When it became clear that fewer and fewer parents read aloud to their children, Swedish McDonald’s and an organisation called The Reading Movement decided to reverse this trend. The concept was to give away children’s books from the best authors and illustrators as part of a Happy Meal. However, all campaigns need to demonstrate their worth in sufficient sales figures and this time we had no popular movie to cooperate with.Children love stories, but a good story is hard to tell. Kids often have to listen to weird stories about things that happened at work that day. Our strategy was to raise awareness among bad storytellers that the solution was to be found in Book Happy Meal. The heart of the campaign was an online fairytale generator where parents competed to compose the craziest story by spreading it through their networks.Aside from the Queen of Sweden promoting Book Happy Meal on national TV, the PR-campaign had a reach of over 10 million (more than th Swedish population!), 920,000 books were distributed, which meant a 26 percent increase in the publishing of children’s books in Sweden. Book Happy Meal became the most sold Happy Meal during 2009 and will be used in a number of countries in the future.

The overall mission was to increase reading among children by making books available to families who don’t visit libraries or bookstores on a regular basis.Just like all programs at McDonald’s, Book Happy Meal needed to demonstrate its worth in sufficient sales figures. Book Happy Meal had to sell at least as well as other Happy Meal programs during the year. The objective was to create awareness and commitment in social media and generating at least 25 articles accross various media types.

The concept of 'Don’t you have any good stories?' was expressed by an integrated campaign that included online and offline PR, ads and through McDonald’s own channels. The heart of the campaign was an online fairytale generator where parents could fill in a number of words which were generated into their own weird story. Whoever wanted the chance of winning children’s books could compete with their story by spreading it through their social networks. The winning story was read aloud by an actress from the Royal Theatre.

We updated media and parents that two new titles were released every week and as a celebration to the 20 year anniversary of UN’s Convention of children’s right, a new book on the subject was launched through Book Happy Meal. A debate article was published in Sweden’s second largest daily newspaper, which highlighted the need for alternative channels for the distribution of children’s books.

Aside from the Swedish Queen promoting Book Happy Meal on national TV and the Minister for Culture profiling the project as a shining example in Parliament; the PR-impact generated a reach of over 10 million. This is more than Sweden’s entire population. The online fairytale generator was exposed to over 73,000 visitors per week and over 2,000 parents competed with their story. The impact on blogs was massive, Book Happy Meal and the fairytale generator was named in at least 120 blogs. A record of 920,000 children’s books were distributed, which meant a 26 percent increase in the publishing of children’s books in Sweden in total. The result of the campaign was clearly shown in sales figures, since this year’s Book Happy Meal was the best sold Happy Meal program in all of 2009. The Swedish concept of a burger and a book will be used in a number of countries from now on.

The communication strategy was built on an insight that Sweden has millions of bad storytellers. All children love when their parents tell them stories, but a good story is hard to ad-lib. It easily disintegrates into a mish-mash of princesses, fish fingers and things that happened at work that day. This is a small but common everyday problem recognised by most parents. The strategy was to raise awareness among parents that children have to put up with a lot of bad bed time stories and remind all these bad storytellers that a solution was to be found in Book Happy Meal.

To reverse the trend of fewer parents reading aloud to their children, Swedish McDonald’s introduced the Book Happy Meal. As the only country in the world doing this, the concept was to give away children’s books, carefully chosen by experts, during a specific period as part of a Happy Meal. Image surveys show that parents appreciate receiving children’s books, but we needed to get families to the restaurants in order to make a difference. Specific demands were being made on this programme as it was country specific and there were no popular films to help us bring attention to the Happy Meal.