McDonald’s Double Eleven Marketing Guide!

The daily life of this generation of young people cannot be separated from "social currency". In the era of social-driven marketing, if we delve deeper into the popular cases, we will find that the popular social currencies are often the driving force behind their success. Therefore, in order to engage with young people, current brands have launched a variety of social currency marketing, actively establishing connections with consumers, building trust, and building relationships, providing them with popular topics of conversation, and avoiding awkward conversations with consumers.

Not to mention the distant past, just look at the recent McDonald's taking advantage of the Double Eleven to release the upgraded version of McDonald's Angus MAX, making it the official announcement of #McDonald's Golden Mask Cuisine#, and taking the brand's social currency to a new level. It can be said to be a series where you can't guess the ending after seeing the beginning.

How does McDonald's survive? Let’s take a closer look.

01. "Pre-embedding - building momentum - detonation - actual hammer" progresses step by step to arouse users' curiosity

McDonald’s Double Eleven marketing this time was inspired by the official launch of McDonald’s first “Golden Mask” and was effectively implemented according to the marketing rhythm of “pre-embedded suspense - experience to create momentum - live broadcast to trigger - official announcement to confirm the outcome”. Indeed, the brand’s popularity is not accidental but inevitable. The direction of the entire marketing path is a process of accumulation and development, which effectively maintains the high energy of the Double Eleven topic.

Create suspense in the early stages to create an atmosphere for the event. In the early stage, suspense was buried through cat-head outdoor advertisements in subways, bus stations, etc., creating a strong atmosphere of suspense. Then, the topic #McDonald's Double 11 Mysterious New Product# was thrown out to transfer traffic from offline to online, and the social topic #McDonald's Golden Mask Cuisine# was launched to shift everyone's attention from the mask to the new product association. Subsequently, Tmall, Alipay, Taobao, Juhuasuan and other online platforms were jointly used to create momentum, and sentences such as "My "Golden Mask" is edible, how about you?" were made from different angles, starting the mask battle mode.

After the outdoor advertising battle, McDonald's took the opportunity to launch a limited-time VIP early access reservation, creating the illusion that "McDonald's produces edible facial masks" and encouraging more consumers to participate. This wave of cross-border integration between catering and beauty products comes with a sense of conflict and suspense, creating a powerful warm-up notice, attracting traffic for subsequent offline tasting activities, successfully arousing consumers' curiosity and desire to explore, and sparking the public's continued expectations for new products.

Start experiential marketing and let KOLs promote products in various ways. As user attention continues to grow, McDonald's has launched an offline "Golden Mask" cuisine tasting experience event, taking users to find out more and inviting KOL/koc nationwide event stores to experience the "Golden Mask Cuisine" in depth: allowing a group of KOLs to watch the production process of Angus MAX thick beef bacon burgers up close through AR, with visible realism and visual impact, making the interpretation of "Angus with a mask" extremely vivid and enhancing the experiencer's sense of immersion.

McDonald's uses third-party word-of-mouth and high-tech AR interaction to promote its upgraded products in all aspects, allowing potential consumers to better understand the craftsmanship of McDonald's Angus MAX and triggering the public's desire to try new products.

The live broadcast was created with variety show thinking, and the official announcement of the new product was concluded. In addition, McDonald's invited Su Bingtian to serve as the Chief Experience Officer of McDonald's Angus MAX to create a magical combination, and jointly launched the #One more step to break the record# live broadcast with the Tmall flagship store live broadcast room. Unlike conventional live broadcasts selling goods, McDonald's organically combines live broadcasts and variety shows to create a reality show scene, incorporates situational interactive sessions, and brings sports stars closer to consumers.

The live broadcast session was full of highlights. At the Alibaba campus in Hangzhou, Su Shen and McDonald's China CMO Ms. Xu Cong worked together to search for clues about Angus MAX, constantly answering questions from Alibaba employees and cleverly implanting the product highlights of Angus MAX.

In addition, Su Bingtian transformed into a McDonald's chef and had an in-depth experience of the production process of McDonald's Angus MAX, revealing to the public the secret of the "one more step" of the golden mask, strengthening the connection between Su's spirit and Angus MAX; he also competed with Ms. Xu Cong in night running, performing a large-scale first flying man scene. In the final segment, Su Shen also played the Easter egg smashing game with Alibaba Group Chief Marketing Officer Dong Benhong to benefit the fans in the live broadcast room.

