Every March, the hockey playoffs paralyse Quebec’s media content in all formats and on all platforms. Faced with this media adversity, McDonald’s was able to create its highest performing campaign of the year in terms of sales and brand impact.

The idea: capitalize on the eternal Montreal-Boston rivalry. Max Pacioretty, the team’s future captain and victim to a vicious attack by the Bruins in 2011 was the ideal actor to activate this insight. Element of surprise: McDonald’s sends Max in enemy territory to promote his burger to Boston Bruins fans in their home turf.

Activate. We orchestrated a “cross Canadian and US border numeric leak’’ to ensure that Max’s visit feeds the interest of journalists, specialized bloggers and fans. Even before the official launch in Quebec, American publications had seized the news. Domino effect: within a few hours, ‘’Max 67’’ was trending on Facebook in Canada.

Amplify. On launch day, we dominated RDS’s (local ESPN station) entire TV grid with news related to the stunt and interviews with Max. A mix of many other media platforms (Metro Newspaper, Canadians.com, Bell Center Jumbotron, etc.) allowed us to maximise our reach that day.

Affirm. Success was such that after two weeks, stocks were empty. We transferred remaining investments to the playoffs. Through short video formats and animated gifs of Max, we interacted in real time with fans on social media. With the elimination of the Ottawa Senators, Max thanked fans by offering them a free cheeseburger.

Reinforce the emotional connection:

- Top spot in Quebec’s Infopresse 2015 campaigns of the year list

- A year later, fans still talk about this campaign

Increase lunch and dinner share of traffic:

- Best performing LTO McDonald’s Canada campaign of all time

- Increase in sales by 3.2%

- Stocks were dry after 2 weeks.