Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenge
Malaysians are creatures of habit. They tend not to stray from their favourite food choices. So, McDonald’s faced difficulties in promoting its new SpicyKoreanBurger. Objective: Introduce and boost sales of this unfamiliar product. This had to be accomplished quickly since the SpicyKoreanBurger was a limited time offer.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
McDonald’s consumers are the masses. Two prominent features define them: i. They gravitate towards serialized drama. ii. They’re everywhere, i.e. cross screens with increased mobile consumption but television still garnered most attention. We developed a 2-prong strategy: 1. Own Korean content/media space 2. Storytell in the form of ad sequencing to create momentum and sustain interest. It was apt for McDonald’s to ride the Korean wave, given K-drama’s heightened emotions hold a big appeal for the majority of the masses, the Malays, who are drawn to more sentimental, melodramatic content. The SoSpicySoDrama campaign was built around tongue-in-cheek short dramas which seamlessly introduced the SpicyKoreanBurger. These tied in to the Korean Wave through catchphrases like daebak (‘awesome’) and K-pop music.

Media Execution
1. Owning Korean media space: a. Korean drama platforms: We capitalized on VIKI and VIU, the most popular Korean video platforms b. all things Korean on YouTube: K-drama, K-pop, Korean skincare and cosmetics (which are highly relevant to K-fans). c. Korean on TV: Increasing our buys in Korean content by 3x. 2. Story-telling via media: a. 4-day teaser campaign: Building anticipation with 2 short teasers, featuring typical Korean dramatic moments. b. Launch: Launched with the full-length #SoSpicySoDrama video. c. Ad sequencing: Sustain interest with 3 different, shorter versions via ad sequencing/retargeting d. Pocket TVC on Facebook: Smart cuts optimised for small screens and mobile users’ behavior – short, with supers

Results and Effectiveness
The campaign exceeded all expectations: – The SpicyKoreanBurger sold out within 4 days! – Spontaneous user-generated content, including free food reviews and YouTube coverage – it even became a case in Think with Google SEA