Fries Heist
Golden Arches Development Corporation
Issue 28 | September 2013
Agency
Leo Burnett Manila
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: Raoul S Panes Creative Director: Dante Dizon Copywriters: Raoul S Panes, Aimee Espiritu Art Directors: Stephanie Mangalindan, AM Valdez
Production Team
Producers: Steve Vesagas, Lester Parulan Production Company: Shop String Post Production: Revolver Director: Borgy Torre Sound Design: Hit Production
Other Credits
Accounts: Donny Dingcong, Maik Alturas, Tria Sordan Planner: Joy Santos
Date
April 2013
Background
In the Philippines, as in everywhere else in the world, people loved McDonald’s fries so much that once they had eaten their own, they were quite prepared to eat other people’s. This insight led to the campaign idea.
Idea
McDonald’s created an installation, which the people of Manila began talking about, sharing photos and opinions. It was a sculpture of a giant box of McDonald’s fries.
The moment the fries had become an accepted part of the cityscape, they disappeared. Stolen!
The story made the news, hitting the headlines. Word spread on Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. Ronald McDonald took to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to ask for everyone’s help finding the fries. Content was available across platforms, on smartphones, tablets, PCs and laptops.
The hunt began. Each day, McDonald’s released videos of possible culprits. There was a photographer, a security guard, an electrician and other everyday mall characters. McDonald’s fans threw in other suspects too including the mascot of a competing fast food chain.
Eventually, McDonald’s revealed the culprit : someone no-one would have expected, the human statue in the background of all the suspect videos!
McDonald’s then brought back the fries and people started showing the love even more.
Results
One giant box with missing fries triggered a total online reach of 4,502,368, with a total viewing time of 128,924 minutes in only one week!
Third party research showed that with the help of the campaign, McDonald’s was able to achieve equal scores on consumer perception of “best tasting fries” with its competitor, local fastfood icon Jollibee, despite the latter’s higher store count and longer years in the market. Best
of all, the campaign helped increase McDonald’s French Fries sales by 12% compared to the same period in 2012.
Our Thoughts
One of the central themes of ‘Newsjacking’, which we have featured in Issue 28, is that if a brand can make news in such a way that it makes the news, then good things will happen. This is a classic example, with a story that had a beginning, a middle and an end to it. So rather than one piece of editorial, it generated several. The installation, a homage to the famous fries, then the heist followed by successive stories about potential thieves, and finally a resolution.
And at every stage, the content managed perfectly to keep people tuned in and entertained. Simple.