#ThisIsMcDonalds

[madstars-festival]

[Delving into MAD STARS 2023 Winners] The Grand Prix of the Year (P&S Advertising) - Unbranded Menu

McDonald's "Unbranded Menu": A Game-Changer for Gamers and Fast Food Lovers

In the exciting world of advertising, we often come across campaigns that redefine the rules of engagement. Today, we're thrilled to introduce you to a campaign that not only caught the eye of MAD STARS 2023 but also earned its place as one of this year's top entries. "Unbranded Menu" by Leo Burnett Manila for McDonald's is not just any marketing campaign; it's a brilliant fusion of gaming, creativity, and fast food that left us hungry for more.

Credits

Work | Unbranded Menu

Advertising Agency | Leo Burnett Group Manila

Advertiser & Client | McDonald's

Award | Grand Prix of the Year (P&S Advertising), Grand Prix in Brand Experience & Activation Stars, Gold in Social & Influencer Stars, Gold in Strategy Stars, Gold in Media Stars, Silver in Direct Stars, Silver in Media Stars, Bronze in Media Stars

Country | Philippines

McDonald's, a global fast-food giant, faced a unique challenge. The gaming industry and food have become inseparable, with gamers sharing their virtual culinary adventures. While competitors like Wendy's and Burger King had already struck deals with gaming giants, McDonald's needed a fresh approach to tap into this vibrant space.

Enter Leo Burnett Manila, armed with an ingenious strategy. They noticed that gamers love to capture and share their in-game discoveries, and there were countless unbranded McDonald's food-alikes hidden in plain sight across various video games. The solution was as bold as it was creative: McDonald's would challenge gamers to hunt down these unbranded food items, screen grab them, and share them with the hashtag #ThisIsMcDonalds. The reward? Free McDonald's food delivered straight to their doorstep!

What makes "Unbranded Menu" truly exceptional is its simplicity and effectiveness. While other brands were negotiating complex integrations into high-profile games, McDonald's found a way to be everywhere without any hefty investments or partnerships. Their food-alikes were uncovered in over 350 video games, from Goat Simulator to Grand Theft Auto, making McDonald's a household name in the gaming world.

This campaign hit home with two-thirds of the Philippines' gaming community, totaling a staggering 27 million gamers. But the impact didn't stop there. McDelivery sales soared by an impressive 35%, proving that innovation can lead to tangible results.

“The Ultimate goal for every brand is to find a space in culture and own it, and we found an idea that authentically made it in a refreshing way.” - Fabio Seidl, Director of Global Creative Development at Meta

“A digital campaign that doesn’t rely on fancy technology or complicated coding. It’s smart, simple, yet relevant.” - Chow Kok Keong, Chief Creative Officer at INNOCEAN Indonesia

"Unbranded Menu" by Leo Burnett Manila for McDonald's is a testament to the power of thinking outside the box. It's a campaign that effortlessly blended gaming culture with fast-food cravings, leaving an indelible mark on both industries. As MAD STARS 2023 recognized, this campaign deserves its place among the best of the best, showcasing the incredible potential of creative advertising.

Explore the brilliant idea on the MAD STARS 2023 website for free. Discover outstanding works like "Unbranded Menu" and a world of creative ideas that have shone brightly this year. Whether seeking inspiration or diving into innovative advertising, our doors to creativity are wide open. Happy exploring!

[madstars-festival]

[WINNER INTERVIEW] What It Takes To Win Grand Prix of the Year🏆

: Unbranded Menu team, Brian Lumanog and Sabrina Urbano, from Leo Burnett Manila

Each year, MAD STARS' highest honor, the Grand Prix of the Year, is awarded to two entries, one from the Product & Service (P&S) category and one from the PSA category.

Following our last interview with Takahiro Hosoda, CCO of TBWA Hakuhodo, who led the Grand Prix of the Year PSA winner SHELLMET, we're back with an interview with the P&S winner!

Unbranded Menu was selected for the Grand Prix of the Year P&S category out of 20,282 entries from 63 countries last year!

The campaign rewarded players who found images of McDonald's menu items such as burgers, fries, and ice cream in the game world that were like McDonald's menu items, but unbranded, by capturing them and uploading them with the hashtag #ThisIsMcDonalds.

The campaign engaged gamers through the fun and delicious rewards of finding food images in the game that resembled McDonald's menu items. The campaign engaged 27 million gamers in the Philippines - two-thirds of the country's gamers - and increased sales for McDonald's delivery service, McDelivery, by 35%.

By tapping into the psychology of gamers and connecting gaming and fast food with a simple idea, Unbranded Menu!

Brian Lumanog, associate creative director, and Sabrina Urbano, senior account executive, Leo Burnett Group Manila, who submitted the campaign, tell us the story behind Unbranded Menu!

Congratulations on your Grand Prix of the Year. Where did the idea for the Unbranded Menu come from?

Brian Lumanog: Oh, gee. Thank you so much, MAD STARS! What an honor! We’ve been wanting to do work in gaming with McDonald’s for quite some time, but as you know, getting a brand in a game can be hell expensive. We kind of knew that to succeed, we needed to pin down an idea without the need for new game development and no million-dollar sponsorships.

So, one night, my wife and I were playing Overcooked 2. We were having fun and we finally beat our previous high score. We had to commemorate that moment somehow. And so, as gamers do, we took a screenshot of our cute little characters holding their cute little burgers proudly. And then I thought, “Wait a minute, those burgers look like McDonald’s burgers.” It’s one of those ideas that hit you like a freight train. It was a hit-and-run, and we ran with that idea. Call it an origin story or whatever, but it took a village that spanned Manila, Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, and Chicago to make Unbranded Menu happen, to shape it into what it eventually turned out to be.

