Marketing Insight – how could McDonald’s fight growing competition?

Despite being the leading fast-food brand in the Netherlands, growing competition saw McDonald’s struggle to maintain top-of-mind awareness. In a world of convenience and snackability, in more ways than one, McDonald’s needed a campaign that would captivate and engage audiences and reinforce its key market position. 

Now, McDonald’s has some pretty recognisable assets in their armoury. You can’t miss the ‘Golden Arches’ or mistake that tuneful whistle for any other brand, but there was one other trick up Ronald’s sleeve, the iconic smell of a McDonald’s French fry! 

Media Innovation – scented billboards: is smell an underused brand asset?

So how do you capture that iconic smell and turn it into a marketing campaign? The answer? Smell-o-vision!… Well, sort of. TBWA\Neboko, McDonald’s Netherland’s advertising agency, partnered with Raúl&Rigel, a production company specialising in unusual billboards, to create an innovative scented billboard for the campaign. 

The world-first activation featured plain red & yellow billboards (in the classic Maccies colours). Not a word, picture or logo in sight as the billboards were hiding a clever secret. Equipped with an internal heating and ventilation system, the billboards released the scent of the McDonald’s fries hidden within to passers-by within five metres of the installation. Billboards were strategically placed within 200 metres of restaurant locations in the Dutch cities of Utrecht and Leiden. “We are always looking for ways to give iconic brand assets their own place in culture,” Darre van Dijk, CCO of TBWA\Neboko said, “The smell of McDonald’s French fries is one of those iconic features.” 

Accelerating Growth – McDonald’s most successful PR campaign

It’s no secret that many of us are driven by food. From the heady aromas of a coffee shop in the morning to freshly baked goods at lunch, smells trigger a hunger with a potent need to satisfy. That is exactly what McDonald’s scented billboard campaign succeeded in creating. A street survey revealed that 87% of passers by recognised the McDonald’s scent and 71% of them could distinguish the smell of French fries, demonstrating a strong brand recall. 

The campaign also triggered huge online engagement, reaching over 1.5bn in its first week and over 85,000 engagements. The result, an earned media value of €49.9 million, marked it as McDonald’s Netherlands’ most successful PR campaign. 

Could this be the start of a new kind of experiential advertising? Might we see, or rather smell, roses from bus stops promoting Valentine’s flowers, or will the smell of spiced lattes takeover tube stations during our winter morning commutes?