During this process, McDonald's also used slogans such as "McDonald's Double Eleven Big Sales" and "Su Shen yyds" to guide the audience to interact with the barrage in conjunction with the welfare distribution, effectively mobilizing the atmosphere of the live broadcast room.

Overall, McDonald's did not reveal its cards all at once in the early stages, but chose a marketing approach that was half-hidden. It put all its efforts into creating a suspenseful guessing event, building up momentum for the heavy launch of the Angus MAX series and successfully creating a sense of mystery.

Judging from the feedback from consumers, many people said, "I didn't expect this golden mask was not for me", "I didn't expect you were such a McDonald's", "The new product launch is so ceremonial", etc.

It is not difficult to see from these real UGC contents that McDonald's has undoubtedly cleverly grasped the curiosity of young people and mobilized the audience's expectations for the Angus MAX series.

02. Insight into the spiritual harmony of "one more step" and achieve mutual achievement of value for both parties

The success of this marketing campaign is not only due to McDonald’s accurate grasp of the marketing rhythm, but also inseparable from McDonald’s finding the right experience officer to add icing on the cake for the marketing.

Indeed, for brands, whether it is a spokesperson or a KOL, there must be a close fit between the spokesperson and the endorsed product in order to achieve two-way mutual achievement. This is also reflected in Su Bingtian and McDonald's.

The good results of "Asian Flying Man" Su Bingtian are inseparable from day after day of hard training, and more importantly, the bonus of his correct running posture. Su Bingtian changed from his right foot to his left foot in the 100-meter race, and the number of steps increased from 47 to 48. This small change of "one more step" greatly improved his starting speed, and eventually he achieved the breakthrough of 100 meters running under 10 seconds many times.

Looking back at the product innovation of the upgraded version of Angus Max, it also has an "one more step" delicious upgrade. The golden cheese slices are spread on the beef patties on the grill, and then the cheese is slowly melted and penetrated into the beef fibers based on the hot melt process. The semi-melted cheese and the fat in the patties blend with each other, effectively upgrading the deliciousness and creating a richer taste for consumers. This also shows us that product innovation is not about blindly pursuing disruption. Just a few tiny changes can create products that make users scream and gain new competitive advantages.

Therefore, in terms of fit, Su Bingtian's spirit of constantly breaking through himself and making progress is highly consistent with the product value of the upgraded version of Angus Max. Therefore, the inherent fit of the spiritual connotation of "one more step" is an important reason why Su Bingtian and McDonald's form a perfect couple.

McDonald's selected an experience officer who matched the company's needs and could better express the delicious value of Angus Max and enhance the emotional connection brought by this product. In addition, the blessing of Su Bingtian's sports star effect has given Angus Max more positive energy and added connotations, conveying the profound meaning of "one more step is more progress", thereby magnifying the value of the upgraded Angus Max. Let users have positive associations and feelings, thereby converting product favorability into brand favorability.

03. Break the traditional new product announcement model and strengthen the long-tail effect of marketing

In this marketing era where exposure depends on creating something new, new product marketing has become a panacea for many brands to increase their visibility in order to keep things fresh and new. However, few brands use their imagination to break the marketing pattern of low interactivity. When it comes to the official announcement of new products, we all think of the serious official announcement posters, or the hardcore new product launch advertising style, which falls into the trap of formalism. This makes consumers feel indifferent, and the brand ends up in a dilemma of self-satisfaction.

But this time, McDonald's is clearly not sticking to the old marketing format. Different from the way brands unilaterally announce products, McDonald's truly plays together with users and launches an immersive guessing event to achieve two-way marketing interaction.

McDonald's incorporates elements of cross-border, black technology, beauty, and sports into its marketing. Based on "an immersive experience + a mysterious gold mask + a distinguished gold courtesy", it not only creates a remarkable marketing concept - "McDonald's Golden Mask Cuisine", deepens the memory point of the upgraded product; it also releases the sports star effect and the interactive value of live broadcasts, and maximizes the sense of ceremony and atmosphere of the new product launch. This series of careful preparations has enabled the brand’s Double Eleven marketing to start with the launch of new products but go beyond the launch of new products.

In terms of communication, McDonald's has started a new product launch path that is different from the past through brain-opening suspense preheating and celebrity live broadcasts, presenting upgraded products to the public in an innovative way, bringing more creative surprises to consumers. To a certain extent, this will inevitably create a steady stream of traffic and continue to empower McDonald's to upgrade its product voice.

Therefore, on the Double Eleven occasion, McDonald's not only took one more step, but also successfully put the brand ahead.