Our goal was to create a first-to-market idea on an emerging platform that not only allowed consumers to create and distribute content on McDonald's behalf, but also served to drive people in-restaurant seeking out that content. Reaching on-the-go consumers via their mobile device is critical to McDonald's quick-service business, so we needed a short-content-focused, mobile-first partner that could deliver the audience we were after.
Although engagement is a critical KPI for McDonald's, we couldn't just push engagement for engagement's sake. We needed that engagement to drive traffic and contribute to reach. Snapchat's scale and functionality was the perfect fit, offering unique, native content that could accentuate McDonald's marketing priorities.
On the Snapchat platform, McDonald's became the first brand to offer limited-time, geo-targeted filters exclusively available at all of McDonald's 14,000 US locations. We featured multiple filters at any given time in order to demonstrate variety and encourage use. Each filter was available for only a few weeks, accelerating urgency and preventing fatigue. Available filters corresponded with key marketing windows and messaging, and were continuously optimized for each campaign based on performance and format.
The Snapchat filters were a highly effective way to have authentic content created on behalf of the brand. Snapchat's unique format guarantees 100% share of screen, delivered by the people, for the people.
All in all, we achieved:
- 12MM total filter uses/snaps
- 308MM total filter views
- 400MM total filter impressions
Additionally, charted performance over time shows an initial discovery period, growing and then peaking a few days after each filter launch. This is a strong indicator of users actively seeking filters, and driving users in-restaurant to do so. These levels of location-focused engagement and subsequent visibility made this McDonald's most successful exclusive content activation to date.
