Situation

During the scorching summers in Portugal, brands fiercely compete, flooding the market with new ice cream flavours. However, in 2023, we realized that only introducing new flavours wouldn't be enough to stand out.

Brief

Faced with a competitive arena, our brief had to go beyond the conventional and bring a feel good experience to our consumer.

Goals

Communication Goal: Enhance McFlurry awareness and establish a legitimate and distinct presence in Portugal's ice cream market.

Brand Goal: Reinforce McDonald’s as a summer brand and establish it as the top choice for ice cream during Portuguese summers.

Business Goal: Increase summer season sales of McFlurry by 10% compared to 2022.

CamouFlury: So Good, You'll Want to Hide It.

Summer wouldn't be complete without the classic allure of stripes that grace everything from t-shirts to sun hats. Stripes also found a home on the new global McFlurry packaging. Because it´s almost impossible to eat a McFlurry without someone asking for a bite, we drew inspiration from this timeless trend, and we leveraged the new packaging making it invisible for those with a sweet tooth. We created an exclusive fashion line seamlessly camouflaging the McFlurry packaging, offering our customers a chance to keep cool during summer days while safeguarding their cherished ice cream. We created posters showing the mix of our clothing pattern and our packaging. With our fashion line, we transformed the McDonald’s window on Avenida da Liberdade into a fashion store window. McFlurry was so camouflaged that everyone noticed it.

Target:

18-35 - Gen Z and Millennial's - Our target has a fun profile and likes to socialize, especially in the summer, seeking experiences of all types, including food. Follows trends and pays attention to social media.

Approach:

Millions love the McFlurry. But sharing it? Despite Portuguese culture's hospitable nature and love for sharing, when it comes to the McFlurry, that's a tough ask.

It's a delight meant for solo indulgence, yet resisting the urge to share becomes a challenge as soon as you take a spoonful. One bite, then another, and soon enough, everyone wants a taste.

So we decided to not let anything come in between you and your McFlurry.

CamouFlury: an idea that became a fashion Collection

To launch the CamouFlury campaign, McDonald’s started in the streets, with two outdoor flights that covered all the country. But to make people really hide their McFlurry, McDonald’s introduced the 'CamouFlury Collection', an exclusive line of T-shirts.

To unveil this collection, McDonald’s turned its restaurant window, located on the most emblematic street of luxury fashion stores, into a showcase for this new fashion line.

In digital, we offered loyal customers the opportunity to access the exclusive collection through the McDonald’s app.

Additionally, we sought to boost excitement around the campaign by inviting lifestyle and fashion influencers to create exclusive content about the Collection in their individual styles. These combined actions helped create a significant buzz around the campaign.

The CamouFlury collection offered a fun and irreverent way to enjoy McFlurry ice creams exclusively, without having to share with anyone.

Value added to brand:

Instead of a product centric campaign, we brought a fashion campaign that helped to reinforce the iconicity of McDonald's products.

Brand perception:

A campaign with a deep impact on McDonald’s perception:

• Is not easy to influence brand’s overall perception by a Mcflurry campaign, but despite all expectations, brand affinity increased +5pp vs 2022.

Reach/cultural impact :

Users on digital platforms were not indifferent to the McFlurry Collection:

• +53M impressions were generated, with more than 169k clicks.

• The reach of the campaign, in all digital assets, had impacted +4M users.

Sales:

McFlurry sales weren’t camouflaged, the new approach to communication had a big impact

• Total unit sales of McFlurry platform surged by +26% vs 2022.

• The novelty McFlurry Lion led to a remarkable 47% increase in sales.

Achievement against brief:

A brief that was supposed to be a product campaign focused in the new flavour communication, became a summer icon in Portugal, redefining McDonald's experience.