During Undas, (Day of the Dead), from October 31 until November 2, Filipinos flock to cemeteries all over the Philippines to spend time with their departed loved ones. They stay all day, sometimes even overnight in sprawling but crowded memorial parks.

At this time, guest counts in McDonald’s stores dip. The opportunity lay in bringing McDelivery service inside the cemeteries where hungry families, constrained by traffic build-up, abound. But reaching the hungry families at the cemetery is not an easy task. It’s a wide, crowded space where a customer has no permanent, verified address.

How do we reach hungry Filipino families during Undas?

During Undas, Filipino families stay long hours in sprawling albeit crowded cemeteries to be with their loved ones. The brand wanted to reach out to the hungry families even as they weren’t home nor near McDonald’s stores. So McDonald’s dropped by near them instead.

The McDelivery Pin is a 14-foot tall landmark that serves as a pop-up McDelivery pick-up point, allowing hungry customer and delivery rider to meet in a wide, crowded area. Linked to the mobile McDelivery app, it conveniently appears as a delivery address option when a customer checks out his order.

The giant pin’s service was promoted to hungry cemetery-goers via geo-targeted social media ads on Facebook and Twitter. Its location was also searchable via online maps like Google and Waze.

The Philippines is the social media capital of the world – and most Filipinos are never without their phones wherever they go. In fact, during the 3-day stretch of Undas, hunger-related conversations spike by 30% (vs regular day) and traffic-related mentions go up by 20% (vs regular day).

We wanted to help quell the hunger pangs of families and cemetery-goers during Undas. To reach families during this season, placing adverts on TV did not make sense – because at this time they are not in their homes but in the cemeteries.

Putting up a full-service restaurant in a memorial park was infeasible and would compromise food safety standards. While getting food delivered is commonplace, getting food delivered in wide or crowded areas where you have no permanent address, is a different story altogether.

This inspired us to innovate: if they couldn’t drop by, McDonald’s will drop by near them instead.

In the middle of the cemetery during Undas (October 31 to November 2) we put up The McDelivery Pin, a 14-foot tall landmark linked to the McDelivery system.

Integrated into the McDonald’s mobile app and online delivery website, the McDelivery Pin appears on the user interface as a recommended pick-up point when the customer checks out his order for delivery.

The giant pin’s location is also easily searchable on online maps like Google and Waze, so that McDonald’s rider and customer can easily find each other even in the wide, crowded area when their orders are ready for pick-up. It even lights up at night for easy visibility.

Throughout the three days of Undas, using geo-location data, announcements were sent via social media to hit the right target audience: the hungry cemetery-goers. Geo-targeted ads triggered cravings on Facebook, hijacked conversations on Twitter and intercepted motorists arriving at the cemetery through the popular navigation app Waze.

Successfully merging a Filipino tradition with modern-day service, The McDelivery Pin effectively gained the trust of Filipino families, as reflected in brand imagery tracking scores (pre versus post-campaign period) in the independent Fast Track Study of Kantar TNS. The pin also contributed to McDelivery business numbers and mobile app and mobile site traffic.

• 60% increase in McDelivery mobile app and site traffic

• 58% increase in McDelivery sales

• +3.3 points “Restaurant for Family” imagery score

• +6.6 points “Makes me Feel like a Valued Customer” imagery score