An insider’s guide on how McDonald’s won the delivery category – beating out Pizza as the Number One delivery option in Japan. Delivery used to mean Pizza, now Delivery means McDonald’s.

Situation: McDonald’s was invisible as a delivery choice dominated by the pizza players.

Brief: In Japan, as in most countries, delivery means pizza. So even though McDelivery had been available for years, it simply wasn’t people’s top-of-mind option. We needed to break through the clutter and create awareness for McDelivery service.

Our Objectives:

BUSINESS

- Increase McDelivery penetration in Japan with the ambition to be Number One in the food delivery market

BEHAVIOURAL

- Increase Awareness by 5pt (representing 70% growth vs prior year)

Make our service THE verb for the food delivery category.

We coined a new word in Japanese: “??????????(McDeliveru?)?meaning “Shall we use McDelivery?,” to suggest ordering McDelivery – with the ambition to embed it into popular culture.

Note: The noun ‘McDelivery’ is turned into a verb in Japanese by removing the “-ry” ending and adding the Japanese plain form verb ending “-ru.”

Our research showed that customers enjoyed the convenience of delivery for various occasions, but it was difficult to choose from shared meals like pizza with groups that had different taste preferences, or who wanted their own individual order.

Delivery frees up more time available to enjoy the moment by yourself or with friends. Sometimes planned, sometimes spur of the moment. And when looking for delivery options, it’s typically pizza or whatever you ordered last time. And if you’re with friends it’s difficult to get everyone to agree what to order. Friends share common interests, but not everyone likes pineapple and coriander on their pizza.

Our approach was built on the strategic proposition: McDelivery brings a welcome moment of fun to your home – for any occasion and taste.

We needed an impactful creative execution to break through to make McDelivery top of mind in a category (delivery) where it had relatively low awareness. We enlised the help of a beloved comedy trio to introduce [????????? (McDeliveru?) | “Shall we use McDelivery?”].

The comedians changed their appearances and played various roles, which matched perfectly with our message of McDelivery being great for any occasion. Placed across multiple touch points including TVC, Digital, In-Store, in-APP, Social Media.

[????????? (McDeliveru?)| “Shall we use McDelivery?”] the simple, quick, and funny way to refer to McDelivery instantly became popular.

BUSINESS RESULTS (2021 vs 2020):

- Exceeded our Sales Goal by 25%

- Became No. 1 in sales share in food delivery market

BEHAVIOURAL

- McDelivery Awareness: Increased +6pts vs 2020