2023 Winner
SilverBest in Websites and Microsites
McDonald's
"Crush The Rush"
OMD
"Crush The Rush"
OMD
From the onset of the pandemic McDonald's had struggled to hire and retain staff. With record low unemployment, QSR brands were competing for the same shrinking pool of talent. In many cases, McDonald's locations had to reduce operating hours or close entirely due to lack of staffing. There was a war for talent and McDonald's needed to stand out against competing brands looking to recruit.
The key hiring target for McDonald's and its competitors is the youth demographic (16- 24). They tend to be students looking for part-time work. They are attracted to companies that will offer them flexible schedules, be easily accessible, and have fun workplaces. Despite aligning strongly to their needs, McDonald’s had been declining as an appealing employment option according to internal brand tracking. Their challenge was to stop the decline in the ‘good employer’ score and increase applications. Ultimately, McDonald's needed to shift workplace perceptions with his group by showcasing how McDonald’s aligns to their employment needs.
Their target is naturally distrustful of brands. They are inundated with ads, and don't have the time or desire to determine what they should believe. While McDonald's and other brands often use TV and longform video to increase trust and believability, they knew that the youth demographic watches far less TV and has shorter attention spans.
The youth demographic’s consumption of media is mobile-first, whether watching video content, streaming audio, or accessing social media, which is their preferred platform for job searching. Even when they are consuming more “traditional” media, they are using their phone as a second screen, often to play video games. Through the pandemic, they saw their target’s time with video games increase substantially, this continued to increase even as restrictions eased.
To make youth believe that McDonald's is a good employer, they needed to showcase their differentiated culture centered around comradery and teamwork. Rather than explaining these benefits in a 15 second spot, they wanted them to experience it in a unique and enjoyable way.
They met them where they were, creating a mobile game called “Crush the Rush” which was built to look and feel like McDonald’s restaurant. The game itself was simple; the user had control of the crew at a McDonald's restaurant, with one crew member at each food station. As cars entered the drive-thru, users would receive a prompt for that car's order, which was fulfilled by clicking the correct menu item at a specific food station. The game tracked the number of total orders fulfilled, ending when the drive-thru was backed up to more than five cars.
With their primary objective being to change perceptions of McDonald's as a good employer, they leaned into teamwork and comradery as their key differentiator by including a team ‘power boost’ button to slow down time and give them time to catch up.
While not their primary objective for this execution, they knew that in order to hit hiring and application goals, they needed to have a frictionless way for players to apply for a job on the McDonald's hiring website. The game offered a leaderboard to promote replayability and encouraged players to complete an application to join the real-life McDonald's crew. Throughout the game players could click to apply, driving them directly to the application page.
The agency had a mobile-first strategy, with all elements driving directly to “Crush the Rush”. They were highly targeted in their media, relying on platforms and activities where their target was spending the most time.
Ads across TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, Twitter, programmatic video and display pushed directly to the game. They leveraged McDonald's CRM emails and App base to round out their support.
The game surpassed all their reach and engagement benchmarks, with 174,000 game starts, and an average time with the game of 57 seconds. It helped us reach their youth demographic and contributed to stopping the negative trend in "Good Employer" scores.
In the months that “Crush the Rush” was live, their applications grew 34% YoY.
The key hiring target for McDonald's and its competitors is the youth demographic (16- 24). They tend to be students looking for part-time work. They are attracted to companies that will offer them flexible schedules, be easily accessible, and have fun workplaces. Despite aligning strongly to their needs, McDonald’s had been declining as an appealing employment option according to internal brand tracking. Their challenge was to stop the decline in the ‘good employer’ score and increase applications. Ultimately, McDonald's needed to shift workplace perceptions with his group by showcasing how McDonald’s aligns to their employment needs.
Their target is naturally distrustful of brands. They are inundated with ads, and don't have the time or desire to determine what they should believe. While McDonald's and other brands often use TV and longform video to increase trust and believability, they knew that the youth demographic watches far less TV and has shorter attention spans.
