We knew, that teens seek authenticity and credibility when it comes to brand communications: stories they can connect and identify with. Influencer marketing offered a smart choice, but recently we've seen how brands overuse influencers and a wear-out effect sets in. Superficial cooperation’s are shunned and youngsters do recognize influencer marketing for what it is: advertising.

We could not afford to dish up a halfway good influencer marketing campaign for youngsters' favorite McDonald's product the McFlurry® ice cream. We needed more than that: we needed to create a blueprint for Influencer marketing next gen.

We created a story about two guys who wanted to have their own McFlurry®. It starts with the vision on their youtube channel which is responded by an invitation to the McDonald’s test kitchen. From product development to packaging, the influencers were part of the whole process.

From ideation to the steps of product development and the launch the entire story is told by “Die Lochis” in their narrative style and shared exclusively on their social channels. Thus, they enabled a wider audience to experience and follow the creation of a new ice cream. A process which is mostly unknown for consumers, conveys a sense of proximity and is extremely relevant amongst teens.

We employed classic storytelling craft to cover the process in 10-20min videos on the "Die Lochis" YouTube channel, adding elements of challenge, suspense and fame. Phase 1 led the viewers into McDonald's test kitchen where ideation and product development took place. Phase 2 was a competition of products at the HQ, ending with a suspenseful jury decision with the country CEO and delegates from menu management and marketing. Finally, phase 3 followed the development of the packaging design and the launch event itself.

The biggest success criteria was that “McFlurry® Crazy Pop by Die Lochis” was sold out 4 weeks after launch, whereas the promotional period was planned for 12 weeks. We achieved this feat completely without paid media measures.

The unexpected success proved our strategy right, too: for the first time in the last 3 years we managed to turn around brand values for the entirety of McDonald's in the teen target group (Ad-Awareness +6%, WoM Exposure +18%, Consideration +20%, Purchase Intent +44%) with only 0.5% of the total 2017 budget.

Finally: the campaign ignited a massive community virality (with clear positive context to brand and product). Other YouTubers created videos about the Lochis McFlurry® earning more than 1 million views of unpaid video content.

It was amazing to discover that the “24/7 I want it all now”-generation was staying put to a campaign lasting around 3 months with increasing involvement.

The basic strategy is quite simple: YouTubers create their own McFlurry® flavor. The game changer in this - at first not so brand-new thought - is that the social stars were really involved in the marketing process from the scratch. And therewith they could create a story that revealed what is happening behind the usually closed doors of the burger giant. This leads beyond the classic approach of labeling an already developed product just with the name of a star.

We had to be very careful matching the artists and their target group with the product. Because McDonald’s is polarizing across youth target groups nearly everything they do has the potential for critical reactions.

We looked for authentic influencers and found two of the biggest fans of McDonald’s: Germany’s favorite YouTubers, “Die Lochis”, have already proven their love for the brand by numerous videos and are absolutely crazy for ice-cream.

McDonald’s lost relevance, trust and love among youth target groups within the last years. Teenagers have lost their connection to the brand because they don’t see anything special and don’t feel understood by the global burger giant. The objective was to set a positive impact on the above attributes to turn around the trend and to reengage with teenagers in terms of image, feedback and sales.