McDonald’s decided to play up this rivalry by launching a new burger right before the hockey playoffs…when the tension is at an all-time high.

The idea: ask all-star Montreal Canadian’s player Max Pacioretty to create his

own burger - The Max 67…and then get him to do the unthinkable: go to Boston on game day, disguised as a McDonald’s employee, and stand amongst a sea of Bruins fans to see if they like his burger.

In short, McDonald’s gamble paid off in spades. They got everyone to be a fan of the Max 67…even those who aren’t.

From March 18 to April 20, 2015, the MAX 67 was on the menu in McDonald’s Restaurants across Quebec.

The campaign aired on television (60-, 30-and 15-second spots), on the Web, including social media, in print and on the giant screens at the Bell Centre.

On March 23, a press release in French and in English was sent to media, with a focus on marketing media as well as sports and general news.

The ad quickly became an online buzz and generated media coverage in Quebec, across Canada and event in the US.

In terms of media, the overall strategy was to amplify this unprecedented stunt by integrating it seamlessly into the content most valued by Montreal Canadiens fans: a feature on 24CH TV program (to launch the storytelling) and ad executions before, during and after Habs’ games (both online and offline).

Against the backdrop of an overall decline in traffic in the quick service restaurant industry, McDonald’s was able to generate an incremental traffic increase of 31% during the targeted period, most of it directly attributable to the Max67 initiative. What’s more, the program performed more than 4 times the incremental sales of an average limited time offer.

From a communications standpoint, the results were staggering: more than 27 million organic impressions in a market of 8 million people.

Ultimately, we got mostly everyone to be a fan of the Max67 ... even those who aren’t.