This campaign came to life across standard large-format digital billboard sites, leveraging a previously untapped media channel; the tiny little digital billboard at the bottom of the big one – which usually carried the billboard company’s logo. It’s kinda OOHx2. We’d argue that would make it quite relevant to Outdoor.

The economic downturn here in New Zealand has hit the nation hard and as a result, pennies are being pinched and wallets are being watched like never before.

Inflation remains stubbornly high, not dropping below 5% in 2023, with fuel prices and mortgage rates hitting record highs. As the cost of essentials has mounted, Kiwis have been cutting back on discretionary spending – making cost-savings wherever possible.

For McDonald’s NZ franchisees, this is a real issue, which the business is forever looking to solve with fresh, innovative creative solutions.

Stand at the counter of any McDonald’s restaurant in New Zealand and you’ll hear a chorus of customers saying “aaaaaaaaaand aaa…” as they stare up at the menu board and decide which little treat to add to their favourite order.

This is music to the ears of McDonald’s NZ franchisees, as customers adding extra items to their ‘go-to' orders massively bolsters the bottom line. Historically, it’s also proven to be one of their greatest business challenges, and the current economic downturn here in NZ has made that challenge greater than ever.

The objective set by McDonald’s was to get more customers saying those lucrative “aaaaaand aaa…” kind of words, adding extra McNuggets, Apple Pies, McFlurries and more to their favourite orders.

AdOns is an ongoing campaign that will run through 2024 as part of McDonald's always on OOH strategy. At the time of writing, the campaign has been live for just over two weeks.

While it's too early to fully and accurately measure its effectiveness, the early signs are very promising. Average cheque has already grown for two consecutive weeks since launch, with a 2.4% uplift in stores close to AdOn billboards.

That's already a whole lot of extra Apple Pies, Nuggets and McFlurries getting added to orders. And proof that our tiny little idea is already shifting the dial for local franchisees. As the campaign progresses, we'll continue to monitor the results because there’s a whole lot more to come. Hopefully we can share them with you next year!

Just like we wanted our customers to do, we added a little something to our OOH.

A bit of context first: here in NZ, our digital billboards have an extra screen at the bottom displaying the billboard provider’s logo.

In a media world-first, we joined forces with nationwide digital out-of-home provider, LUMO NZ and hacked their network of sites.

Using McDonald’s sales data, we added all the little favourites Kiwis love to add on at the counter to this little screen, underneath all their favourite big ones on the billboard above.

We combined this media little hack with that classic ‘aaand a’ moment at the counter, which all us McDonald’s fans have hummed while looking up at the menu board.

Suddenly, where there was one billboard, there was two. And where there was just a Big Mac combo, there was now a combo AND an Apple Pie.