To incentivize people to start using the McDonald’s app, we wanted to utilize one of our greatest strengths, the power of McDonald’s fans, to spread the word and drive app adoption. Our approach was to give fans a reason to petition their friends to also download the app and order.

To do this, we leaned into the cultural cachet of the McGold card and its promise of Free McDonald’s for Life. But to engineer the positive peer pressure we needed to achieve our goals, we offered fans the change to win a McGold card for themself AND three friends of their choosing.

Of the many urban legends surrounding McDonald’s, the McGold Card is the most intriguing. A golden card that gives you free McDonald’s for life? Too good to be true. Except it is.

So when McDonald’s tasked us with persuading millions of fans to begin using the McDonald’s app during the month of December, we knew we needed to pull out all the stops.

Every day a fan made an order in the app, they were entered to win a McGold Card for themselves and three friends. Because what’s the point of free McDonald’s for Life without some friends to share it with?

A prize this rare and luxurious deserves an equally rare and luxurious package, so we designed a golden clamshell to display the McGold Card in all its glory. Free McDonald’s for Life is a McDonald’s fan’s fantasy and these clamshells brought that fantasy to life.

The most esteemed reward, the McDonald’s Gold Card, couldn’t arrive in just any old envelope or box for the exclusive 12 winners.The highly coveted card had to be delivered in a way that met the magnitude of the moment - Free McDonald’s for Life.

Weighing 12 pounds, adorned with LED lights, custom engraving, and gold finish the iconic clamshell design was the perfect solution to house the gold card. This clamshell design is synonymous with McDonald's, as it has been used to package their famous burgers and other menu items for decades. By incorporating this design we were able to create a timeless and iconic “trophy” that would be instantly recognizable to customers. The gold card and golden clamshell box is sure to remain a sought-after item for years to come.

The “gift-like” clamshell also fed into the larger campaign messaging of “Szn of Sharing”.

Our goal was to turn millions of new fans on to the McDonald’s app and we beat that goal. We had our second through 7th highest new customer acquisition days of the year during this campaign. The McD’s app was the #1 most downloaded QSR app during the entirety of the campaign and for a few days was more downloaded than Tik Tok, Instagram, Google, and Youtube.

We significantly exceeded our earned media goals, beat all social tactic benchmarks, and made the McGold Card and the McDonald’s app the talk of the town.