Summer is a busy time in QSR. Consumers are on the road and seeking convenient, triggering a battle for their fast food dollar. This momentum is hard to maintain as Kiwis head back to work though, making February a traditionally quiet month. So, in 2019, Macca’s sought to bring in the crowds and stir the category with a good old-fashioned battle.

Battle of the Burgers® was an engagement promotion held within the new McDonald’s app. Available only to registered McDonald’s app customers, it reinforced the promise that app users would always be rewarded with exclusive deals and discounts, and created a little excitement in the category to break the back to work blues.

The Macca’s app, launched in February 2018, had enjoyed a record-breaking year of activity for McDonald’s. The analysis of app behavioural data combined with transactional data, confirmed that the app offers were driving incremental visits and sales even during the traditionally low performing time periods for McDonald’s. With a significant database of active users to engage, the challenge was to find a way to inject energy into the category and enough interest to drive visitation in a traditionally quiet period.

The solution was Battle of the Burgers®, a promo running inside the app. It consisted of a series of duelsbetween two favourite burgers. The battles took place over 3 weeks with 12 ‘contestants’ battling it out for victory.

McDonald’s customers were integral to the campaign process. Firstly, they determined which products went ‘head-to-head’ and then their voting sent the winning deal directly to their app wallet. Added to this, McDonald’s were able to capture behavioural data around the voting and offer redemptions to inform the future strategy of personalised app deals.

The promotion delivered a 25% overachievement of its targets and some of the most highly engaged McDonald’s customers ever.