Only on the menu for three weeks a year, McDonalds wanted to raise the profile and ‘generate hype’ around their LTO McWrap – introducing two brand new flavor builds: Nashville BBQ and Dijon Mustard to add to the excitement.

2022 marked the third year of the McWrap and McDonalds wanted to reinforce the perception of this ‘revered’ LTO and increase restaurant footfall by 5% from the previous year. Positioning the McWrap as the powerful comeback of an iconic product that holds a dominant presence.

The Approach

As the McWrap is such a popular LTO it is often given celebrity status, and like many celebrities and high-end product drops/launches it was susceptible to over-enthusiastic fans wanting to get a sneak-peak so we tapped into this for the premise of our campaign.

We started off by faking a social media hack attack to build hype for the teaser phase. Similar to the famous ‘Anonymous’ hackers, profiles were changed and manipulated to reflect the takeover through stories, posts and riddled responses. The ‘hacker’ used songs and visuals without the usual McDonalds branding to tease the return of the McWrap without the reveal being obvious. Engagement shot through the roof with people trying to figure out what was happening, with genuine concern expressed about the ‘hackers’ identity. 

From here we dispatched our own McDonalds security detail to local branches to protect our celebrity food item whilst giving regular diners a VIP experience. Following this, we launched an on-ground activation and stunt. Where anyone who ordered the McWrap got a security detail or bodyguards to escort you from receiving the order until consumption. Recorded on video to later be shared across socials, after the social reveal of the hack being the McWrap. As part of the retention plan and longevity we continued the conversation through engagement stories, polls and posts.

The Result?

McDonalds wanted to create excitement to try the new McWraps flavors and builds. To not only taste the new McWrap flavors from fears of missing out (FOMO) but to feel the presence of the greatest and most popular sought-after choice. And Incubeta helped them achieve just that; delivering over 500K impressions with 350K reach on Instagram, while twitter brought in an engagement rate of 8.3%.

“It’s never boring working with the Incubeta team, they continuously push boundaries with culturally relevant content that resonates with the audience. This campaign was no different, where the challenge started off as bringing in the same level of buzz as last year to far exceeding in creating the right hype” – Alaa Khushaim, McDonalds KSA Marketing & Comms. Director

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