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The star of our social campaign was Uli Hoeness, the former German soccer star and current president of Germany’s most popular soccer club, FC Bayern Munich. With his support, McDonald’s planned to launch a new burger: the Nuernburger.
Nuernberger is a popular, small bratwurst from the city of Nuremberg. But the Nuernburger is McDonald’s own invention. A unique burger with three thin German Bratwurst in a bread bun with mustard and roasted onions.
The challenge: How could we make the Nuernburger McDonald’s first product to launch exclusively in social media, without the support of any offline media?
Mostly men aged 18-39.
Interested in soccer and media affine.
A little-known fact: Uli Hoeness is not only a former legendary soccer star, but also the owner of a large German sausage factory, HoWe Wurstwaren (it’s true!). Even stranger, his Nuremberg-based sausage factory would provide McDonald’s with the sausages for the Nuernburger.
This fact gave rise to the idea that it should be the famous Uli Hoeness himself who should promote the new burger.
Uli Hoeness is not just anyone. He is a polarizing figure in German soccer. Above this he is an outspoken Internet skeptic. This campaign would give the German public the opportunity to see Uli from a completely new side: As a humorous, likeable blogger.
For the campaign Uli would go “undercover”. He put on a disguise in order not to be identified as himself and set out to promote his odd burger to local businesses.
In a blog and on YouTube, people could follow the development of his “invention”. We shared four films showing his comic attempts to find buyers for his burger, for example at a sushi shop, in a soup kitchen and at a fish counter.
After about two weeks of social and media buzz McDonald’s revealed its cooperation with the former soccer star and brought the Nuernburger to restaurants nationwide. In the end, not only the press but also our customers fell in love with the Nuernburger.
Thanks to Uli’s fame and McDonald’s funny and entertaining launch campaign the Nuernburger was an instant hit. The campaign received lots of social media buzz as well as traditional media attention. And also, in the restaurant, the Nuernburger became quite a sensation.
In figures that meant:
McDonald’s first social product launch
No paid offline media
7 Million media impressions
More than double of projected sales
One Million Burgers sold in 3 weeks
Promotional Period first doubled, then tripled
In the end the Nuernburger was in restaurants more than three times the time period which had initially been anticipated.