McDonald’s is America’s favorite place for French Fries. However, people had been eating McDonald’s Fries less often. To reverse this trend we set out to reframe consumers’ relationships with McDonald’s fries by elevating the Fry brand in the eyes, minds, and hearts of people. This resulted in a journey to build a platform that would allow consumers to associate McDonald’s Fries, not just with burgers and shakes, but the best moments in life. To start, we transformed the familiar pop culture question “Do you want Fries with that?” into an inspiring declaration. “You want McDonald’s Fries with that.” By changing this phrase from a question to a statement it became a branded affirmation that allowed people to associate McDonald’s most adored product with their most cherished aspirations. Then, we asked consumers to join the conversation: “Tell us what you want McDonald’s Fries with and you could win it.” In addition to using Fry cartons, Facebook, Twitter and PR, we incented people to share their entry via mobile phone for a chance to make their want a reality. With over 70% of McDonald’s business at the drive thru, this engagement warranted a model that allowed consumers to express themselves while on the go. Our mobile site inspired people to participate, personalize and share their entries with the world – all while their fries were still hot.

Not only did we elevate the Fry brand, we ignited participation with over 280,000 visitors to fries.mcdonalds.com, and collected over 200,000 entries. We positively influenced behavior reflected in over 120,000 online searches for McDonald’s Fries, more than 17,000 Tweets for McDonald’s Fries with 95% positive/neutral conversation (#wantfrieswiththat hashtag) and on a budget of $200,000 we advanced the business by contributing a 4% lift in Fries movement year-over-year (equating to over 44,000,000 more boxes of McDonald’s Fries sold)