Situation:

Sweden’s wild bee population is threatened. And bees are important for food production, 1/3 of the food we eat is dependent on pollination from bees. McDonald’s Sweden sources most of its food locally and the brand’s creative platform is “Big enough to make a difference”. So it’s a highly relevant topic for the brand.

Brief:

The client brief was to talk about local sustainability initiatives that can be scaled up using McDonald’s size.

Objective:

The objective was to highlight the issue of Sweden’s declining bee population, make people see McDonald’s in a different light and hopefully spread this idea to other markets.

We created a new type of outdoor billboards that double as bee hotels where wild bees and other insects can rest. The BeeBoards are permanent installations made of wood with holes drilled in both the copy and the logo. All McDonald’s franchisees can order their own BeeBoards and customize both size and messaging. McDonald’s has also collaborated with JC Decaux in an effort to put unused space on the back of roadside billboards to use by mounting bee hotels on the backsides facing south (since that’s what wild bees find comfy). The first test is outside Stockholm with the aim of scaling up the initiative in spring 2020.

The primary target audience was the general population of Sweden. The secondary target audience was the world, as we want to spread this idea globally, truly using McDonald’s size for a good cause. We made the BeeBoards available to order for all McDonald’s franchisees in Sweden and let them customize both size and copy to fit their needs. At the same time we collaborated with JC Decaux to putdead space on the backside of billboards to good use. We filmed the making and mounting of our BeeBoards and seeded the film via social media and to relevant media outlets, locally and internationally.

The first BeeBoards were mounted outside three McDonald’s restaurants before summer. The BeeBoards are permanent installations and will sit there for a very very long time since the copy is generic information such as “Always open” and not campaign messaging. The JC Decaux billboard

backside is a test outside Stockholm and will be up for one year to start with, but hopefully it can also become permanent.

The BeeBoards were covered by media all over the world, with over 360 000 000 impressions and thousands of people urging their local McDonald’s’ to join the cause.