The ‘Decide Your Deal’ campaign makes a return on the McDonald’s app this week! tms (formerly The Marketing Store) first launched ‘Decide Your Deal’ in July 2021, and after a successful campaign, have brought it back. We’ve kept the popular mechanic the same and refreshed the designs to bring it in line with the McDonald’s app re-brand, as well as adding new deals for customers to vote between.

Running from the 3rd to the 10th of July, UK customers can vote in the McDonald’s app for their favorite of two exciting deals — like a 99p Big Mac®  vs 99p Quarter Pounder® with Cheese. The following day, the winning deal will be the offer that customers can redeem that day from 11 am. There is a new vote each day, so in total there will be 7 different offers throughout the campaign. The aim is  to drive downloads and engagement within the McDonald’s app, by putting the power in customers’ hands to influence the deals they want.

“Decide Your Deal is a campaign that worked really well for McDonald’s last year, so we knew we needed to keep the simplicity of the mechanic at the core. The creative update and new menu items keep the campaign feeling fresh and exciting. Everyone has their favorite McDonald’s item, so putting the classics up against each other is always going to create conversation – and it’s always interesting to see which way the nation is going to vote each day!” said Gemma Downing, Account Director at tms (formerly The Marketing Store).

The Copyrights Group and McDonald’s are happy to announce the launch of the first ever Paddington™ Happy Meal® — with themed packaging, a diverse range of ten Paddington toys featuring him in new and exciting outfits and a choice of two books from HarperCollins’ Children’s books based on ‘The Adventures of Paddington’ TV series, ‘The Magic Trick’ and ‘The Monster Hunt’.

The collaboration is available in all UK and Ireland stores and for pickup or McDelivery through the McDonald’s app from the 29th June to the 2nd August 2022.

Inspired by Paddington’s values of kindness and curiosity, this offer encourages children to follow their hearts and to wholeheartedly embrace new experiences.

The ‘I BELIEVE BEARS…’ campaign introduces a diverse and inclusive range of aspirational and imaginative Paddington toys to motivate and allow children to believe in their aspirations and be more Paddington!

Our favourite bear swaps out his iconic red hat and blue duffle coat for new outfits that transport him wherever his curiosity and imagination take him!

Children can collect up to ten unique toys of Paddington as a dancer, a magician, an astronaut and many more or choose to explore a world of wonder and kindness by picking one of two adventure-filled books, available as an exclusive format for Happy Meal®.

Paddington activity sheets and games are also available online on McDonald’s Family Fun Hub.

‘The Adventures of Paddington’ Happy Meal® toys and in-store communications were designed by McDonald’s long-term partner, customer engagement agency, tms (formerly The Marketing Store).

About Paddington™  

For almost 65 years, British-born writer Michael Bond has delighted readers all over the world with his stories about Paddington, the bear from Peru, famous for his love of marmalade. The kindness and humour in the stories appeal to children and adults alike, ensuring Paddington’s enduring popularity from one generation to the next.  HarperCollins have published Paddington’s adventures continuously since October 1958 when they first introduced A Bear Called Paddington to the world. The Paddington books have sold over 35 million copies worldwide and the bear’s adventures have been translated into 40 different languages.  

Since then, Paddington’s adventures have been adapted several times for television and at the end of 2014 Paddington made his debut onto the big screen, a further film Paddington 2 followed in 2017 with a third in the works. The movies were produced by Studiocanal, part of the international content and media group Vivendi.

In 2020, a brand-new Paddington TV series designed for a pre-school audience, The Adventures of Paddington launched on Nickelodeon, introducing him to a whole new set of fans.  

You can catch-up with Paddington’s many adventures on: Twitter & Instagram @paddingtonbear Facebook.com/PaddingtonBear | YouTube.com/Paddington

©P&Co. Ltd./SC 2022 | Licensed on behalf of STUDIOCANAL S.A.S by Copyrights Group 

This first appeared in:
https://www.licensingsource.net/mcdonalds-launches-new-paddington-happy-meal/ 
https://toyworldmag.co.uk/mcdonalds-uk-to-launch-paddington-happy-meals/

tms (formerly The Marketing Store) and our parent company HAVI were honored to receive the 2022 Global Sustainability Award at McDonald’s Worldwide Convention this April for our efforts to establish goals, develop strategies and drive sustainability transformation in packaging and Happy Meal.

