Title	THE ICONIC WEATHER FORCAST BROUGHT TO YOU BY MCDONALD'S
Brand	MCDONALD'S
Product/Service	MCDONALD'S
Category	C02. Use of Real-time Data
Entrant	LEO BURNETT LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	LEO BURNETT LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	TALON London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Contact At Talon	Talon	Media Buyer
Chaka Sobhani	Leo Burnett UK	Chief Creative Officer
Pete Heyes	Leo Burnett London	Creative Director
Ben Newman	Leo Burnett London	Creative
Liane Dowling	Leo Burnett UK	Creative
Paul Reddington	Leo Burnett UK	Designer

Describe the use of data, or how the data enhanced the campaign output

Data was at the heart of the planning approach. Insights were gathered from sales data, customer behaviour and research and matched to appropriate data feeds to direct creative and media placements. The McDonald’s Weather Icons had to provide an accurate reflection of the current and forecasted weather for the campaign to be a success. To do this, we configured our campaign so that the digital posters could receive the API feed direct from the Met Office. Their global Numerical Weather Prediction model is recognised as a world leading National Met Service model for accurate forecasting. We mapped the McDonald’s Weather Icons to those from the Met Office in order to replace their icons with our own. Our McDonald’s forecasts were updated hourly with official Met Office predictions and delivered through a bespoke infrastructure built for the campaign.

Why is this work relevant for Media?

The Iconic Weather Forecast was created specifically for the capabilities of Digital Out of Home and, as the result, the idea just wouldn’t have been possible on another channel. It used real-time data from the MET office to react to the ever-changing weather conditions in April. It displayed the current and predicted weather of a location by recreating the iconic weather symbols with graphics of classic McDonald’s products. Each site displayed live temperatures and weather condition as well as giving the 5-day forecast.

Background

Despite fantastic sales results year after year, it’s crucial for McDonald’s to cement and build customer affinity for the brand. With the surge in the number of alternative eating options, higher levels of brand affinity can help to safeguard customers from competitor poaching. Research has also shown that customers who loved the brand visited on average 1.6 times more often. However, with 50% of visits classed as ‘functional’ (driven by convenience as opposed to active brand choice), there was some work to be done. McDonald’s recognised that there was an opportunity to build affinity via DOOH. The sites can be fed information about their environment and can almost instantly change the displayed creative in reaction. This means we could tap into more contextually and culturally relevant moments like never before, making McDonald’s seem far better connected with the lives of their audience.

Describe the creative idea/insights

Through social listening, we established that Brits talk about the weather most in April. This is because April’s weather is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. It’s a climate cocktail of sunny spells, rain, gale force winds and snow, and, being Brits, it mesmerizes us all. We can’t help but continually comment on it. With such unpredictability, it’s easy to find yourself woefully ill equipped on any given day. Thankfully, The Iconic Weather Forecast by McDonald's was created to offer the nation up to date, live information about the current and impending weather. We turned the instantly recognizable McDonald’s food menu items into graphics that related to iconic weather symbols and displayed them in a bold, simple way.

Describe the strategy

This execution is part of a larger large format DOOH campaign. Our plan to build brand affinity in 2018 through DOOH sites was simple. We wanted to raise a smile from our audience through a celebration of the truths about why people love McDonald’s. We would then celebrate these truths in the moments when they were most relevant to our audience. There is a myriad of different reasons why people love McDonald’s. One is for the brand’s dependability. This dependability is never more appreciated than when you’re battling the elements. McDonald’s has always got you covered, whether it be through a hot chocolate on a blustery morning, offering a place to shelter from a flash rain storm or with a blended ice drink when it’s a scorcher.

Describe the execution

This execution is part of a larger large format DOOH campaign. Our plan to build brand affinity in 2018 through DOOH sites was simple. We wanted to raise a smile from our audience through a celebration of the truths about why people love McDonald’s. We would then celebrate these truths in the moments when they were most relevant to our audience. There is a myriad of different reasons why people love McDonald’s. One is for the brand’s dependability. This dependability is never more appreciated than when you’re battling the elements. McDonald’s has always got you covered, whether it be through a hot chocolate on a blustery morning, offering a place to shelter from a flash rain storm or with a blended ice drink when it’s a scorcher.

List the results

The campaign has only just launched so we do not have any business results yet. However, the campaign achieved worldwide PR coverage and we had a total of 4,105,004 Impacts across the 12 cities.