Title	MCHACK
Brand	McDONALD'S DANMARK
Product/Service	McDONALD'S
Category	C03. Use of Social Platforms
Entrant	DDB COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
Idea Creation	DDB COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
Media Placement	OMD DENMARK Copenhagen, DENMARK
Production	SPOILED PRODUCTIONS Copenhagen, DENMARK

Name	Company	Position
Kasper Dohlmann	DDB Copenhagen	Art Director
Tim Fremmich Andresen	DDB Copenhagen	Copywriter
Madeleine Naesborg	DDB Copenhagen (formerly)	Account Manager
Jasper Carlberg	http://www.jaspercarlberg.com	Photographer
Kristina Karlsson	Spoiled Productions	Producer
Ian Isak	Independent	Editor
Morten Soegaard	Freelance	Musician/sound designer
Magnus Groth	DDB Copenhagen (formerly)	Illustrator
Casper Michelsen and Jouko Keskitalo	CJ Pixels	Animators, motion designers and CG artists

The Campaign

Hacking McDonald’s food was already a thing so our task was to add a framework where we could take ownership of the concept. Introducing McHack. A social competition where users could post McDonald’s their hacks on Instagram and if their hack was the among the best we would give them fame and prizes. McHack was different from everything else McDonald’s Denmark was doing. We didn’t follow design guidelines. We introduced a new spokesperson (Hackman). And we decided to show the raw footage. This meant showing food with less food appeal (at least for some) and connecting the brand to a lot of food pictures that would never be used in traditional media or on menu boards. Put another way – McDonald’s gave creative control to their fans.

Campaign Success

We launched the concept and competition with a Facebook video. Hackman explained what hacks are and invited everyone to join by sharing their hacks on Instagram using #mchack. Each week the most creative and fun hacks were picked and executed as posts along with the recipe and names of their maker. These were based on user votes on the campaign site. McDonald’s also picked the very best hacks and created online films based on them (3 in total) - showing the hacks, interviewing the makers and finally rewarding them with diplomas and prizes. These 3 hacks were also featured in the official McDonald’s Denmark app as vouchers – meaning everyone could try them at a reduced price. To end it all in style we hacked a real McDonald’s restaurant and took down all the original menu items and replaced them with the McHacks. This all happened over a 5-week period.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

+250 hacks. A high number considering people had to see the content, go to a restaurant, spend their own money on making a McHack, naming it and finally posting it. 44% of app vouchers redeemed in the first week, were the McHack (1734, and in total 6345 McHack vouchers were redeemed +13000 new app users. +5100 comments on Facebook +476.000 in organic reach on Facebook. 10% increase in Instagram followers.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

This campaign was all about getting brand lovers to engage with the McDonald’s brand and product. We did this by asking fans and followers to create new McDonald’s menu items by combining existing items in different ways and use their version as an entry in a competition – for them to win fame and prizes. In addition, the hacks were also used as promos in the McDonald’s Denmark app.

Young people were the primary target group. However, this was narrowed down to a very small group who were identified as brand lovers. Those who love McDonald’s and who we wanted to move from lovers to brand ambassadors. We needed to make them feel special and hopefully get them to promote McDonald’s in the future. Though everyone could join the fun, we decided that the campaign would only run on the media where young people spend most of their time – social media. All content would be shared on McDonald’s primary social channels – Facebook and Instagram. To ensure that we had one place with all the content we created a campaign site where all hacks were shown along with the videos. As social media was the main channels the look was inspired by YouTubers using almost no grading and a lot of animated elements.