The youth demographic’s consumption of media is mobile-first, whether watching video content, streaming audio, or accessing social media, which is their preferred platform for job searching. Even when they are consuming more “traditional” media, they are using their phone as a second screen, often to play video games. Through the pandemic, they saw their target’s time with video games increase substantially, this continued to increase even as restrictions eased.
To make youth believe that McDonald's is a good employer, they needed to showcase their differentiated culture centered around comradery and teamwork. Rather than explaining these benefits in a 15 second spot, they wanted them to experience it in a unique and enjoyable way.
They met them where they were, creating a mobile game called “Crush the Rush” which was built to look and feel like McDonald’s restaurant. The game itself was simple; the user had control of the crew at a McDonald's restaurant, with one crew member at each food station. As cars entered the drive-thru, users would receive a prompt for that car's order, which was fulfilled by clicking the correct menu item at a specific food station. The game tracked the number of total orders fulfilled, ending when the drive-thru was backed up to more than five cars.
With their primary objective being to change perceptions of McDonald's as a good employer, they leaned into teamwork and comradery as their key differentiator by including a team ‘power boost’ button to slow down time and give them time to catch up.
While not their primary objective for this execution, they knew that in order to hit hiring and application goals, they needed to have a frictionless way for players to apply for a job on the McDonald's hiring website. The game offered a leaderboard to promote replayability and encouraged players to complete an application to join the real-life McDonald's crew. Throughout the game players could click to apply, driving them directly to the application page.
The agency had a mobile-first strategy, with all elements driving directly to “Crush the Rush”. They were highly targeted in their media, relying on platforms and activities where their target was spending the most time.
Ads across TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, Twitter, programmatic video and display pushed directly to the game. They leveraged McDonald's CRM emails and App base to round out their support.
The game surpassed all their reach and engagement benchmarks, with 174,000 game starts, and an average time with the game of 57 seconds. It helped us reach their youth demographic and contributed to stopping the negative trend in "Good Employer" scores.
In the months that “Crush the Rush” was live, their applications grew 34% YoY.
Credits
Mikayla Smith - Senior Strategist - OMDKyla Ames - Associate Director, Operations - OMD
Andrew Mumford - Senior Manager, National Marketing - McDonald's Canada
Terra Sharek - Platform Account Executive - Yahoo
Rebecca Smart - Marketing Director, Brand Strategy - McDonald's Canada
Maggie Panighel - Director, Talent Attraction and Engagement - McDonald's Canada
Fatima Manjra - Employer Reputation & Employee Experience Consultant - McDonald's Canada
Nabiha Advani - National Marketing Supervisor - McDonald's Canada
Nicole Barcellos - External Communications Manager - McDonald's Canada
Alison Still - Account Supervisor – Cossette
Alyssa Buetikofer – CMO - McDonald's Canada
Logan Lindsay - Group Director of Strategy - OMD
Jennifer Wasley - Vice President, Integrated Media - Weber Shandwick
Guillaume Boucher-Provost - Associate, Integrated Media - Weber Shandwick
Robyn Walters - Founder at Robyn Walters Coaching and Consulting - Robyn Walters Coaching and Consulting
Kelsey De Melo - Sr. Associate, Integrated Media - Weber Shandwick
Milena D'Agostino - Director, Integrated Media - Weber Shandwick
Alexandre Gadoua - Group Creative Director – Cossette
Gemma Pryor - Senior Director - McDonald's Canada
Sabrina Greco - Senior Manager - McDonald's Canada
Lena Soliman - Associate Creative Director – Cossette
Joël Letarte - Associate Creative Director – Cossette
Victoria Boyer - Account Advisor – Cossette
Anjelica Kapetanos - Business Director – Cossette
David Ross – Yahoo
Carletta Arnold – Yahoo
Magdalena Wojcik – Yahoo
Anna Bowers – Yahoo
Blair Raynor – Yahoo
Meredith White – Yahoo
Amrita Uttamchandani – Yahoo
Amanda Jones – Yahoo
Deepak Kumar Deepak – Yahoo
Kathrine Padolina – Yahoo
Jennifer Lannon – Yahoo
Grant Corley - Yahoo