Opportunity
February is the most challenging month to drive traffic at McDonald’s Australia locations. The brand needed to connect with customers directly and find a way to drive immediate traffic into restaurants through the MyMacca’s app.
Celebrating the Platinum Jubilee: the One’s Lovin’ It competition
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.
tms (formerly The Marketing Store) was delighted to take part in the celebration by designing and creating the prize draw site that’s enabling 70 lucky McDonald’s customers to win the commemorative packaging. To win, they need to enter a competition in the McDonald’s app from 31st May to 6th June. Winners will be notified of their royal prizes by 9th June and receive them following the festivities.
Louise Page, Head of Consumer Communications and Partnerships at McDonald’s UK & Ireland said, “The whole country is looking forward to coming together to celebrate this week and I am thrilled that we are joining the party, in a very McDonald’s way. We are delighted to bring fun and great value to our customers whilst taking part in this national celebration, simply by playing with our own iconic branding.”
Gemma Downing, Account Director at tms (formerly The Marketing Store), said, “This was a really exciting once-in-a-lifetime campaign to work on. It was great to collaborate with the all-agency group to bring this to life and drive participants to the app in such a relevant way.”
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Offering bite-size entertainment within the McDonald’s app
May 19, 2022
Approach
To drive people into stores, we needed to get them engaging with the app. Our approach went beyond push notifications or advertisements. Instead, we designed a compelling experience that would excite customers and provide tangible reasons to head into stores. Inspired by the insight that over 17 million Australians are now gamers, we helped McDonald’s tap into this culture by providing customers with an opportunity to play games within the MyMacca’s app and win prizes.
Outcome
The result was Macca’s Mini Games, a hub of bite-sized entertainment which used gamification to give customers a reason to keep returning to the app. Customers had the chance to win iconic food offers every day, and our full-length mobile game, “Maccas Run” offered customers the chance to win cash prizes. This fully native in-app game integrated with McDonald’s tech stack technology, powered by tms’s own iWin gaming technology.
Results
17
Minutes
average time per session
73%
Users
returned to the experience
59%
Played
Macca’s run
38%
Redeemed
at least one food prize
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tms develops Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Happy Meal® game
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.
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Trialing McDonald’s plastic cups sourced from recycled and bio-based materials
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.
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Celebrating Earth Day: sustainability progress overview
tms (formerly The Marketing Store) remains committed to managing our impact and taking responsibility to tackle the climate crisis. Over the past year, we are proud to have made important progress in sustainability innovation, both for our clients and within our own organization.
Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, VP Global Sustainability and Innovation, said, “Sustainability activities are accelerating within our industries due to collaborative efforts between suppliers and customers that are led by our passionate employees around the globe. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the collective hard work of all those involved in driving change forward.”
Learn about all our recent sustainability efforts in the overview below:
Better Future Blueprint
Alongside our parent company, HAVI, we made the commitment to inspire a better future for people, communities and the planet, establishing the Better Future Blueprint to define our path forward toward advancing more sustainable solutions. Read about these commitments here.
So far, we’ve established a network of sustainability champions among tms (formerly The Marketing Store) and HAVI employees — a group that we’ll be expanding in 2022 — and we’re ramping up for additional exciting Better Future Blueprint (BFB) projects this year.
Science Based Targets
Part of BFB and a wider HAVI enterprise-wide commitment, we have also taken another milestone step toward making our customers’ supply chains even more sustainable by signing up to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). As an SBTi member, we have formally committed to cutting carbon emissions from our operations by 40% per metric ton of goods delivered by 2030. We have also enrolled in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to disclose sustainability information while complying with the requirement of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to publicly report progress.
Happy Meal Sustainability
After many years of partnering with McDonald’s to deliver unique Happy Meal experiences, in late 2021, we had the chance to work with our client to establish the goal of introducing more sustainable Happy Meal toys globally by 2025.
