How could we put the fries front and center, without taking away from the iconic dishes, weaving national pride with culinary heritage?

On Belgium’s National Day, McDonald’s inserted itself into Belgium’s national dishes, reshaping the brand’s role and the fries’ iconic significance for Belgians. There are few menu items more iconic than McDonald’s fries. Belgium loves fries. Most of Belgium’s national dishes wouldn’t be complete without them. So, what better time to iconize the role our fries play in Belgian’s lives than to hack Belgium’s National Day and its most loved dishes? How could we celebrate fan love for one of our core menu items on the same day Belgian’s celebrate their own heritage? The measurable objectives were mainly reach & impressions and brand sentiment & affinity. No KPIs were set as this concerned a pro-active effort. 

We successfully linked our brand with Belgium’s most iconic national dishes, redefining our role as a restaurant in Belgian’s lives and doing so in a way that is natural - maybe making even more sense than before. Through these iconic visualizations, we found a way to stay top of mind for our customers during a day where we are normally second or even third best, nestling ourselves deeper into Belgian culture. We did not do a brand study on this marketing effort, but we managed to reach quite some Belgians with this one-day campaign.

On social media, we’ve reached almost 70.000 people on Facebook (69 537) & 12.804 on Instagram, with no paid media. Next to that, we estimate a reach of 150.000 with our wild postering.