Covid strongly impacted McDonald’s business in France, like everywhere else.

And like everywhere else in western countries, it didn’t stop there. It also changed our long-term consumers’ behaviours, and especially the ones from our youngest ones.

They were staying at home increasingly more often. On the evenings, but also during the afternoons.

This became a significant business problem for McDonald’s, as a significant part of the company's growth was based on the off-meal segment and McCafé flagship.

How could we get those young consumers to come back more often to our restaurants?

Pokémon Go to McDonald’s, a unique gaming & mobile experience that brought people back together IRL at McDonald's by turning all its restaurants into Poké Stops and Arenas. For a year, the game developers mapped, geolocated, and integrated the 1,500 McDonald's restaurants in France into the application: The restaurants and McCafé spaces become events in the game, allowing players to find various items to improve their performances and train Pokémons.

Throughout the year, exclusive McCafé raids are planned to drive visits and loyalty.

And above all, this initiative becomes a central communication pillar for the McCafé range, spreading the brand's assets (Kiosks, Kits, CRM...) in paid media with digital and social activations.

A strategy aligned with McDonald's values, anchored in a significant passion point of the target, that led to the launch of one of the only moving games that mixes reality and virtual thanks to augmented reality technology.

We started by asking ourselves how they occupied their time when they were not visiting us.

The answer was quite straightforward: they were gaming. 31% of 15-24-year-olds often like to meet up with their friends online during the afternoon to play their favorite video game.

We needed to find a way to make them want to play videogames at our restaurants rather than at home. We needed to find a game they would be interested in playing. Something based on geolocalisation? Maybe a game like… Pokémon GO?

Even a few years after its launch, Pokémon GO remained one of France’s most successful mobile game. And its gameplay was the perfect match to help us reach our objective: in Pokémon GO, players need to wander around to find rare Pokémons and arenas to fight in and get bonuses.

What if we could turn every McDonald’s into Pokémon GO places…?

A year-long negotiation with the game's producer, Niantic, to push integration into the game and make McDonald's an essential part of the game experience. A drive-to-store device amplified by a high-value game experience for players.

1. A large-scale infiltration, unprecedented for game developers.

For one year (Sept. 2022 - Sept. 2023), all 1,500 McDonald's restaurants in France will be geotagged in the Pokémon GO application. They will become Pokéstops to allow players to obtain various items to improve their abilities and train their Pokémon.

2. The 500 McCafé spaces will become battle arenas to stimulate socialization between friends.

3. Four "Raids by McCafé" are planned throughout the year: Players can capture rare and powerful Pokémon during a particular week, exclusively in McCafé Spaces.

4. A dedicated campaign. Promotion of the partnership: On the brand's proprietary assets: POS, CRM... But also in paid media with a digital/Social/VOL & OOH plan.

The campaign was a great success (in the first six months):

- Numerous PR & social spin-offs among the Gaming community, but not only!

- A daily visibility within the game through the integration: nearly 100 million impressions delivered (McDonald's restaurants displayed on the players' map).

- 6.6 million players went to restaurants thanks to the device, an operation that perfectly fulfills its drive-to-store role.

And the business results are precise:

- +1.5% on GCs (restaurant visits) excluding meals / +8.3% on sales excluding meals

- The Café's sales were also boosted by +15pts during the "raid" event periods (+56,9% of sales), i.e., the availability of exclusive and rare Pokémons present in the McCafé.

- McDonald's Analytics Partner evaluated the campaign on measuring its business effectiveness: with an ROI of 4.1.