Our recent McDonald’s Germany Happy Meal program is a great example of this work in action.
Packaging Sustainability
As of December 2020, all HAVI-sourced in-scope primary guest packaging that is distributed across more than 100 McDonald’s markets worldwide is Chain of Custody certified. This means that wood fiber comes from recycled sources or forests certified to one of two globally recognized standards for responsible forest management: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard or a Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) national standard.
Working closely across 60+ markets globally, we have also developed an automated dashboard for sustainable packaging roadmaps. This has been rolled out as a consistent format to track progress at aggregated Global and market level. This automated platform is continually evolving to inform strategic decision making in meeting McDonald’s 2025 sustainable packaging goals and commitments.
Planet Mark Certification
For the first time, our global headquarters received the Planet Mark certification, and our European operations based in London, Leeds, Paris and Duisburg were certified for the second year in a row. In addition, our Downers Grove Chicago, Stockley Park London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai offices’ activities were included in the certification for the first year.
Additionally, our Head of Sustainability, Pamela Stathaki, won this year’s ‘Sustainability Influencer’ award, and our organization was also awarded for ‘Carbon Reduction by Intensity’ based on data submitted for the annual Planet Mark certificate.
Debbie Bassi, Manager of Office Services, said “The Planet Mark certification process has taught me a great deal about sustainability opportunities within the office, and we look forward to implementing additional changes like composting recycling to reduce waste going to the landfills. It’s exciting to play a role in HAVI’s commitment to Science Based Target reductions.”
We’re in the process of pursuing Planet Mark certification for year ending 2021 and look forward to continuing to partner with Planet Mark to achieve the reductions needed to pursue certifications in the future.
Sustainability Employee Engagement in Hong Kong
In December 2021, nearly 50 employees from our Hong Kong office joined together to clean up Angler’s Beach. This event also enabled raising funds for a local charity that delivers free meals for lower-income families.
Also within the past year, the Hong Kong Team also partnered with a local NGO, The Green Earth, which seeks to influence communities to embrace green citizen responsibilities and help establish a sustainable living environment now and for future generations.
Most recently in March, the founder of The Green Earth, Edwin Lau, hosted a virtual event with over 140 of our colleagues around Asia and our vendor partners. He discussed waste challenges as well as how lifestyle, culture and mode of business affect the environment and how individuals and businesses can spark change.
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Forging a feel-good grassroots program
April 17, 2022
Opportunity
After recently relaunching the McCafé® brand, McDonald’s wanted to reconnect with customers in a purposeful way, as well as boost their coffee credibility and quality perception while inspiring an emotional connection with the brand.
Approach
tms capitalized on the launch of the Good is Brewing campaign to create a feel-good, grassroots program that connected customers in an authentic way.
Outcome
tms developed a breakthrough social and digital engagement that inspired customers to nominate friends, family, and neighbors they saw doing good for a chance to win McCafé® for life.
Results
50,000
People
participated
1.3
Million
total impressions
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McDonald’s | Macca’s Mini Games
Offering bite-size entertainment within the McDonald’s app
May 19, 2022
McDonald’s | Artist Residency
Creating a one-of-a-kind experience for modern tastemakers
May 19, 2023
Bringing McDonald’s Breakfast to Asia
March 17, 2022
Opportunity
McDonald’s Asia-wide National Breakfast Day campaign needed a digital component to boost breakfast sales across the region. Driven by the business goal to increase the breakfast business by 1% year-on-year, we tapped into the insight that most people hate mornings, but love them if there is something to look forward to. We created a promotion that was specifically designed to grow brand awareness and boost customer interaction every day.
Approach
Alarm clocks are enmeshed in our daily routines, with around 85% of people using one. However, they tend not to be thought of positively. We wanted to find a way for McDonald’s to become part of customers’ morning rituals but in a positive way. The McDonald’s Surprise alarm flips the negative connotations of an alarm clock on its head by giving customers something worth getting up for every day.
