Stand at the counter of any McDonald’s restaurant in New Zealand and you’ll hear a chorus of famously laid-back Kiwis saying “aaaaaaaaaand aaa…” as they stare up at the menu board and decide which little treat to add to their favourite order.

This is music to the ears of McDonald’s NZ franchisees, as customers adding extra items to their ‘go-to order’ massively bolsters the bottom line. Historically, it’s also proven to be one of their greatest business challenges, and the current economic downturn here in NZ has made that challenge greater than ever.

The objective set by McDonald’s was to get more customers saying “aaaaaaaaaand aaaaa…” and adding extra McNuggets, Apple Pies, McFlurries and more to their favourite orders. And in a media sense, do it when they’re already on the way to McDonald’s – at the time they’re a little more predisposed to adding a tasty little impulsive extra.

Just like we wanted our customers to do, we added a little something to our OOH.

A bit of context first: here in New Zealand, our digital billboards have an extra screen added to the bottom to display the billboard provider’s logo. Which got us thinking… a little screen… under the big one we’ve already paid for… when we want people to add a little extra treat to their order…?

In a media world-first, we joined forces with digital out-of-home provider, LUMO NZ to hack their network of digital billboards. Using McDonald’s sales data, we added all the little favourites Kiwis love to add on at the counter to their big favourites, and streamed them back to hungry Kiwis on the way to their local McDonald’s.

We combined this media hack with that classic “aaaaaaaaaand aaa…” moment at the counter we can all remember doing ourselves.

Our primary target was ‘on the go’ Kiwis. Those near to, or on the way to McDonald’s, predisposed to making those little impulse additions. Naturally, this made OOH the favoured medium.

While some Kiwis happily add extra nuggets and soft serves to their favourite orders, others needed a gentle reminder.

So that’s exactly what we did, bringing to life what McDonald’s calls a ‘fan truth’ – those specific, special and shared insights from McDonald’s customers that relate to a behaviour, a memory or a ritual.

It’s the kind of behaviour where thousands of fans see it and say; “omg – I do that too!”

Saying “Aaaaaand a…” at the counter is one of those human moments, and combining it with our big / little media hack made that moment all the more impactful.

In a media world-first, we took over the billboard company’s name-plate, which hangs off the bottom of the main large-format digital billboard – and used it to bring to life a relatable customer behaviour.

To ensure maximum reach, we took over LUMO NZ’s all-day sites near McDonald’s restaurant locations with 100% SOV to ensure we were top of mind for all audiences considering their next McDonald’s order.

At the time of writing this entry, McDonald’s Ad-Ons has been live for five weeks and will continue to run throughout the year across New Zealand.

This campaign is still in its infancy. However what we can tell you is that in the last five weeks since launch, the average cheque has grown from $15.51 to $17.14 (a 10.5% increase).

That’s a whole lot of extra Apple Pies, Nuggets and McFlurries.

When you layer that against the primary business objective of encouraging average spend per customer, during a time when Kiwis are looking to save their pennies, these initial results are already shifting the dial for local franchisees and there’s a whole lot more to come.

We have no further data as yet.