While people spend more time at home, streaming got bigger than ever. At the same time, people ordered more food than ever before. We wanted to connect these dots and establish McDonald’s as an enabler for the vivid and growing streamer and gaming community on Twitch. So what could we deliver them apart from tasty food? There are many talents on Twitch who stream for a handful of viewers. What they need most are more viewers and paid subscriptions. Therefore, McDonald’s teamed up with the German Streaming team PietSmiet to use the power of their community to support small streamers. At the same time, McDonald’s used a unique Twitch mechanism to make the viewers true supporters of the small streamers.

How could we manage to truly support the Twitch community and entertain them at the same time? We made PietSmiet, one of the biggest German streaming teams, ask their community during their live stream to go on the streams of selected small streamers. Before thousands of viewers entered their streams, they only had 5-30 viewers. At first, the small streamers were totally overwhelmed to get so much attention. Then Pietsmiet asked them if they would like to get some delivery by McDonald’s. They answered “Yes” but didn’t know what would happen next. Instead of a delivery guy ringing at their doorbell, we gifted the viewers hundreds of subscriptions, each €3,99. That made the community happy - because they were now official subscribers to those talented streamers. And it made the streamers happy - they instantly received the money. The surprise effect and big emotions made this activation a huge success.

The activation aimed to establish McDonald's as a real supporter of the esports and gaming community. That's why we were looking for an idea that would be supportive on the one hand and involving on the other. In the end, "McDonald's Sub Bomb" would never have been possible without the strong community support.

We specifically chose the Twitch platform because here you find the highest interaction between influencer and community due to the live chat. Apart from that, we targeted a community with an affinity for gaming and esports that watches Twitch broadcasts in the evening instead of classic television. The core target group is aged 16-35.

Never before has a brand in the streaming and gaming cosmos managed to simultaneously entertain and support the community the way McDonald's Sub Bomb streams did. It wasn't a promotion FOR the community but WITH it.

During eight live streams, we made PietSmiet send their entire community to the channels of selected small streamers. There, McDonald’s delivered thousands of paid subscriptions (€3,99 each) that supported the micro streamers financially. By that, the viewers were converted into official subscribers of those streamers. Gifting subscriptions is a unique feature on Twitch and has never been used by a brand in a way McDonald’s did. It was a huge surprise to all the small streams and highly entertaining for the Twitch community. The streamers were overwhelmed by getting the attention, love and subscriptions. The idea quickly developed, as we had hoped, from a brand-driven initiative to a community-driven idea. During all live streams McDonald's left the stage to the community and received a lot of recognition for that.

In total, we reached more than 5 million individuals, almost 470 thousand of them during live streams. Even traditional newspapers reported about it. Most noteworthy, we donated thousands of paid subscriptions. Never before has a brand in the streaming and gaming cosmos managed to simultaneously entertain and support the community the way McDonald's Sub Bomb streams did. It wasn't a promotion FOR the community but WITH it. If the thousands of viewers had not followed the call of PietSmiet and McDonald's, the campaign would not exist. But this is how the stream became a serial success over several months. It was an entertainment show that sustainably brought micro streamers significant viewer growth.