In 2018, McDonald’s most iconic sandwich, the Big Mac, was turning 50. And while that had the potential to be a great story at McDonald’s, when you get out from under the Golden Arches, nobody really cares. Even for a sandwich that’s served in over 120 countries, branded birthdays typically provide zero incentive to go to the store and buy something.

From a business perspective, as one top franchisee wrote, "The Big Mac has gotten less relevant." As history tells us, McDonald's = Big Mac. As Big Mac goes, so goes the brand. While the Big Mac is a global icon and has always been a menu favorite, sales were flat and it was losing relevance among younger audiences. Only one in five millennials had even tried the Big Mac.

And across the globe, especially in key markets, McDonald’s is competing against rapidly growing “better burger” chains, not even taking into account growing chicken, pizza and sandwich chains eating into marketshare.

We needed to turn this 50th anniversary into a global cultural moment and activate at a scale that even McDonald’s had never seen before—all while generating unprecedented results.

To inform our strategy, the team conducted global social listening as well as an exploration of the cultural context of the Big Mac. One insight jumped out: anywhere you go in the world, across over 120 countries, a Big Mac is a Big Mac is a Big Mac. No matter your country or what language you speak, everyone knows the Big Mac at McDonald’s.

In fact, Big Mac is so ubiquitous that The Economist uses it to measure the purchasing power of international currencies every year with its annual Big Mac Index.

For 31 years, the Big Mac Index has been a legitimate measure of currency health for 48 countries and has become a global economic standard, included in several economic textbooks and the subject of at least 20 academic studies. So, while the world cannot agree on how to measure the outside temperature or even the length of a swimming pool, the Big Mac somehow transcends cultural and geographic borders.

Our insight: If it's good enough to measure the value of 48 global currencies, it's good enough to BE a global currency.

Introducing MacCoin, the world’s first fully food-backed currency, each one worth one Big Mac around the globe.

We minted 6.2 million MacCoins with five unique designs in seven languages celebrating five decades of Big Mac, distributing them to 57 countries. Creatively born in PR, MacCoin was developed by the design agency, minted by a top-tier national coinage partner, distributed worldwide by the global logistics team and promoted by a piece of content produced by a premier studio—all in partnership with countless McDonald’s clients around the world.

As an earned-only campaign, the launch moment and distribution channels were critical. With our guidance, each country crafted the most effective, authentic and culturally relevant activation plan for them.

New Zealand, Chile, Portugal and Puerto Rico drove MacCoin-themed trucks cross-country distributing coins.

Argentina kicked off a professional football match by flipping a MacCoin.

China held a press conference attended by hundreds of media and fans, causing nearly all 1.2 million MacCoins to be gobbled up in the first three hours.

Three billion earned media impressions – more than any other McDonald’s global program to-date.

Double the social media mentions than the previous top-performing global campaign.

Globally, MacCoin generated a 6% increase in Big Mac sales week over week.

-- USA: Big Mac sales increased 40%, almost $2 million in incremental sales, selling 400K additional Big Macs the first day alone.

-- New Zealand: Total comp sales increased by 5.6% and comp guest counts by 0.6%, with a 21% hike in Big Mac sales.

-- Canada: Generated a 7% increase in Big Mac sales during activation week (and inspired one fan to get a tattoo of a Big Mac!).

But we didn’t just top ourselves. Three QSR competitors had crypto/bitcoin campaigns in 2018, but our analog MacCoin had more social mentions than all three. One competitor even leaned into the hype to try to drive sales of its new limited-time burger.