2019 Winners & Shortlists

THE 1 DIRHAM COIN FOR THE 1 DIRHAM CONE

BrandMCDONALD'S
Product/ServiceMCDONALD'S ICE CREAM CONE
EntrantFP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryUse of Ambient Media: Small Scale
Idea Creation FP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Idea Creation 2 FP7/RUH Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA
Media Placement FP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Media Placement 2 UM MENA Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
PR FP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production FP7/DXB Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

For McDonald’s, we converted what could’ve been plain vanilla newspaper ads into touchpoints that gave people specially transformed 1 Dirham coins to sample McDonald’s 1 Dirham ice cream cones. As we attracted a direct response and sampling, through an innovative use of print and drove acquisitions, this case study fits Direct.

Background.

The UAE has many expensive ice cream brands catering to evolving trends, flavours and tastes, to entice customers. McDonald’s, typically known for burgers and fries, also had its own ice cream - one that has been around for years. One that only costs 1 UAE Dirham. But, not a lot of people were buying it. McDonald’s wanted to put a stop to a decline in sales and remind people about the incredible value of their iconic ice cream.

Describe the creative idea.

The human mind doesn’t really believe something until it sees it or feels it. Reality wasn’t that people didn’t know the McDonalds ice cream cost 1 Dirham. Reality was that people had just forgotten what the ice cream being 1 Dirham simply meant. So, we had to visually demonstrate the simple pleasures of having a McDonald’s ice cream. Because the human mind may be aware of facts at a sub-conscious level, but it only consciously registers them once one’s eyesight visually captures them. Many psychology studies have spoken about the “Visual Reasoning Skill” that enables our minds to process and interpret meaning from visual information that we are able to gain through sight. So, we visually showed people that they could enjoy the iconic and delicious 1 Dirham McDonalds ice cream cone, with something just as iconic: The 1 Dirham coin. And created the 1 Dirham Cone-Coins!

Describe the strategy.

1 McDonald’s simple and delicious ice cream cone = 1 Dirham: To stand out, we equated the McDonald’s ice cream cone with something that’s just as iconic and that has similarly remained unchanged over the years: The UAE 1 Dirham coin. The Arabic number ‘Wahid’, that is the numeral ‘1’, in the UAE 1 Dirham coin is very artistic and graphically-rich. We had an opportunity to depict how the iconic and delicious McDonald’s ice cream cone is available for only 1 dirham Choosing a direct response channel that'd activate trial and consumption – Print and Newspapers: Most competitor ice cream brands and retailers were heavily using social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. While these two platforms are mass media today, we chose to leverage a channel that wasn’t as popular today, but still had tremendous reach: PRINT AND NEWSPAPERS!

Describe the execution.

While retaining the artistic and graphically-rich look and feel, we transformed the numeral ‘1’ on the UAE 1-dirham coin into a McDonald’s ice cream cone. And created these coins. A series of print ads in leading dailies were the perfect way to depict how the iconic McDonald’s ice cream is available for only 1 Dirham. Next, to drive action and consumption, we pinned our newly transformed coins on print ads across leading newspapers, with a line that said, “This is an ice cream cone”, followed by another call to action that said, “Well, it could be if you take it to McDonald’s”. This gave people an actual coin that they could not only redeem at a store, but also to remind them about the sheer value of McDonald’s ice-cream cone where you don’t get a lot for 1 Dirham! Overall, we distributed 30,000 copies across the UAE with leading newspapers.

List the results.

Doing something unexpected and WOM-worthy was going to be the name of the game in a market cluttered with food advertising, with innovative and varied offerings as competitors when it came to ice creams. Redemptions surpassed best-in-class direct marketing benchmarks. The word of mouth generated led to 43% redemptions of those 1 Dirham ice cream cones (vs. best-in-class direct marketing benchmarks of 5%). And as people brought the ads carrying the 1 Dirham coins in to McDonald’s stores, the iconic ice cream was back in the limelight as people continued lovin’ it: +6% incremental units sold on the day of the activation. +14% incremental units sold on the day after the activation. +26% increase in sales.

Credits

Name Company Role
Oliver Robinson FP7 McCann Dubai Executive Creative Director
Tahaab Rais FP7 McCann MENAT Regional Head of Strategy
Kartik Aiyar FP7 McCann Dubai Creative Director
Wayne Esslemont FP7 McCann Dubai Senior Art Director
Tarek Ali Ahmad FP7 McCann Dubai General Manager - Business Unit
Moushami Dighe Bhattacharya FP7 McCann Dubai Strategy Manager
Faissal Shaar FP7 McCann Dubai Senior Account Executive
Sirine Hamade FP7 McCann Dubai Account Director
Parameswaran Kolathazha FP7 McCann Dubai Senior Designer
Jad Daou UM Dubai Media Director
Nurul Habib UM Dubai Media Planner
Deepa Chettur UM Dubai Operations Supervisor
Hadi Sassine UM Dubai Trading Director
Dany Azzi FP7 McCann Riyadh Executive Creative Director
Hosam Mubarak FP7 McCann Riyadh Head of Arabic Copy
Jory Hobeika FP7 McCann Riyadh Art Director
Ashraf Muhammedunny FP7 McCann Dubai Editor and Visual Artist