The world values self-love, but in the Philippines, our culture still views those who indulge in self-love as silly and self-absorbed. Which was at odds with a younger generation, Gen Z, who were slowly embracing this practice.

We wanted to encourage more Filipinos to embrace self-love, and with McDonald’s being a go-to happy place of most youths, we found a way to make Self Affirmation a rewarding experience using the McDonald’s App.

This was set against a challenging business goal—to create an engaging campaign that will encourage app redemption and drive people to the store, to be measured by these KPIs:

- Double the app registrations vs. previous month

- Increased Unit Redemptions per Day (URD) vs. previous month.

- Grow average Daily Active User (DAU) by 10% vs. previous month.

- Increased in “Value for Money” brand attribute vs. previous month.

For the first time ever, McDonald’s turned their iconic “I’M LOVIN’ IT (LOVE KO ‘TO)” into “I’M LOVIN’ ME (LOVE KO ME)”, exclusively for McDonald’s App users.

We created the Philippines’ first self-love activated promo—I’M LOVIN’ ME DEALS. The mechanics are simple. 1) Open the app 2) Voice out a self-affirmation into the mic when prompted 3) Wait for the AI to break down and decipher the self-affirmation and 4) Receive special deals tailor-fit to the user’s moods.

The app also rejected negative expressions with a positive and encouraging message, asking them to try again.

The brand didn’t only make promos more engaging, but they also encouraged normalizing self-love and made it more rewarding.

The McDonald's App directly targets young Filipinos who value self-love but are held back by societal norms of putting others first. To counter this, the brand aimed to normalize self-love by promoting “I'M LOVIN' ME” and turning it into a rewarding experience via the McDonald’s App.

Communications were patterned after their interests—including placements near schools and malls. Every day, direct push notifications would also update them as a reminder to express self-affirmations on the app.

On March 1, 2023, the I’m Lovin’ Me Deals (Love Ko Me Deals) campaign was launched—the Philippines' first-ever self-love activated promo, available only on the McDonald's App.

Customers had to simply open their app, find the I’m Lovin’ Me page, then express words of affirmation to unlock special deals.

The campaign was amplified on-ground by turning simple posters into self-affirmation mirrors. Online, the brand released self-affirmation videos and posts. Influencers were also tapped to share self-affirmation routines to prove that self-love can be rewarding.

Every day, the app also conveyed self-affirmation messages, reminding customers to experience the rewards of expressing self-love, one affirmation at a time.

The I’m Lovin’ Me (Love Ko Me) campaign made redeeming deals in the McDonald’s app more rewarding, leading to signifcant increase in downloads, average daily users, and social media impressions.

I’M LOVIN’ ME reached 18.4 million people and garnered 164 million+ impressions. Notably, 63% of comments expressed brand interest and appreciation for self-love.

From just March 1-10, the McDonald’s App garnered a 90% increase in downloads vs the previous month. Daily unit redemptions (URD) rose by 33%, and average daily active users (DAU) increased by 35% vs the prior month. Self-love activated deals led to 46,000 redemptions. Active users exceeded half a million, with an average of 55,000 users per day during the campaign. Additionally, the campaign boosted McDonald’s brand perception as a value-for-money option by +5.2 points vs the previous month.

But more importantly, we got more Filipinos open up to loving themselves a little bit more.