CASE STUDY: McDonald’s serves breakfast to 21,000 Malaysian families

Background

Malaysians, it seems, aren’t big on breakfast when they’re in a rush. Targeting young adults, McDonald's introduced the Weekday Breakfast Special set last year.

Aim

Looking to move beyond the young adult weekday crowd, McDonald’s teamed up with media agency OMD Malaysia to introduce The Family Breakfast Box in February. The concept, which started in Malaysia, has now gone global and is aimed at promoting the joys of family breakfast time on the weekends.

Execution

The pitch, targeting parents with young children, strongly emphasises the importance of bonding over breakfast.

On the social media front, digital marketing agency IdotYou Mobile manages McDonald’s Facebook page’s 690,000 fans and in conjunction with the promotion’s launch, created the Breakfast Mania game for the page.

Targeting young children with its educational content, Breakfast Mania educates consumers on the ingredients that go into their breakfast sets. Games featured include Picture Puzzle which requires gamers to rotate boxes to unscramble pictures within an allotted time frame and Memory Pairs tests memory and speed in dragging correct items to complete menus. 

Leo Burnett’s 'We love weekends' TV commercial featured a cosy family late weekend start followed by a McDonald’s breakfast. The sleeping family contrasts sharply with the 'crack of eggs at dawn' spiel hinting that a big family breakfast doesn't require an early start. 

OMD's giant billboard placement featuring the McDonald's Breakfast Box

OMD supported the promotion with an integrated communication and promotional campaign comprising of television, newspaper, billboard, social media and sampling activities.

Result

Over 10,000 consumers played the game within the first two weeks of its launch.

McDonald's sold 21,000 Family Breakfast Boxes in the first week and the campaign generated a trail of online buzz. 

The results were promising with an increase in consumers per week by 10 per cent in 2010 compared with 2009 and the brand gaining a 26 per cent increase in overall market share in the casual dining sector.