McDonald’s Celebrates Big Mac Anniversary with Song Contest
The Big Mac is 40. To celebrate, McDonald’s is out with a contest asking people to submit their best remix of the well-known jingle played in the ad campaigns for the sandwich.
Entrants can add personal touches to the popular 1974 jingle: “Two all-beef patties, special sauce lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” Video or audio remixes can be uploaded to www.MySpace.com/BigMacChant through July 6.
A panel of judges will narrow down the field of entries. Online voting begins July 16. The entries with the most votes will be featured in a McDonald’s Big Mac TV ad, which will air in July.
The “Big Mac Chant Casting Call” culminates a yearlong celebration of the Big Mac’s 40th anniversary. The latest effort is getting some support from MySpace artists, including Christina Milian and Pacific Division. Each crafted a version of the jingle to hype the campaign, which can be viewed at the promotional site.
McDonald’s is driving awareness of the contest through a variety of methods. It’s partnering with MySpace.com to launch banner ads on user home pages and on the MySpace Music page. It also kicked off a home page takeover roadblock yesterday.
The partnership with the social networking site is crucial to reach McDonald’s target: young adults, said Kent Voetberg, director of marketing, McDonald’s USA. MySpace has more than 55.7 million unique users each month.
“It is a relevant way to reach our customers and unique vehicle to engage them,” Voetberg said. “The media landscape is changing, and given its evolution and our customers’ changing needs, we need to reach them where they are. MySpace provides us with a great platform to do that.”
TV spots begin airing this week on VH1, MTV and Comedy Central. Paid search ads are running on Google. Video ads on YouTube’s homepage and in the music, entertainment and movies categories begin June 21. The firm is also running digital banners, video and rich media on MTV’s Friday Night Music & News sections.
A custom microsite, www.BigMac.MTV.com, will be posted to coincide with the announcement of the winner at the end of July, Voetberg said.
The Big Mac debuted in 1967 at a McDonald’s restaurant in Uniontown, PA, and sold for 45 cents. It was introduced on McDonald’s national menu in 1968. The company sells more than 500 million Big Mac sandwiches each year in the U.S.
Arc Worldwide is managing the contest. Alma DDB developed Hispanic consumer focused TV spots, while Burrell created spots for African Americans, DDB Chicago for general consumers and IW Group for Asian consumers. Tribal DDB is facilitating the digital components for the program, GolinHarris is overseeing PR and OMD coordinated the TV and digital media buys.
