How to show what an icon the Big Mac is? The Big Mac has threatened to lose some of its iconic shine as more burger places are taking a role in the burger market, not least of all the restaurants serving “gourmet burgers”. With inflation rising, the price perception between McDonald’s Finland and seemingly fancier places has narrowed. Yet McDonald’s has what money can’t buy: legacy, reputation and iconicness. Enough to light-heartedly claim that the three-line hamburger button found on millions of websites is actually a Big Mac.

McDonald’s Finland has been building its social media presence consistently over the last few years, where it is communicating on an equal and appealing level with its community. It gives a platform for untraditional approaches and a way to connect directly with healthy potential for organic shares. Influencer marketing is run in close connection with campaigns to leverage collaborations to the max.

The three-line menu button on sites: the hamburger menu. Claiming that this icon is the Big Mac was the starting point for creating a conspiracy theory. Running the campaign like one inspired us to have fun with popular conspiracy conventions. With this topic, social media was ideal for building it up from a small start to an expansive campaign. Early content centered around creating the backstory that made it appear like the theory was an old urban legend. The centrepoint was the YouTube release of a comedic 20-minute mockumentary. Its humour very much based on timing and the deadpan Finnish style of comedy. With a knowing wink, conspiracy clues were planted on Reddit threads and Wikipedia entries. The fictional conspiracists searching for truth shared their investigations in real-time on TikTok and Instagram. Having a fictional team posting on social media accounts gave liberties with the humour and its uniqueness.

Who doesn’t love a conspiracy theory? People in all demographics do but we especially looked for 25-34-year-olds. They needed reminding that the Big Mac is an icon.

Our social and influencer strategy was to tap into the #conspiracy TikTok-community; it’s widely popular with over 34 billion views. The audience is diverse in age and interests, but they love hidden truths and exploring unconventional ideas and knowledge. We briefed the influencers with the idea so they would continue the story building on the conspiracy in their own way.

McDonald’s is one of those brands with a lot of conspiracies around them, and creating one more was a way to engage and activate people. The conspiracy theorist team introduced in the 20-minute mockumentary charting the conspiracy had their own accounts on TikTok and Instagram. Later in the campaign also the solid fan base and channels of McDonald’s Finland were leveraged.

What would a conspiracy theorist do? Get everyone to see their truth. Planting clues online started well before the campaign proper. This involved infiltrating Reddit and Wikipedia. Creating Big Mac Theory social media accounts (TikTok, Instagram, X and Threads) for fictional characters yet-to-be introduced. Pre-campaign content and media told the backstory and raised interest.

The mockumentary release (YouTube) launched the campaign. Everything connected to it. The key conspiracy theorist Kaitsu, the face of the campaign, kept on posting on Instagram and TIkTok becoming an influencer in his own right. The mockumentary’s TikTok version was published in episodes, likewise tv ads. To deepen the story, seven different TikTok-creators posted in their own style focusing on either the conspiracy or giving their own humorous take. Their content directed to the McDonald’s App, where 80,000 people participated. Over 230 social media posts were created for different channels. The icon is everywhere.

Total reach was over 19 million – almost four times the Finnish population.

10M views on TikTok.

People spent a total of almost 10,000 hours (over 400 days) watching Big Mac Conspiracy content on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

This does not account for people who engaged with the Reddit threads and Wikipedia entries and other planted materials online. Additionally, the campaign ran as commercials on TV and in cinemas.

On the McApp, people were asked to reveal sites featuring the hamburger menu – the fastest got free Big Macs. 10,000 Big Macs were given away. 100,000 sites were reported. App downloads increased 50% from the previous month (02/24 vs 03/24) – 75% (vs 03/23).

Campaign analysis shows that 85% took away the message “Big Mac is an iconic product” from the campaign. “Is a modern brand” rose 30% among 25-34-year-olds (HOT Tracker 03/24 vs 01/24).