McDonald’s: I’m Lovin’ It Live
What was the brief?
Customers flocked back to McDonald’s when restaurants reopened after the first lockdown. But with digital targets under pressure and another lockdown looming, we needed an activation strategy to boost adoption and retention on the My McDonald’s app and give our customers a lift at the same time.
What was the strategy?
A unique, scalable and ownable brand event, promoted across multiple touchpoints. The event would inspire customers to download the app with a programme of offers delivered via data-driven journeys to keep them ordering, and use the brand’s scale to repay our customers for their loyalty in difficult times.
What was the campaign solution?
I’m Lovin’ It Live – a once-in-a-decade live music event hosted via the My McDonald’s app and supported by a series of generous digital offers and moments to motivate downloads and ordering. All while bringing back the feel-good factor in the safety of customers’ homes.
What were the results?
Unprecedented engagement: 750,000 streams of the biggest live music event of the year, 12% increase in social following and 8% improvement in brand affinity scores. Plus, the campaign delivered big commercial results: 304% increase in app acquisition, 178% increase in app orders, and ROI of 44:1 from the customer journey programme.
Campaign in Detail
Strategy
The My McDonald’s app became a must-have for customers in 2020; a contact-free way to get their favourites. But with digital targets under pressure after restaurant closures and another lockdown looming, we needed a bold strategy to acquire and activate customers authentically and in a way that would avoid mass acquisition, followed by mass exodus.
The answer? ‘I’m Lovin’ It Live’: a live music event streamed exclusively on the app.
Activation was powered by a truly integrated strategy that delivered coverage at scale, and targeted upweights on the Young Adult audience. As part of McDonald’s multi-agency team, Armadillo developed and executed the comprehensive pre and post-event CRM plan, to keep newly won customers engaged and ordering on the app.
We targeted three key audiences: activating existing non-app users, re-engaging existing app users, and retaining new app users after registration. Email and push channels were meticulously planned to stimulate behaviours over a three-week period around the main events, with generous targeted offers and timely reminders.
Solution
As this was a first for customers, we communicated the event details across all channels using email announcements and reminders in the days before the event, push notifications before each evening began, and another one hour before each headliner, so no one missed their favourite acts.
We supported the event with digital offers, segmented by audience type, so customers could enjoy the app for ordering their favourites as well as enjoying the event.
To ensure that newly won customers returned to the app and made a purchase, we followed the event with a two-week long national offer of a 30% discount to all customers.
