incredible 50% (a 1.5% lift) and guest counts by 30% (a 1.3% lift). That’s more than 52,000 new customers that walked through the doors of Western Washington McDonald’s as a result of our campaign.