2018 is the year of Big Mac’s 50th anniversary. In Italy, McDonald’s is very popular and appreciated and the Big Mac, even though it’s an icon, is no longer the most loved burger of the Menu.

McDonald’s asked us to create an integrated campaign that could be institutional, to remind people that Big Mac over all these years has created a link with them, and also to engage and capture people’s attention.

So, we needed to bring the Big Mac back as a best seller among the products, and create a new fanbase of McLovers - people that usually go to McDonald’s – these became the objectives of the campaign.

To create engaging content, we made a Big Mac quest, giving all McLovers the chance to get what they want: a Big Mac for just 50 cents.

We divided the image of the Big Mac into 50 parts and placed them all over Italy. On billboards, guerrilla and pop up events. Then invited all Italians to join the quest.

People simply needed to download the McDonald’s app, follow the hints, find the parts and share the photos on Instagram to complete the Big Mac, so they could have it for just 50 cents. Italians got involved, even through a TVC, and all together started hunting.

Once the Big Mac was re-united, McDonald’s announced a Big Mac Party.

Hundreds of thousands of people joined in and finally celebrated with their favourite burger.

The target audience was extended to all Italians, especially to those who already know and go to McDonald’s but haven’t downloaded the app yet, and are not aware of all the daily promotions.

We put the 50 parts in strategic places in order to enhance the performance of every single part and give a positive result for the brand, creating both a drive to store and a great product exhibition.

The approach was to direct the audience to a precise media: Instagram, in order to maximize the attention and to minimize the exposure of media costs. Moreover, we made it compulsory to download the McDonald’s app to get the final coupon.

A TVC spot and videos on Social Media kicked off the campaign.

Then, over two weeks, we placed and gradually revealed 50 different locations in Italy where the 50 posters were. From the North to the South - even on a volcano - using billboards, guerrilla and pop-up events.

The 31th of August the teaser video launched the Big Mac 50 quest.

The 1st of September a video invited all Italian to join.

From the 1st September To the 13th – social media contents, billboards and guerrilla kept the campaign active while people were finding the parts.

The 14th September the activation closed as the Big Mac was complete.

The same day McDonald’s announced the Big Mac Party to celebrate with the Big Mac at just 50 cents.

In just 4 hours, 258.000 Big Macs were sold. Overall Big Mac event: upr +11,4% versus September 2017.

For the duration of the activation, McDonald’s achieved 1.2 millions euros of incremental sales and a 3rd consecutive quarter with double digit growth Q3 = +10,1%

On Social Media: + 244% Instagram impressions, +1500 followers per day.

The McDonald’s app reached 1st place in the App Store.

With 107k app downloads 127k registrations 871k app opens.