McDonald's Advertising Strategy - The 'Lost Ring' Campaign

Abstract:

The case focuses on the alternate reality game (ARG) named 'The Lost Ring' sponsored by the US-based fast food company McDonald's. McDonald's, as a part of its multi-pronged marketing campaign to commemorate four decades of association with the Olympic Games, decided to be a part of the ARG, The Lost Ring. The ARG that began in March 2008 attracted gamers from all over the world. The game started with a series of clues that led to hidden artifacts across the world, and finally to solving the mystery that involved finding the sixth Olympic ring. The story was woven around amnesiac athletes from parallel worlds, lost Olympic sport, Greek mythology, labyrinths, Esperanto language etc.To solve the mysteries, the participants had to search for clues both online and offline. Over three million people from 100 countries across the world participated actively in solving the mysteries. The associated websites received millions of blog and media impressions. Though McDonald's was involved in the game right from the beginning, the fact that it was sponsoring the ARG was revealed much later. All through the ARG, no reference was made either to McDonald's or its products, which left analysts wondering how McDonald's could have benefited from its involvement in the whole event. Some of analysts termed it as 'Dark Marketing,' as the presence of McDonald's was barely felt through the entire event.

Issues: Understand the emerging trends in advertising in a web-enabled world. Evaluate using ARG as a promotion and advertising tool. Analyze the pros and cons of using ARG for marketing. Examine how ARGs can be used as an audience engagement tool.

Contents:

Page No. Introduction Background Note 1 2

The Mystery Begins The Story Unfolds The Secret Revealed The Results ExhibitsKeywords:

4 5 8 10 12

McDonald's, Alternate Reality Gaming, Beijing Olympic Games, Advertising Strategy, Multi-pronged Marketing, 'The Lost Ring', Web 2.0, Jane McGonigal, AKQA, The International Olympic Committee, Lost sport, Bloggers, Dark Marketing, Webenabled Tools, Audience Engagement

The Olympics in Beijing are a very big event for us, and we have a lot of different types of activation, with The Lost Ring being the most creative. Our goal is really about strengthening our bond with the global youth culture."1 - Mary Dillon, Global Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald's, in 2008. "This Alternate Reality Game (ARG) extends McDonald's historic sponsorship of the Olympic Games in a brand-new direction. Its goal is to create global collaboration and bring the spirit of the Games to people around the world. It will invite players from across the globe to join forces online and in the real world, as they investigate forgotten mysteries and urban legends of the ancient games." 2 - Jane McGonigal, Games Designer, The Lost Ring, in 2008.

Introduction

In January 2009, the AdweekMedia BUZZ3 awards were presented. The grand prize winner was AKQA4 for 'The Lost Ring' campaign. The awards were presented in 17 categories and in each of the categories the winners were selected by a panel of judges that consisted of 16 industry experts. From the 17 winners, the editors of Adweek, Brandweek, and Mediaweek chose the grand prize winner, for creating the most buzzworthy campaign. 'The Lost Ring' campaign was chosen for the winner due to its "Most seamless incorporation of a brand logo, character, jingle, or product into the world of a game."5 The campaign also won the BUZZ award in the gaming category.

Introduction Contd...

The Lost Ring, an alternate reality game (ARG) (Refer to Exhibit I for more about alternate reality games), was created for the US-based fast-food company, McDonald's Corporation (McDonald's) by renowned ARG designer Jane McGonigal6(McGonigal) and AKQA. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also actively involved in the project. To commemorate 40 years of sponsoring Olympic Games, McDonald's launched a multi-pronged marketing effort, whose main aim was to enhance the brand image of McDonald's while providing support to the Olympic Games, and 'The Lost Ring' formed a part of those efforts.The ARG began on March 03, 2008, and ended on August 24, 2008, coinciding with the closing ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. As a part of the game, for a period of around six months, gamers from all over the world received clues about ancient mysteries and legends. The clues were hidden both online and offline. The gamers had to search websites like YouTube and Flickr for the clues. They also had to hunt for clues in different places across the world. This called for participation from people in those locations. The game attracted over four million people, across 100 countries who shared information through blogs, forums, mails, etc...

Background Note

McDonald's was founded by the McDonald brothers - Richard and Maurice - in San Bernardino, California, in 1937. It was the first self-service restaurant in the US, and it soon gained popularity. In 1961, Ray Kroc who was a franchising agent for McDonald's bought out the business rights for McDonald's and changed the name of the company to McDonald's Corporation...The Mystery Begins

The game started in February 2008 with McDonald's and AKQA sending packages to 50 active bloggers, who blogged frequently about gaming.Packages were sent from a mysterious address - T L Ring, 1920 Olympic Way, San Francisco, CA - to bloggers across the world, located in the UK, Canada, the US, and Germany. Each package contained a few postcards from the 1920 Olympic Games , a poster from the 1920 Olympic Games with a picture of a discus thrower, and a ball of yarn of different colors...

The Story Unfolds'The Lost Ring' featured six characters who had amnesia and did not remember anything about themselves. They found themselves in different places in the world, blindfolded, wearing sports attire, with a tattoo on their hands in the Esperanto language - that translated into 'find the lost ring'. All of them were athletes with the caliber to participate in the Olympics...

Excerpts Contd... The Secret Revealed

The Codex of twenty seven artifacts, when completed, revealed three secrets. The first secret was that there were several parallel worlds existing in the universe, and the six amnesiac athletes came from these worlds. The second secret was that the worlds remained in coordination, due to the practice of the ancient sport called Labyrinth Running...The Results

Like any other ARG, 'The Lost Ring' also involved gathering information through social networking.The players were allowed to communicate with each other and also with the characters - Ariadne, Diego, Lucie, Markus, Meihui, Noriko, Eli Hunt, Kai, and Larissa through e-mails, chats, bulletin, etc. and then also share the information on public forums. The players did not have to be technical wizards. Only access to the Internet and the ability to use image sharing was required. 'The Lost Ring' also used GPS devices called tracksticks to verify the labyrinth paths...

ExhibitsExhibit I: More about Alternate Reality Gaming Exhibit II: Image of the Clue Found in Sydney - Preparing the Human Labyrinth