How McDonald's turned back time in a cost of living crisis

Context

At the end of 2022, though the pandemic may have been easing up, inflation was just about to hit its peak. Consumers were looking for better value everywhere, and many brands were offering discounts and deals. McDonald's Sweden wanted to stand out in this environment, and help their deals cut through.

Objectives

• Keep sales from falling as inflation rises
• Drive perceptions of good value for McDonald's

Insight

Most offers in the QSR world are time-limited. But there's one place where they're not - Google Maps. There, billboards from years ago can be seen, still promoting old offers and discounts that no longer exist.

Strategy

McDonald's decided to use this to enable consumers to find their own deals. Their campaign, "Deals Stuck in Time" encouraged people to access Google Street View to track down old out-of-home promotions and unlock deals that were ‘frozen in time’.
They gave people some agency in finding good value, turning it into a digital treasure hunt. At the same time, they delivered on a remarkable promise that no one would have expected: while everyone else was adjusting their prices upwards for inflation, McDonald's were winding back the clock to a time before inflation had begun to rise.

Outcome

Swedes found more than 4,000 McDonald’s OOH advertisements from the past on Google Street View. Around 840,000 Swedes engaged with the dealsstuckintime.se website and 32,000 deals were applied. The number of active users (people who use the app at least once a week) increased by 25% during the campaign period and there were more than 23,000 downloads of the McDonald's app during the campaign period (3,000 more than the objective). Deals Stuck in Time generated more than 13 million earned media impressions.