THE PROBLEM
McDonald’s Canada was looking to drive relevance and foot-traffic among a younger audience. With only a $25,000 media budget, McDonald’s needed something that would spark conversations on social platforms and leverage Gen Z’s existing behaviour on social media.

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THE STRATEGY
Enter Grimace, McDonald’s beloved purple character. His bizarre cult status made him the perfect candidate to spark conversation amongst Gen Zs. Instead of shying away from Grimace’s oddness, we leaned into it.

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THE IDEA
After a successful launch of the Grimace Shake in the United States, Canadians were feeling left out. We seeded interest by posing the question “Where is Grimace?”. Next, we placed Grimace in disguise at a Vancouver Canucks playoff game. Throughout the next few days, sightings of Grimace popped up across the country, all captured on social media. Influencers posted content highlighting his footprints in restaurants on the launch day.

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Our tactical communications plan led to a group-search effort with fans, creating mystery around where Grimace might show up next. At no point did McDonald’s suggest they knew his next move, allowing McDonald’s to co-create with fans as the search continued.
 
The campaign culminated with a 45-minute live stream of Grimace's very own DJ set, which could be viewed on McDonald’s owned social channels. Fans could download fun backgrounds for their phones and take selfies with Grimace using a unique Snapchat filter.

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THE RESULTS

• The campaign had a total reach of 816k, 887k total impressions, 2,283 conversations and 33k total engagements, with a positive sentiment rate of 85%.

• Sales far exceeded the plan, with the average location selling 575 units and top-percentile restaurants selling an average of 850. 

• Within the first few days, Canada significantly exceeded the U.S. volumes at their peak virality, lifting shake sales by a whopping 170% in Canada.