McDonald’s France has 1.7 M of fans on Facebook. 1.7 M of people who spend their entire day giving us insights about the way they like to consume McDonald’s. A lot of fast-food lovers, who are use to argue about their favorite burger, Sundae flavor, Chicken Mc Nuggets sauce, etc. And we have found a recurring discussion topic in there: the side dish.

In France, you get two side options at McDonald’s: the classic fries, and the potato wedges. And according to our consumers, to choose between those two is always a dilemma. So, how could we generate even more conversation about McDonald’s potatoes?

To realize our consumer’s absolute dream, we have developed a third side option: the ‘frites-potatoes’: half French fries, half potato wedges in the same packaging; available in our 1400 restaurants, during one entire weekend.

To bring us maximum attention, we have chosen a special launch date: April 1st.

So, nobody believed us when we have announced it one week before, thinking it was another April Fools’ Day prank.

We didn’t deny, let our fans speaking, the media commenting, and finally reveal that, no, the frites-potatoes were not a joke and were going to be a real side choice at McDonalds.

A 100% social media orchestration organized around two phases.

1. A teasing phase, to involve our consumers in the discussion. It is a known fact: on social media, you speak when you have doubts. So, we have created doubts.

2. A reveal phase. The challenge was a bit different: to keep talking.

I. Teasing (March 23 – 29)

03/23: Launch on Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat.

Facebook: Teaser video (377 K views – reach: 2,6 M)

Dedicated event page: (reach: 999 k)

Instagram: 3 Instagram stories (total views: 44 K)

Twitter Creation of a dedicated Twitter account: @fritespotatoes

03/29: Leak (Twitter)

II. Reveal (March 29 – April 2)

03/30: Reveal

Facebook: Facebook live (1,4 M views – reach 4,2M)

Twitter: Social room on March 30th. Personalized answers to #fritespotatoes

Instagram: 3 new stories (total view: 32K)

04/02: End.

We got more than a hundred articles, mostly concentrated about the ‘real April Fool’s’ theme.

A lot of organic national radios and press, including major titles (GQ, the Huffington post…)

Without a single euro spent on research & development or new packaging, we got:

807.555 sales in 4 days (59% of side choices)

15.176 #fritespotatoes and 20.69M impressions on Twitter

28.500 comments and 54.000 reactions on Facebook