Social Media Campaign Review : Mc Donald’s First Tasters Event to Promote New Offerings

Introduction:

For almost two decades now Mc Donald’s has been a popular urban fast food chain with all sorts of age groups enjoying their own Mc Meals in India.

However, Mc Donald's as a brand has made little effort over the years to interact with the customers. With competition at its peak, it was just the right time to get started.

Mc Donald’s organized a 'First Tasters' campaign on New Year's day to invite fans to connect with the brand. Fans from Facebook were invited to preview and taste the newest addition on the menu at an event in Mumbai.

Campaign Strategy

Facebook

Mc Donald’s hyped an upcoming opportunity for food criticism by its Facebook fans a few days prior to the New Year.The posts focused on attracting Mc Donald’s' fans on previewing items prior to their launch, asking them to be food critics.

A Facebook application for the same was launched on their Fan page on the networking site . The first 25 respondents were given a chance to be a part of the ground event on 1st January, 2014 at the Haji Ali outlet in Mumbai.

Due to the absence of Mc Donald’s on Twitter there was no mention of this activity there. But the event format pretty much resembled the format of other traditional tweet ups.

Execution

The execution of the on ground activity was a delightfully smooth affair.

The event witnessed an attendance of about 25-30 Facebook fans who were introduced to the newest additions on the Mc Donald’s India menu, prior to its launch in the outlets.

The new products to be introduced were ‘Saucy Chipotle Wraps’ in egg, chicken and Aloo Tikki variants. A special chef demonstrated the making of these wraps to the attendees who were then served free wraps and asked to rate and review the same from their Facebook profiles through the systems provided at the venue, ‘Tastimonials’ and videos of which were shared on the Facebook and Youtube pages.

To conclude the event on a happy note, the participants were given framed pictures of themselves enjoying the event as all were high on praises for this mini food tasting affair.

Follow Up:

Reviews were shared on the official Fan page of Mc Donald’s India as pictures and videos. These garnered great response online.

In addition to that, Mc Donald’s asked fans to try the wraps at their nearest outlets and send in their reviews to get featured on the fan page.

Positives:

This was the premiere First Tasters Campaign by Mc Donald’s, their first attempt at connecting with their fans for opinions and previews. Fans were particularly excited about this initiative by Mc Donald’s for a one of a kind experience.

Fans praised this initiative and also mentioned that they felt closer to the brand after this activity, as much care of their concerns and tastes was taken into consideration.

Negatives

The activity had an amateur call online, quite unexpected for a brand of Mc Donald’s’ stature. It failed to generate the kind of hype required, quite unlike major tweet ups on Twitter, that make it to the trends list.

Since the reviews were only shared on the Mc Donald’s fan page, it witnessed restricted viewership. Fans could have been asked to share the review and post pictures and updates from their personal accounts.

The reach of the campaign was low as compared to the interactivity. The communication used to create the hype seemed quite dry and less aggressive.

Also, all participants were chosen on the basis of registration, irrespective of their social media presence.

Scope:

This being the first public oriented campaign by Mc Donald’s, has a lot of scope for improvement. An aggressive and more creative approach could be used to convey event ideas.

Participants could be asked to be more socially active in sharing the event updates and reviews to gain maximum reach. Using Twitter for communication is a much needed move by Mc Donald’s, especially for campaigns like these.

Conclusion:

Mc Donald’s has made the much needed move of  interacting with the public and their interests- a great thing to do for a brand much loved by people.

The First Tasters campaign is a brilliant idea to not only promote the timely new additions but to connect with people and know their response to the same in person.

Hoping for some more interesting and integrated campaigns in the near future from this fast food giant!