To ensure the operation of a sustainable supply chain at McDonald’s, we have developed 2025 Packaging & Waste country roadmap commitments, and we helped achieve McDonald’s 2020 goal to source 100% of fiber-based packaging from Chain of Custody certified sources.

We also set the first goal in the Happy Meal category — to introduce more sustainable Happy Meal toys globally by 2025. And, we’re already actioning against this goal. Read about the latest Germany Happy Meal, featuring books made out of recycled cold cup materials.

HAVI Supply Chain helped improve McDonald’s in-restaurant sustainable footprint, from collecting Used Cooked Oil, cardboard, cups and more from restaurants to generating biodiesel from waste in Europe, optimizing the use of empty truck space in Spain, and eliminating the use of shrink wrap in distribution centers.

Frank Ravndal, CEO of HAVI, said, “We are proud to partner with McDonalds to drive continuous innovation and improvement in sustainable sourcing and logistics. Together we can create impact beyond our footprint.”

We look forward to continuing to work with McDonald’s to meet their sustainability goals and make the world a better place for our customers and communities.

For an overview of all our recent sustainability efforts, click here.

Wordle has recently been celebrated for bringing tens of millions of new users to The New York Times.

What can brands and agencies learn from Wordle’s success? Are there lessons we can take to our apps, campaigns, and other brand experiences?

The answer might surprise you. Wordle achieved what many brands and agencies strive for — doing the opposite of what they might typically do. Here are four examples of Wordle’s unconventional wisdom, which will hopefully inspire us all to try something new.

#1. Resist the urge to dress things up.

We tend to dress things up in marketing. After all, if people don’t see your work, what’s the point?

That’s why we inject drama, pull on heartstrings, or tap into the latest culture or technology trends. We permeate every possible advertising space, becoming impossible to ignore.

Wordle, on the other hand, doesn’t dress things up with any storytelling, innovation, or promotion. The result is undeniably compelling. Wordle sounds like something you (or your grandma) could easily win while waiting for the elevator, but it disarms you.

The gameplay is more challenging than you think. Have you ever tried to hack someone’s password? That is how the game feels at times.

And yet, you won’t quit. “It’s just a Wordle,” you say. So, you push through, reaching that satisfying finish. And now you’re hooked.

This capitalizes on what psychologists call “the overconfidence effect,” where you might jump into something just because it seems so easy in your head.

The takeaway: don’t underestimate the power of the plain and simple.

#2. Resist the urge to make things too easy.  

Marketing often needs to appeal to everyone, resulting in games or challenges that can be a little bland because they are designed for everyone to win, like using bumpers at the bowling alley.

But Wordle proves that people enjoy a little difficulty. Players are only given six attempts to guess, and then it’s game over.

Too much difficulty can also be disheartening. We’re aiming for what psychologists call “flow“: that pleasurable immersion we feel with the right combination of meaning and challenge.

Wordle gets you into the “flow” by softening the challenge but not removing it.

Players can see which letters are guessed correctly, marked green with each attempted word. But players are also shown which letters are “half-correct.” They are marked yellow, meaning it’s the right letter but in the wrong place. This feeds a palpable momentum. You feel a sense of progress, and the goal no longer seems so far away. So, you race towards the finish line.

In behavioral science, this is called the “goal gradient effect,” which observes that people tend to accelerate their effort as they get closer to completing a goal. It’s the reason why that website has a progress bar that whispers, “just two more steps and these plane tickets are yours.”

The takeaway: people enjoy spicy challenges as long as there’s a soothing sense of progress along the way.

#3. Resist the urge to draw out “engagement.”

It’s natural for brands to measure the “dwell time” or “engagement” of their work, whether on an app or a microsite.

Does more time spent = more likely to buy? Not necessarily, especially if the experience has been drawn out beyond what’s optimal.

Wordle, in contrast, shows us how “less” can be “more.”

Instead of allowing you to binge all Wordle puzzles in one sitting, they limit gameplay to one puzzle per day. This produces the “scarcity effect,” where people often value something more if it’s in short or limited supply. Wordle bet that the daily scarcity would fuel a daily habit, which paid off.

What is perhaps the most impressive is that this element of scarcity ultimately fueled connection, word-of-mouth, and community, as everyone is playing the same puzzle each day.