Outcome
tms created McDonald’s Surprise Alarm app, an alarm clock that delivers a fun surprise each morning. Users received McDonald’s food items, partner music tracks, entertainment, and more. From the strategy to the app build and even the language translations, we took the lead on bringing the customer experience to life. Our proprietary technology product iWin integrated with the app, empowering the prize distribution. Like a big roulette wheel in the cloud, it returned a secure, valid, and fair prize result in real time with each and every game play. With over 7.5 million app opens per day, the McDonald’s Surprise Alarm built brand affinity, increased visits, and drove incremental transactions in Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.
Results
7.5
Million
App opens
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Driving McCafé® sustainability efforts
February 17, 2022
Opportunity
McDonald’s sought to overhaul its foam McCafé® coffee cups based on customer insights and a need to align supplier practices with sustainability goals.
Approach
McDonald’s tapped tms to initiate, manage, and implement the conversion of their foam cup to a renewable resource with the optimized double-wall fiber hot cup. It had to be cost-effective and easily deployed to more than 14,000 restaurants in the United States. Recognizing the gold-standard of the FSC® certification and influence of the trademark and organizational reach of the label, tms also managed the phase-in of the FSC® certified board and subsequently included the graphic on the hot cup.
Outcome
The resulting cup aligned with brand demand for sustainable products as well as consumer expectations for quality and corporate responsibility, making it cost-neutral for McDonald’s and its customers. Furthermore, the redesign promoted environmental sustainability and highlighted McDonald’s FSC® certification and sustainable practices. The cup’s increased insulation eliminates the need for a sleeve, leading to a reduction in material use and freight cost.
Results
5.8
million
a pounds packaging waste saved
5.2
million
pound initial goal surpassed
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McDonald’s | Smart Sourcing
Cutting operational supply costs through smart sourcing
December 17, 2021
McDonald’s | Thoughtful Design
Delivering culturally relevant design to bring families together
November 14, 2021
From McDonald’s cups to Happy Meal®: a sustainable journey
tms (formerly The Marketing Store) and McDonald’s are giving cold cups a new life by turning them into Happy Meal® books. In February, McDonald’s customers in Germany received one of seven children’s books made up of 40% recycled cold cup materials with stories focused on the environment and nature.
This innovative Happy Meal® is not only the first of its kind but an important means of promoting closed-loop recycling to give used material a unique second life. With this circular innovation, we utilised materials that potentially would have been recycled into producing single use or disposable products, such as paper towels, and transformed them into Happy Meal® books that can be enjoyed time and time again before being passed on, creating a long-lasting product.
How does this work? In the simplest terms, waste generated during cup production, such as a faulty cup, is combined with recycled collected cups from McDonald’s stores and then pressed. Next, the recycled cups are washed, and the pure paper pulp is separated and transformed into larger reams of paper. These are used to create Happy Meal® books, protecting trees and the environment twice over.
“We are so excited to delight our young customers with this innovative sustainable solution,” notes tms’s (formerly The Marketing Store’s) Global Head of Sustainability, Pamela Stathaki. “This is not just a great example of circular economy brought to life but most importantly it shows the younger generation how by recycling in restaurants they can directly have an impact. It gives them the opportunity to make a difference through a simple behaviour.”
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My Winning Story launches at McDonald’s
There’s no better time than the start of the year to create new stories. That’s why tms (formerly The Marketing Store) London has dreamed up a new program in the McDonald’s App — My Winning Story — that gives customers the opportunity to create their own epic McDonald’s Story, for their chance to win from 4 prize draws.
From now through to the 20th February, in a customizable and personal experience, McDonald’s UK customers will receive a guaranteed food offer and a chance to win a prize of their choice by entering their story in the app. Prompted through a series of drop-down options, each user will craft a story unique to them before receiving their offer and entry into the draw.
Head to the MyMcDonald’s app (Apple, Android) to tell your winning story!
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