A bland romance.

The Filet-O-Fish is McDonald’s Singapore’s most purchased burger, but rarely gets the limelight. In fact, it hasn’t had any screen time for the past 9 years. While fans still love it for its “classic flavour”, they also described their favourite burger as “predictable”, “plain”, “simple”, and “expected”. Ouch. Love for the Filet-O-Fish had died down to a low simmer.

The insight: You love the hardest at the start.

The intensity of love fades over time but it’s the wildest in the early stages of a relationship. As wild as a 100% Wild Alaskan Pollock thrashing on a line.

Our goal: Rekindle the love of this fishy favourite.

There may be plenty of fish burgers in the sea, but there’s only one Filet-O-Fish. We wanted current and lapsed Filet-O-Fish fans to re-live their early infatuation with the burger.

In the mood for fishing.

Recreational fishing soared in popularity during Covid, as Singaporeans sought ways to keep themselves busy and entertained. Sporting goods retailer Decathlon told Channel News Asia that sales of fishing equipment grew by 118% in 2021 compared to the previous year. (Source: CNA, IN FOCUS: As fishing rises in popularity, concerns grow about overfishing and litter.)

Despite this increased interest, the number of fishing spots remains extremely limited. Apart from the coast, there are only 10 locations around Singapore where fishing is allowed, according to national water agency PUB. Ironic, given that the city started off as a humble fishing village.

We could tap into this burgeoning behaviour by making fishing for the Filet-O-Fish a metaphor for love. Instead of showing up where people would naturally be fishing, which would severely limit our reach and impact, we had to create new places for people to fish for the Filet-O-Fish, and tempt them into trying it again.

The Great Catch.

The Filet-O-Fish is a great catch. There’s so much to love about it, especially its 100% Wild Alaskan Pollock fish patty. To reignite the passion that lapsed and current Filet-O-Fish fans had for their favourite burger, we got them to ‘fish’ for the Filet-O-Fish by turning it into a game.

People could join in this great fishing expedition by finding the 257 new “fishing spots” we created throughout Singapore, across McDonald’s stores, in train cabins, or at bus stops. As with real-life fishing, the patience and effort that goes into reeling in the Filet-O-Fish would pay off. Playing the game led lucky anglers to the reward of a free Filet-O-Fish burger via the McDonald's app, so they could savour their catch IRL.

Gameplay was our way in to engage Filet-O-Fish fans and get them hooked on it once again.

McDonald’s customers love games. McDonald’s in-app game, which is refreshed regularly to sync with major campaigns, had a daily average of 23k plays sustained over a recent 2-month campaign.

By creating a fishing game in McDonald’s app, we would be able to tap into the potential of converting these engaged loyalists and other existing users of the app [1]. We could grow this captive audience for McDonald’s and increase their likelihood to purchase the Filet-O-Fish at the same time. More importantly, the app is a key channel for purchase and customer retention as it also housed mobile orders and MyM Rewards (McDonald’s loyalty program).

To cast our net even wider, we created a gamified version that leveraged OOH and social to increase our reach and lower the barrier to fish for the Filet-O-Fish.

Floor stickers masqueraded as fishing holes.

During the three-week campaign period, we took over McDonald’s stores in Singapore and train cabins by applying floor stickers that mimicked fishing holes, tempting people to bite the bait and scan QR codes that led them to the fishing game in the McDonald’s app. Players could score deals that were seamlessly applied to their mobile orders on the McDonald’s app with a bespoke Filet-O-Fish promo code.

Traditional bus stop adshels became game screens.

Digital bus stop adshels that passersby passively watch transformed into fishing spots that invited active participation, as the Filet-O-Fish burger jumping out above animated waves played onscreen. We got people to attempt “catching” the Filet-O-Fish simply by snapping a picture when the burger popped up, before uploading the photo and tagging McDonald’s on Instagram as proof of their catch, earning the chance to enjoy a free Filet-O-Fish via the McDonald’s app.

Nearly doubling Filet-O-Fish sales by turning the act of “fishing” for it into a game.

Sales of the Filet-O-Fish increased by 182% from the same period last year. We reeled people in with high repeat purchase of the new Black Pepper Cheese Filet-O-Fish, where the number of people who tried it two or more times was 121% higher than the average of repeat product purchases during McDonald’s campaign windows.

We attracted 784,134 users to play the McDonald’s app fishing game, which was more than double the average daily users compared to other blockbuster campaigns. This includes 84,000 new McDonald’s app downloads, crucial for retention as new users were added to McDonald’s customer loyalty programme.

In addition, the bus stop adshel game drove trial as the Filet-O-Fish rewards were fully redeemed in 48 hours of the intended 5-day activation.

We captured the attention and appetites of Filet-O-Fish lovers hook, line, sinker.