- McDonald’s is promoting the Oct. 10 debut of the Chicken Big Mac with a campaign that spans a brand new business, experiential activations, livestreaming partnerships and more, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- The chain this weekend launched the sandwich at “McDonnell’s,” a pop-up experience hosted by Chain that was presented as a dupe of the long-lasting brand. McDonald’s has also partnered with livestreamer Kai Cenat to debate whether the limited-time offering is definitely a Big Mac.
- The effort moreover features a forthcoming business, a takeover of the Las Vegas Sphere, a mini-game on Zynga and an event during Billboard Latin Music Week, underscoring the various channels marketers need to make use of to attach with young consumers.
McDonald’s is flexing its marketing muscles — and people of greater than a dozen agency partners — for the limited-time Chicken Big Mac. The offering is a poultry themed spin on the brand’s most iconic menu item and shall be available at participating restaurants nationwide starting next week. The campaign across the Chicken Big Mac demonstrates how McDonald’s continues to pay homage to its heritage while introducing its food to recent generations of consumers.
“By tapping into a few of our fans’ biggest passions from dupe culture to live-streaming, we’re in a position to serve up greater than only a sandwich,” said Tariq Hassan, chief marketing and customer experience officer at McDonald’s USA, in a press statement. “There truly is something for everybody to enjoy on this campaign and we’re bringing experiences that can surprise and delight them, all before the Chicken Big Mac hits restaurants.”
The Golden Arches owner, in partnership with agency Golin, tapped into dupe culture with McDonnell’s, a lookalike dining experience that served up Chicken Big Macs in Los Angeles this past weekend. McDonnell’s was hosted by Chain, a restaurant concept that reimagines classic chain eateries. Marketers like hair care brand Olaplex have tapped into dupe culture, the Gen Z-favored tactic of finding reasonably priced replacements for premium, luxury items.
McDonald’s has also teamed with Kai Cenat, the fifth-most popular streamer on Twitch with greater than 13 million subscribers. Cenat will debate whether or not the Chicken Big Mac is a Big Mac with his celebrity friends. The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform continues to be a solution to reach young consumers on the intersections of gaming, culture and beyond.
Along with the Cenat partnership, Wieden + Kennedy is behind several custom ad placements, including a retro mini-game on Zynga where players can construct a Chicken Big Mac and a video series from gaming brand XSET that can remix video game soundtracks and ASMR sounds. On Oct. 10, McDonald’s can even take over the Sphere in Las Vegas, transforming the huge outdoor promoting destination right into a Big Mac and a Chicken Big Mac.
The debate will proceed in a forthcoming business from IW Group featuring “Fresh Off the Boat” castmates Randall Park and Hudson Yang. Additionally, the brand will show up for a “Big Mac Bash” at Billboard Latin Music Week with Mexican musical group Eslabon Armado as a part of an effort headed by Boden.
The multichannel, multicultural marketing push for the Chicken Big Mac resembles the kitchen-sink approach McDonald’s used last 12 months for a campaign focused on Grimace’s birthday. That nostalgia-fueled mascot effort included a brand new spot, an 8-bit video game, merchandise, a Snapchat augmented reality experience and more. McDonald’s attributed U.S. sales growth partially to the campaign, describing it as a viral phenomenon that serves as “one other proof point of the ability of promoting at McDonald’s today.”
McDonald’s posted a 0.7% drop in U.S. comparable sales for Q2 2024, the primary decline of the metric since 2020. To bolster traffic and transactions, the chain has focused more on marketing its value offerings.
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