Content Champions: McDonald's (Indonesia)

McDonald's, one of the world's largest fast-food chains, made its debut in Indonesia in 1991 with its first restaurant in Sarinah. Over the past 30 years, McDonald's has been a staple in Indonesia, consistently serving high-quality food to Indonesian families.

Since 2009, McDonald's franchises in Indonesia have been independently owned and operated by PT. Rekso Nasional Food, a subsidiary of the REKSO Group. This group is a fully Indonesian-owned, 100% national private company, led by local entrepreneurs.

Content Champions is a segment during MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Content360 conference in Singapore in which we highlight brands who have made significant impact in the content marketing space through their campaigns. This campaign was shortlisted for Marketing Events Awards 2024 and chosen for coverage by the editorial team at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. 

Brand: McDonald's Indonesia
Campaign: "Live, Live, Love"

Challenge 

The year 2023 was marked by optimism for the Informal Eating Out (IEO) category post-Covid-19 pandemic. The category saw remarkable penetration growth, driven by Quick Service Restaurants (QSR). McDonald’s success was supported by its app providing convenience and offering exclusive promos and great deals.

Even though McDonald's successfully acquired a massive number of users and gained new users in 2023, the challenge lay in retaining active users especially among young adults and teens - the largest segment, where it experienced a decline in daily active users. This indicated the presence of inactive users who could potentially be reactivated. Moreover, competitors were attempting to surpass McDonald’s through feature improvements, leading to a lack of user engagement.

Therefore, McDonald’s needed to reignite its customers' love for its app.

Strategy

To address this problem, the brand aimed to reactivate McDonald’s app users with the following tasks:

1. Leverage its strong "value" perception to trigger engagement among young Gen Z and millennial audiences amidst intense competition focused on app improvements and novelty.

2. Devise a solution that is engaging and creatively stands out.

3. Achieve all of the above within a limited and restricted budget.

Through consumer behaviors and media advantages, McDonald's observed a significant shift in how to engage and captivate the hearts and minds of young audiences. This shift involved moving from conventional to contemporary media usage, transitioning from traditional to digital platforms, and evolving from one-way brand communication to a more interactive engagement.

Execution 

Pioneering the realm of digital engagement, McDonald's blazed a trail as the first QSR brand to harness the dynamic power of TikTok Live. In February 2024, it launched its inaugural TikTok Live event, a vibrant spectacle that has since become a thrice-weekly staple. Hosted by two spirited female Gen Z influencers, the livestream radiated the energy of the platform and speaks the language of its audience.

The approach features exclusive promo codes and exciting new menu items, revealed in captivating segments throughout the stream. These promotions were accessible only to viewers, who had watched the livestream, captured the codes, and redeemed them via the McDonald's app.

This strategy transformed the two-hour session into more than just a coupon hunt. It included edutainment segments about the McDonald's app, where it educated the audience on how to maximize its features and benefits. These segments are designed to be engaging and informative, making the app more accessible and user-friendly.

Additionally, the brand introduced the McDonald's movie club, a new entertainment feature on the app where people can win movie vouchers and special promo for the McDonald's menu.

Check out the other winners here.