BYE, BYE BALLOONS. LONG LIVE BALLOONS!

TitleBYE, BYE BALLOONS. LONG LIVE BALLOONS!
BrandMCDONALD'S
Product/ServiceMCDONALD'S
Category B03. Creative Effectiveness for Good
Entrant NORD DDB Stockholm, SWEDEN
Idea Creation NORD DDB Stockholm, SWEDEN
Credits
Name Company Position
Petter Dixelius NORD DDB Copywriter
Joel Ekstrand NORD DDB Art Director
Stina Nyberg NORD DDB Client Manager
Jesper Andersson NORD DDB Planner
Jens Welin NORD DDB Senior Client Director
Andreas Dahlqvist NORD DDB CEA & CCO
Jeanette Ytterman NORD DDB Client Director
Edith Sundberg NORD DDB Graphic Designer
Daniel Liljas NORD DDB Graphic Designer
Anna Lisspers NORD DDB Print Production
Kristin Åkerlund NORD DDB PR Strategist
Jonas Eriksson NORD DDB Social Media & Content Creative
Sofie Hammers NORD DDB Social Media & Community Strategist
Victor Söderblom NORD DDB Digital Client Manger
Christoffer Åhlund NORD DDB Digital Client Director
Lisa Palm Danielsson McDonald's Sweden Head of Media
Sofie Lager McDonald's Sweden Senior Marketing Manager
Johan Tennbäck McDonald's Sweden Head of Social Media
Göran Lagerberg House Agency Producer
Denice Heurlin House Agency Producer
Susanne Rydjer McDonald's Sverige Marketing Manager
Emanuel Falsen OMD Client Director
Karin Mohlin OMD Client Manager
Frida Heder Bleck/Stylewar Executive Producer
Nico Knutsen Bleck/Stylewar Director
Martin Söderholm Bleck/Stylewar Director
Johan Palm Bleck/Stylewar Director Of Photography
Anna Adamson DVA Producer
Bo Gustafson DVA Creative Director
Staffan Ekstam McDonald's Sweden CMO

Objectives

The objectives were as follows: Brand metrics: - Increase awareness of that McDonald's are phasing out disposable plastic in their restaurants from 30% to 40%. Consumer attitudes: - Increase the perception of McDonald's as a company that makes a positive contribution to Swedish society from 41% to 48%. - Increase the perception of McDonald's as a company that takes responsibility for the environment from 32% to 40%. - Get at least 50% of the population to think that it's good that McDonald's are removing the plastic balloons. Brand health: - Increase positive impression of the brand from 41% to 45%. Business: - Increase sales by 2% vs competition in September 2020. - Increase visits by 2% vs competition in September 2020.

Summary of the work

In 2018, McDonald's Sweden launched the concept Big enough to make a difference. It's a platform that highlights McDonald's initiatives, big and small, to get Swedes to re-evaluate what McDonald's uses its size for, to give more people a better aftertaste of the brand. To further showcase their positive role in society in 2020, McDonald's started phasing out disposable plastic in their restaurants. So, to start communicating about this rather big shift, McDonald's wanted to start with something seemingly small: removing the iconic balloons in their restaurants. While reducing plastics is something we thought Swedes would approve of, other things - like fun, colorful balloons for the kids - are something that the guests expect and that the kids love. So, the creative challenge we needed to crack was to make a good move for the environment while replacing the balloons with something that the kids thought was at least as fun. So, we replaced the balloons with even more balloons by creating an AR experience where kids in the restaurants could play via their mobile or tablet and compete to see who sticks the most balloons. With the AR-game as the focal point, we created an integrated campaign in channels such as TV, Online Video, Outdoor, Social, Print, instore, website and app. The results were not long in coming. Hundreds of articles across the globe mentioned the campaign, resulting in more than 200 000 000 in earned media reach. In just 3 weeks, more than 157,000 people had played - which is as many as 25% of all children in the HappyMeal age 5-9 years. The number of games played in the same period is over 500,000 with an average play time of 3 minutes. Littering balloons? 0%. We increased awareness that McDonald's are phasing out disposable plastic in their restaurants to 56%, 16 percentage points above target (40%) and an increase of +86% (from 30% to 56%). After the campaign, 57% said McDonald's is a company that makes a positive contribution to Swedish society, 9 percentage points above target (48%) and an increase of +39% (from 41% to 57%). We’ve also managed to increase the perception of McDonald's as a company that takes responsibility for the environment, from 32% to 50%, 10 percentage points above target and equivalent to an increase of +56%. 70% of all Swedes thought it was a good thing to remove the balloons (20 percentage points above objective) and the positive impression of the brand rose to 50%, 5 percentage points above target and an increase of +21% (from 41% to 50%). Last but not least, McDonald’s saw their visits increase by 2,9% while sales increased by a stunning 6,4% vs competition, beating the objective in September by 0,9% and 4,4%. Showcasing their role as Big enough to make a difference and replacing the balloons with digital balloons was also a good deal for the environment as McDonald’s reduced their use of plastics by 9 tonnes vs last year.