The takeaway: releasing content at a predictable, gradual pace can create collective anticipation.

#4. Resist the urge to engineer virality.

One of the most coveted marketing achievements is to “go viral.”

We make extraordinary efforts to get people to share. We can frame anything into a moment of self-expression, achievement, or user-generated content. But sometimes, we demand too much, putting people out of the sharing mood.

Wordle handled sharing in an understated way: wordless rows of colored boxes, illustrating the progress made with each guess, culminating in a victorious row of green boxes that’s easy to tweet.

These posts didn’t come across as showing off. They seemed like they were just a souvenir of the experience, to commemorate how many tries it took to guess the right word. Not only did this mysterious post create an “in-crowd” and pique the interest of the uninitiated, but it also subtly spurred people to compare their progress against others.

The takeaway: keep in mind that people often post on social media simply for themselves, rather than for others.

What does all of this mean for brands?

Wordle’s achievements are admired and coveted by brands. With humble resources, it became the talk of the town, a cultural phenomenon that managed to carve out a brief ritual into people’s busy daily schedules.

Though Wordle managed to achieve great mainstream success, the game’s methods aren’t necessarily right for every single brand or campaign.

Knowing every business is different, our process at tms (formerly The Marketing Store) always begins with understanding your specific needs. From there, we determine which best-in-class behavioural science and gamifications concepts should be used to deliver the best possible brand experience.

This is how we have consistently delivered world-famous promotions and programs over the years, like McDonald’s MONOPOLY and T-Mobile Tuesdays.

If you’d like to explore how to leverage these principles and concepts to advance your goals, fill out our contact form below to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you!

An official partner of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, McDonald’s is joining the action with ‘One’s Lovin’ It.’ The playful, celebratory campaign will include a week of PR, social, and merchandise that leans into the iconic nature of the brand and of Her Majesty Elizabeth II as she celebrates 70 years of service to the people of the UK, the Realms, and the Commonwealth.

To commemorate this historic occasion, McDonald’s is partnering with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to re-record their iconic jingle and offering a set of limited-edition ceramicware fit for a royal. The packaging pieces feature the iconic McDonald’s fry box, cup, and burger clamshell but are inspired by traditional royal commemorative plates.

Following the premiere of the film Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Paramount have partnered with McDonald’s to bring the fan favorite to Happy Meal®.

tms (formerly The Marketing Store) concepted and designed the Happy Meal® game, which was then built by a partner agency, Zappar.

The new digital game was designed to be an additional experience to the existing Sonic 2 physical paper game. Unlocking the interactive action is made easy by simply scanning the provided QR code on the Happy Meal® toy.

The concept of this interactive game allows kids to play as Sonic in an augmented maze, they can collect coins, emeralds, boosts and magnets as they play. Try it for yourself by scanning the QR code below.

Tom Foreman, Senior Creative Technologist at tms (formerly The Marketing Store) said, “Since first playing Sonic as a kid, I never would have imagined that one day I’d have the opportunity to build an actual Sonic game for McDonald’s Happy Meal®. My inner child is definitely proud!”

“It was a dream brief to work on and an absolute blast to create an exciting new AR Sonic free-roaming game that brings the Happy Meal® toys and the legacy play we all know and love about Sonic to a new generation of customers.”

The game is now available until the 17th of May in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland regions only.

Visit McDonald’s website for more information about the program.

Taking another step in our sustainability journey with McDonald’s, we are excited to share we have overseen a trial of McDonald’s clear plastic cups sourced from recycled and biobased materials.

The cups are sourced from a 50-50 mix of post-consumer plastic material and biobased material, including used cooking oil, using a mass balanced method. Local customers in Savannah, Georgia recently had the chance to take part in the trial, and after they used the cups, they were encouraged to place them in local recycling bins so the material could be used to create other items.

This US market test is one of many steps that will help McDonald’s meet its goal of sourcing 100% of guest packaging from renewable, recycled, or certified sources by 2025. Read about this goal and more here.

Jenny McColloch, VP of Global Sustainability at McDonald’s, said, “We’re on a journey to rethink how we package products to give customers options that reduce waste, maintain the highest safety standards, and enhance the McDonald’s experience they expect and enjoy.”

Learn more about this project here.