Sabrina Urbano: Unbranded Menu is an “aha!” idea that was birthed not long after the COVID lockdown when many of us got into video gaming while stuck at home for most of the year. We’d been looking for creative ways to bring McDonald’s into the gaming space and came up with the concept to gamify two main insights - the behavior of ‘screen-grabbing’ in-game finds, and coincidentally uncovering McDonald’s ‘lookalike’ products in the games we played. This was our approach to seamlessly weave the brand into the gaming community without having to go into traditional, big-spend media buys and invasive ads.

What were the challenges in getting it from idea to finished work and published?

Brian Lumanog: There were a lot. But more than the challenges, there were a lot of talented and passionate people who worked on Unbranded Menu and we all just enjoyed the journey to the finish. So, the challenges didn’t feel too much like challenges, you know? We were happy to get through each one together.

A few challenges though were: Doing feasibility research and finding video game food likes ourselves in dozens and dozens of titles before we even pitched the idea to the client (no complaints though, because we got to play a lot in company time, LOL). There was a lot of pre-production work, too, like coordinating with influencers, cooking up hundreds of possible scenarios to react to in real-time, and preparing artwork to use as replies to entries. And at launch, of course, the biggest challenge was keeping track of all the entries.

Sabrina Urbano: Apart from the research put into playing and cross-checking a plethora of video games, keeping our teams on track, and inspired without losing momentum was a notable test of our resilience (especially during a very busy calendar year). It was several months of early-morning to late-evening check-ups with our brand leads, agency partners, and the talented gaming influencers tapped for the job. There was a handful of us (me included) who still had much to learn about gaming and its intricacies, and the time spent on developing Unbranded Menu was the perfect ‘crash course’ to immerse us, rookies, into video games, the gaming world, and the culture that thrives within it.

Were there any “godsends” that helped to make it easier?

Brian Lumanog: A moving moment during development was when our super experienced, multi-award-winning, super creative bosses said that they didn’t know much about gaming, and they let our young ones (if you could still call me young) run the show. They gave us their trust and we made sure we didn’t let their trust go to waste. We kicked into creative overdrive after that. Unbranded Menu was a big team, and each player had an important role to play. Everyone was a ‘godsend’ in their way. It was co-op gaming at its finest. Sabrina Urbano: We’re very grateful to have had a hard-working, passionate, and light-hearted team who believed in the idea’s potential from the very beginning and invested nothing but their best from start to finish. Publicis Groupe’s Power of One collaborative vision was a big help in providing us with the talent and agency partners needed to bring the Unbranded Menu to life. It was such a treat seeing the younger creatives take the reins in this project, teaching our agency leads (who didn’t know much about gaming at the time) the ins and outs of it all. The amount of care we had in the work and in the people who created the work is such a blessing and has set the bar very high for how a successful, “godsend” team should be.

What were the results of the campaign?

Brian Lumanog: That 35% increase in McDelivery sales was something. I mean, the campaign was cool and creative and all. But would it have been as cool if it didn’t improve the client's business? The late, great Leo Burnett was right when he said, “What helps people, helps business”. We hope we helped McDonald’s and gaming fans have fun with the Unbranded Menu. Sabrina Urbano: Unbranded Menu reached 27 million gaming fans (that’s ⅔ of the Philippines' gaming population) thus bringing in +108% brand mentions, +140% brand engagement, and +35% McDelivery sales (thanks to a contribution of hungry gamers ordering on top of their coupons, and showing off their gaming on their feed, triggering even more cravings, and orders).

What do you think are the criteria for great creative work? What helped your agency to make your work an award winner?

Brian Lumanog: For me, it’s when a piece of work makes you go, “Why didn’t I think of that?”, and you beat yourself up over it the rest of the day. Occasionally, you come across such work, and you just know that the team behind it had a bit of extra fun working on it. It’s hard to explain and quantify. Not to toot our horns here, but Unbranded Menu kind of gave us that feeling. It’s a weird mix of excitement and tummy butterflies and nervousness. Everyone in the team, from the get-go, believed in the idea and wanted it to succeed. The team lost a lot of sleep, missed some holidays, and foregone actual video game time to take care of the idea. We’re super proud of it. We hope Unbranded Menu made a few creative and advertising people go, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Sabrina Urbano: We’ve been taught that the best creative ideas come from great, human-driven insights, and are sought through our own life experiences. Leo Burnett’s Humankinds philosophy attests to this, where putting people at the core of our ideas helps us connect with those we reach out to. Unbranded Menu is people-centric at its core – from the insight down to the individuals who partook in it - and is a great demonstration of how a creative idea can transform human (and gaming) behavior.

What does it mean to you and your agency to have won the award at MAD STARS?

Brian Lumanog: We’ve been entering work in MAD STARS for a few years now and every year just getting a shortlist has become tougher and tougher. MAD STARS has also been able to define its identity and taste for creative work and has set itself apart from the likes of Cannes Lions or New York Festivals, as a show that puts a lot of weight in digital and tech creativity. We’re very happy to be able to keep up with MAD STARS’ high standards. I hope to walk up the Busan stage again next time. Thanks again, MAD STARS.

Sabrina Urbano: So, DOPE. We’ve been very grateful for the recent recognition received at Cannes and New York Festivals, but the MAD STARS Grand Prix of the Year was a very fun surprise and a perfect cherry to top the year. Experiencing the wins in Busan was a rush and has the team stoked to bring you more award-winning ideas in 2024.

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Your ideas too can be the Grand Prix of the Year! Don't hesitate to showcase your ideas to the world now.

The first entry deadline will close on May 10th (KST).

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