Episode 127 - McDonald's Sweden Deals Stuck in Time Ad Reviewed by TANK Worldwide, Goodfella's Pizza and Haleon

Were the good times really better?

McDonald’s Swedish ad, Deals Stuck In Time, is letting people jump back in time to frozen prices as long as they can find old deals from Google Street View. How does this work and what’s the long term benefit for the brand?

Our panel of marketing experts made up of Gus Nwanya (Associate Creative Director at TANK Worldwide), Samantha Dolan (Head of Marketing at Goodfella’s Pizza), and James Sharman (Marketing Performance and Content Lead at Haleon) were not impressed with this activation.

What do you think of the ad created by NORD DDB and chosen by Contagious on this week’s Advertisers Watching Ads? 

McDonald's Sweden Deals Stuck in Time Ad Reviewed by TANK Worldwide, Goodfella's Pizza and Haleon

Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!

Tom Ollerton 0:00

Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.

Tom Ollerton 0:48

We are brought to you, as ever, by our partners, Contagious. So thanks so much, guys, for helping us choose the innovative ad this week. But before we see the creative, let's meet this week's guests.

Gus Nwanya 0:57

Hi, my name is Gus. I'm Associate Creative Director at TANK Worldwide, based in London.

Samantha Dolan 1:05

Hey, I'm Sam. I look after the Goodfella's pizza brand.

James Sharman 1:08

Hi, I'm James, Marketing Performance and Content Lead at Haleon.

Tom Ollerton 1:12

What a panel! Let's see this week's ad.

Tom Ollerton 1:34

On a scale of one to five, how many votes would you give it? One, two, three... A one, a two, and a two. James, can you help give the audience a bit of background?

James Sharman 1:45

Yeah, sure. So from what I understand, inflation's rising. So obviously, people are feeling the punch with, with, with the cost of living. And every year historically, McDonald's have a promotional period after the holidays. I think they do it in most markets, but they definitely do it in Sweden, they do it in the UK as well for Blue Monday. So I think there's a bit of a historical, we always do a promotional kind of ad or campaign at this part of the year. And I think this ad is meant to take us back in time a little bit to maybe when things were a little bit better, cost of living wasn't as bad as it is now, maybe, pre-COVID. This is just taking us back to cheaper times.

Tom Ollerton 2:21

One thing I don't understand, well, I'm not mega clear on is how it actually works, right? So you have to go to Google Streetview, and you have to find a poster that has a deal from yesteryear, and then you have to go to the website. Did anyone work out quite exactly how you get this cheap McDonald's?

Samantha Dolan 2:42

Not really. On first watch, I just assumed that they, for a week, they put their prices back to that. I didn't, I didn't quite get it. And then, as you say, then you realize it's a bit more complicated than that.

Tom Ollerton 2:52

There's a campaign website, I can... but this basically says this isn't running anymore.

James Sharman 2:56

From what I can kind of gather, this is a little bit more of a data collection exercise because you're effectively saying, "Look, there are deals that need to be had. Go enter our website. Let's have some data in exchange for a 10 kronor cheeseburger." The user journey of this campaign is so convoluted and so, so complicated. It doesn't really want to make me get involved. If there was a bit more of a gamification element then fine. Almost like a Pokemon Go kind of element, fine.

Gus Nwanya 3:23

It's definitely a big step away from, from what McDonald's normally do in terms of ad campaigns. They're not very so digital in mind and this, and I think getting involved in this area, it's very interesting. Whether they've kind of nailed it with this, I'm not sure but it's, it's definitely a, an interesting, a positive step in that type, sort of direction.

Samantha Dolan 3:51

It's difficult, this Swedish market, as you say, and I guess I'm judging it against things they do in the UK, but the reason why I've always preferred their advertising over Burger King is because they very much focus on that emotional benefit. And as marketers were brought up to understand that emotion sells and emotion drives loyalty. So that's what they do. Whereas Burger King focus on it's a flame grilled burger and it's got more beef in it than theirs and it's... They don't focus on that really, McDonald's, they go, you know... My daughter carries on singing the bom boms, latest advert. She's driving me insane, but that's what they do. You know, they get in your head from an emotion... And this isn't, this is very, here's the product, and here's what it might cost you. And there's a, there's the weird Back to the Future reference thing going on. It's just, the whole branding of it is odd. It's just odd.

