To communicate Coinoffers to a younger audience, we launched a virtual currency called Coins. Users collected Coins and stored them in the Coinoffers app, which worked like a kind of digital wallet, and then they traded them for real food.

Using the app as the core of the campaign, we were playing along with the young audience on their turf and getting our product sampled.

But how could we take scanning of a QR- or sound code to the next level?

On TV we used the mediaplan as a game of chance, and crafted two loser spots and one winner spot that would play in rotation. And when users were lucky enough to see the winner spot, they just had to scan the soundcode at the end, to collect their jackpot.

On outdoor posters and in McDonald’s restaurants, we used the GPS coordinates of every location and turned a traditional media into an interactive game, where users had to spin the 5th Coin in the row to collect the jackpot.

On webbanners, Facebook and on the radio, users could also participate either by scanning pixel- or soundcodes.

Using McDonald’s playful and inclusive tone of voice, we took a simple sampling mechanism and turned it into a game the whole country could take part in. And at the same time, we let the audience know that McDonald’s is the supplier of fun and playful food that can be purchased for a few coins.

Not only did the campaign generate massive sampling of the Coinoffers range, but also an average add on sale of DKK 13,92 (almost 2€) for every 10 Coins redeemed. And with 342.374 app-downloads, over 6% of the entire Danish population actively downloaded the app to play along.

The insights from earlier campaigns showed an impressive willingness from the target audience to play an active part in the distribution of virtual Coins. McDonald’s wanted to take advantage of the high involvement from the target audience and equip them with the tools to join in. The media team converted the creative idea from being a hunt for Coins on different paid media to include free media space from blog and website owners in the target audience. On a specially developed landing page, website and blog owners could sign up for a ‘Coins for Clicks’ banner and afterwards embed it on their website. McDonald’s then placed a seed banner on large paid media sites and when Coin hunters clicked from this banner in the hunt for Coins they would arrive on the audience’s websites and blogs. The target audience enjoyed free visits to their blogs and sites and in return McDonald’s got free media space.

After Day 1 of the campaign 155 website and blog owners had applied for the banner in order to be included in the campaign, i.e. providing banner space for the price of free traffic generated from paid media. The banners in rotation on partner websites generated 24,047 clicks from Coin hunters in their pursuit after virtual Coins. Coin hunters collected more than 30,708 virtual Coins on Day 1, which equals 3,070 Cheeseburgers, 2,047 midsize beverages or 1,228 McBacon burgers. Not bad considering the size of the country – population 5.5m.

(The campaign launched 4 April 2013 and is still running, which means final results are not yet available)