We may have had Jessie J on a boom bus in London, but for McDonald’s’ ambitious global Day of Joy campaign (24th March), Warsaw had a jingle bench!
Indeed, as part of McDonald’s’ endeavour to spread 24 gifts of joy in 24 cities, every city experienced a different surprise throughout the day. And lucky old Warsaw was treated to a bus stop full of colours that produced musical notes on each seat.
Throwing in a competitive element to the mix, McDonald’s encouraged people to try and reproduce the sound of their theme song on the bench, with the winners receiving a coupon for 5 extra value meals.
Interestingly, it was not the idea of the prize that created the excitement, but the fun of the process that served as the reward. Hordes of Warsaw-dwellers stopped by the bench transforming their initial surprise into a moment of pure joy.
McDonald’s has made the wise move to turn to experiential marketing to boost the brand’s presence amongst the youth audience who no doubt have a higher regard for unique status-maker experiences like these.
And it’s evidently working. There were 40,000 mentions of the campaign hashtag #imlovinit on Twitter, making it a worldwide trending topic.
The fast food giant also deployed benches in Canada for a delightful stunt that brought people together. Once two people had sat down, a screen behind would flash “Welcome to McDonald’s” and a hidden panel would pop out in the middle of the bench with a tray holding fries, coffee or nuggets.
Joss Davidge is Director of the Unexpected at BEcause, the award-winning live brand experience agency, dedicated to enhancing Brand Love. He also runs free Masterclasses on multi-channel live brand experience.
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