While there are no restrictions on Branded Content in Australia our real challenge came from reaching our audience consumers on their morning commute to work - A time when they’re usually on public transport with their head in their mobile phones, just spacing out on their social feeds, watching silly content or reading the news. Rather than simply advertise to them on the mobile media they were watching, we chose to create content that they could be a part of. Content that would put them into their friend’s social feeds, and make them the stars of their own mornings.

We set out to disrupt people’s morning routine with a fun live event that they couldn’t pass up. A giant 9 metre coffee cup ball bit.

By creating an experience that literally got customers to dive head first into a cup of our finest, we reminded people of the playful nature of the brand while getting them to trial our barista made coffee.

This content piece was designed purely around participation and wouldn’t have worked without consumers engaging with the brand.

The media plan was based around a one day live experience to catch people by surprise:

PRE-LAUNCH: 23rd March.

• McDonald’s Australia’s social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) seeded that something exciting was coming to Sydney’s morning coffee tomorrow.

• The activation was set up the day before with event signage to help build intrigue.

LAUNCH: March 24th, 2015.

• Radio live reads promoted attendance.

• Social media amplification on event morning.

• Event staff handed out flyers and directed people towards activation.

• Event staff took photos of every jumper for them on their phones so they could instantly spread the word.

By creating an original live event we got serious coffee drinkers to finally put McCafé on their morning menu.

Participants walked away with a smile on their face, having had a bit of fun and having tasted a quality McCafé coffee made by a real barista.

Awareness of McCafé’s quality coffee offering has more than exceeded client targets based upon costs per touch + engagement scores for the budget allocated to this event. They’re already planning nation-wide rollout of this event to other cities.

800 coffee connoisseurs finally tried McCafé coffee.

19.8 million+ media impressions

Cost per touch of 0.006 cents(that’s point six of one cent!)

4.3million YouTube hits

25 pieces of content and 12 tweets were posted between 23rd to 31st March across McDonalds Social Channels resulted in their highest-ever brand engagement scores:

16.3% engagement rate on Facebook

6.3% engagement Instagram

5.33% Twitter engagement rate