McDonald’s World Cup Meals Show the Power of Consistency
McDonald's
As seleções do Méqui estão de volta
Brands across Brazil have released World Cup ads, and the airwaves are full of nostalgia, enthusiasm, and a longing for victory. How do you stand out? McDonald’s has a simple solution: get a 24-year head start on the competition.
The fast food brand’s new World Cup ad features its “Seleções do Méqui” promotion, a two-month celebration of the tournament with meals inspired by many of the countries taking part. There’s host nations Mexico and the USA, title holders Argentina, and European greats Spain and Germany, among others. In the ad, a chef from each nation presents their sandwich. But all of them are defeated by the McBrazil meal, available every day of the promotion alongside one of the others each week.
This ad has humor, patriotism, and tasty food—a recipe for effectiveness already. Exploring world cuisine via McDonald’s meals is a fun and exciting way of getting involved in the World Cup. But the ad has a secret weapon, too. This isn’t the first time McDonald’s has run a World Cup Meals promotion. In fact, it’s the seventh, with meals from around the world on offer at every tournament since the Japan and Korea World Cup in 2002.
This means that, as well as its highly emotional and entertaining qualities, McDonald’s has consistency on its side, too. It may only come around every four years, but customers and fans have come to expect the World Cup Meals, and there’s excitement and speculation about which countries will feature each time. (Sorry, McQatar fans, you’ll have to wait until 2030.)
As we’ve demonstrated in reports like our Compound Creativity study, consistency is one of the most effective and valuable things a brand can have. Familiarity builds anticipation, makes positive responses easier, and lets a campaign evolve and grow over time. In this case, the surprise and excitement of finding out each World Cup’s flavors is a real boost to audience response.
On our Test Your Ad platform, the ad is a hit across men, women, and all age groups, coming in at a very strong 4.7-Star Rating for long-term potential. In the short term, the campaign is also set to deliver a big sales boost, with a strong Spike Rating, too. That’s based on the exceptional Fast Fluency (rapid recognition) score it gets and a very strong Emotional Intensity score.
Looking at the Test Your Ad Pro diagnostics, like Types of Happiness, gives us deeper insight into exactly why the ad works. As well as Sensory Pleasure, which you’d expect a fast food ad to deliver, McDonald’s also scores very well on Amusement, showing the balance of fun and temptation that gives the ad its impact. Every key association is strongly positive, too.
McDonald’s has put together a winning side of meals with this new set of World Cup deals. But like any winning side, the key to success is preparation, and with 24 years of consistency, the brand is showing why it’s ahead of the competition.