James Sharman 4:38

From one perspective, I believe that McDonald's often buy the same out of home properties and they have done for years, right. They do a lot of out of home advertising. So if you see a McDonald's ad, in real life, an out of home ad, I suppose you could get your phone out there and kind of go back in time and you're in front of the ad and you're spending time in front of the ad. Possibly, an element to make it a little bit easy. But then the follow on from that, the user journey after that is, is really complicated. I'm struggling to find out who this is really targeted at, because Back to the Future is like 40 years old. So if this is a younger audience, they probably don't even get the reference.

Gus Nwanya 5:12

All that effort for a slightly cheaper burger? I don't know. I mean, maybe if it was free, it would have probably get a lot more sort of volume, a lot more traction, a lot more voice and interest. You could do something that you know, group based activity. But for a cheaper burger? That's a lot of effort. That's a lot of time putting in that.

Samantha Dolan 5:34

James mentioned earlier before we started recording about that McDonald's have got a competitor new, fairly new competitor, I think you said James in Sweden, so and that one thing, they're not going to be short of is data, right? So they're going to be going, who's going to Max Hamburger if that's what it was called, who's not coming to McDonald's? And that's probably who this is targeting. But I'm still not clear who it is. And I still don't think it does anything to bring those people back in the long term, they might come back for that one deal. But again, I'm like a dog with a bone with the emotional benefit, but they're not bringing them back in for the longer term, it's just... And it's a lot of effort to everyone's point. It's a strange, strange promotion.

James Sharman 6:14

It doesn't feel like a McDonald's ad to me.

Samantha Dolan 6:16

No.

James Sharman 6:16

There's, there's no jingle at the end. There's no "I'm lovin' it." The, I mean, there's a small logo at the start, small logo at the end, but everything else doesn't feel like it. Personally, I would... If we're going with a slightly nostalgic theme, and the Google Maps dates back to, I think 2009 that you can go back to the Google Maps and have a look. I don't know but that feels about the same time that "I'm lovin' it" came out as a jingle with Justin Timberlake. I would have preferred the creative to kind of go almost back to their old ads, and have a bit of nostalgia about, "Ah, do you remember that ad, do you remember when that first came out with Justin, I remember those times. Do you remember when a cheeseburger was 10 kronor?" I think for me that would evoke more emotion, whereas at the moment, it just feels a bit, a bit of a halfway house.

Samantha Dolan 7:05

It might have been targeted at teenagers who wouldn't know that, but then they're not going to know Back to the Future even.

Gus Nwanya 7:13

It's that balance of nostalgia, and you know, going back to a time when things were, were relatively better, and but then what for who? Right? For my generation? Great, I get it, but you know, a 16-17 year old, probably, better sort of doing something that was, you know, TikTok or, or Instagram based, you know, to get that sort of attention and, and grab that audience because I think those are the those are the kind of the demographics that are frequently, frequent in McDonald's on a regular.

Tom Ollerton 7:49

Do you think this is actually quite a smart use of a small budget?

Samantha Dolan 7:52

We don't know if it's worked, then yes, if it hasn't, then... but even Google Streetview feels really old school for teenagers. My son's 17 and he ain't getting his phone out snapping a picture of a... And he lives in McDonald's. And he's not because... To your point, Tom, that's the budget he's on. He works two nights a week in a chippy and you know, that's his budget is McDonald's, and Greggs levels, but he's not. Even to save money, he's not getting his phone out and going around looking for a...

Gus Nwanya 8:18

I think James said something interesting about it being some sort of data capturing exercise, right? I'm seeing a lot of, a lot of that happening now. You know, you go into the automated systems in the McDonald's and there, there's even got a, you know, member login now, right? So I'm like, "A member? I'm a member, you can be a member of McDonald's?" I'm not sure what benefits you get other than, you know, cheaper meals. But you know, it is a data capturing exercise from, from, from what it looked like to me. But what they do with that data and how they're going to make use of it is, I'm not sure. It just felt very much like, "Let's get new people involved." And maybe they've got some ultimate big plan ahead that they're, they're hoping to reveal in the next coming years. But at the moment, it was just a sort of a poor data capturing exercise, activation, I think at the moment.

Tom Ollerton 9:15

Would you have signed off this campaign in its current form? Yes or no? One, two, three... Well, I still think congrats to the agency. It's a very clever idea, but the panel were not impressed. We will see you all next week.