Engagement & Awareness

Hundreds of articles across the globe mentioned the campaign, resulting in more than 200 000 000 in earned media impressions and the campaign reached more than 70% of the Swedish population. In just 3 weeks, more than 175,000 people had played - which is as many as 25% of all children in the HappyMeal age 5-9 years in Sweden. The number of games started in the same period is over 450,000 with an average play time of 3 minutes. Littering balloons? 0%.

Social Behaviour & Insight

The restaurant market has developed and renewed significantly in recent years. McDonald's, which has been the industry leader in the fast food category for decades, began in 2012 to feel increasingly strong competition from other chains and newly opened burger places. At the same time, the sustainability trend is growing stronger, and Swedes' demands for food quality increased. Parameters that McDonald's were perceived to underdeliver on. The brand was not seen as modern and McDonald's scale made people feel that they were an "American giant" without human warmth. So Swedes did not just start going to McDonald's less often - they stopped going completely. At the same time, the perception of quality and value declined, two critical measures for visit intent and a 5-year decline in visits stood around the corner. McDonald's Sweden lost a total of 11 million visits between 2012-2017. So, we took a deep dive into research and found something interesting. When MAX, the local Swedish competitor, introduced their Green family (with vegan and vegetarian options), the perception of their beef quality increased, despite that they stopped all advertising on beef. What this told us was that in Sweden, the most modern and progressive country in the world, you can influence people's perception of the quality of your product by showcasing values that resonate with what Swedes care about (in this instance, sustainability). So, by doing initiatives on sustainability and directing people's attention to McDonald's actions related to it, we knew we were going to change people's perception on not only their role in society, but also give people an even better aftertaste, thus increasing visits and sales.

Brand Affinity & Sentiment

By replacing the fun balloons with even more (but digital) balloons, McDonald's showcased their role of being Big enough to make a difference and give a positive contribution to Swedish society. We increased awareness that McDonald's are phasing out disposable plastic in their restaurants to 56%, 16 percentage points above target (40%) and an increase of +86% (from 30% to 56%). After the campaign, 57% said McDonald's is a company that makes a positive contribution to Swedish society, 9 percentage points above target (48%) and an increase of +39% (from 41% to 57%). We’ve also managed to increase the perception of McDonald's as a company that takes responsibility for the environment, from 32% to 50%, 10 percentage points above target and equivalent to an increase of +56%. 70% of all Swedes thought it was a good thing to remove the balloons (20 percentage points above objective) and the positive impression of the brand rose to 50%, 5 percentage points above target and an increase of +21% (from 41% to 50%).

Sales Success

McDonald's Sweden operate in an extremely competitive market and MAX, a local, Swedish competitor have increased their number of restaurants heavily the last couple of years. That's why we're pleased to see that the balloon campaign and its increase on important brand attributes and brand health, made McDonald’s increase their visits by 2,9% while sales increased by a stunning 6,4% vs competition, beating the objective in September by 0,9% and 4,4%. If we zoom out and look at the bigger picture, Big enough to make a difference is a concept and an approach that has resulted in 38 consecutive months of both visit and sales growth vs competition for McDonald's Sweden since the launch (where the balloon campaign in 2020 is one of several that has made up for the big success).

Conclusion

While reducing plastics is something Swedes would approve of, other things - like fun, colorful balloons for the kids - are something that the guests expect and that the kids love. So, the creative challenge we needed to crack was to make a good move for the environment while replacing the balloons with something that the kids thought was at least as fun. So, by replacing balloons with even more balloons in an AR experience and game as the focal point for the campaign, with a broad reach and high impact media strategy, McDonald's once again showed Swedes that being big is actually a good thing. Because when smaller competitors take steps in the right direction, the effects are limited, but when McDonald's does it, with more than 400 000 visits a day, the effects are huge. So, by using their size and scale to become more sustainable, and replace the balloons, McDonald's showed that they are Big enough to make a difference in a way that resonated emotionally with people, leading up to an increase of brand attributes, brand health and great business results.

Discounting Factors

There have been several natural disasters the last couple of years that have resulted in a strong focus on politicians and companies on the issue of sustainability, which has made the public more climate-conscious than ever. So it's without question that the context helped pave the way for the shift McDonald's has made given the initiative to remove the balloons. However, as we compare those who have and have not seen the advertisement, we can deduce that communication had a clear effect on the brand: - "Is a company I appreciate": 16% positive difference - "Is a company I recommend": 22% positive difference - "Is a company that makes a positive contribution to Swedish society": 39% positive difference - "Takes responsibility for the environment": 56% positive difference