McDonald's spices up new year with global campaign that 'raises your arches'

As we approach the dawn of the new year, McDonald’s spices things up with its first global branding campaign of the year in partnership with DDB Group Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is the first market in Asia to launch the campaign namely “Raise Your Arches” to bring together the brand’s essence of sharing delicious feel-good moment with its place in the pop culture.

At the heart of the brand’s global “Fan Truths” strategy, the campaign begins with the hero video adapted from the global campaign, featuring office workers using their eyebrow “arches” to invite others to join them for a bite at McDonald’s.

For 10 days starting from 26 January, iconic food items will be given out for free on McDonald’s Instagram via 100,000 e-vouchers, sharing happiness with HongKongers as a celebration of the Lunar New Year.

The brand is also starting a new partnership with Warner Music that allows customers to enjoy the latest international and local pop music in McDonald’s restaurants, with global superstars and Grammy award winners such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa to local pop stars MC Cheung, Dear Jane and Panther Chan. The campaign playlist is now available on Spotify.

With the unique line-up of singers, celebrities, and influencers and the primary target audience in mind, this is a social-first as well as an OMO (online-merge-offline) campaign to tap into the growing segment of Gen Z customers.

To further leverage social media marketing strategy, the campaign is then amplified mainly via Instagram with the brand’s star-studded cast to enact and further spread the expression. An adapted Instagram filter game will also be available for fans to enjoy and share as a digital expression to invite others to McDonald’s.

By replying to daily Instagram posts and tagging two friends, consumers can redeem e-vouchers for iconic food items at McDonald’s, further driving an invitation to actual visitation.  The campaign closes the loop with in-store visibility as well throughout Hong Kong’s busiest districts via a truck that will showcase a music video made especially for the campaign featuring multiple Warner Music singers, from Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, Central, Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok. The campaign will also be featured at the escalators at Causeway Bay MTR station.  

Randy Lai, CEO of McDonald’s Hong Kong, said: “We are proud to be the first international market after the U.K. to launch this brand initiative. As a beloved brand that Hong Kongers have grown up with, McDonald’s has always strived to deliver innovative experiences and moments of happiness. This time, we are also excited to partner with Warner Music to elevate our dine-in experience, allowing our customers to enjoy the latest international and local pop hits along with our iconic food.”

Gordon Lee, managing director of Warner Music Hong Kong, said: "We are delighted to collaborate with McDonald's on this fun campaign! Not only fans can listen to music from their favorite Warner's artists with this additional channel, but Warner's music will be with every McDonald's happy customer when they are enjoying their best-loved Hotcakes or Big Mac!”

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