McDonald's goes 'Pakka Indian' with pagdi and spice

Milestone Brandcom executes integrated, innovative OOH programmes and activations to delight consumers in four cities

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | May 23, 2013

Indian food is known for its masaledar taste. Building on the Indian mindset, McDonald's has added a new variant to its menu card: the Masala Grill burger, billed as 'Pakka Indian'. The new Masala Grill is a tasty burst of Indian flavours. The McDonald's TVCs highlight typical Indian behaviour when it comes to bargains, instalments and the like, humorously relating them to the burger's Indian flavour.

The launch was actively supported by a 360 degree holistic marketing campaign with a mix of TVCs, print, outdoor and in-store promotions. Milestone Brandcom extended the OOH campaign across 300+ touch points in four cities. The outdoor campaign continued for a period of three weeks. Large format touch points like billboards, gantries, wall wraps and unipoles were used and extended presence was built using bus shelters across all major junctions and arterial routes.

Rameet Arora, Senior Director, Marketing & Menu Management, McDonald's India – HRPL, said, “The campaign acknowledges and celebrates the colourful life that Indians typically lead. Right from our inherent habit of looking for value in every bargain to our competitive spirit, it captures the elements that make us truly Indian. The communication has been crafted to create an instant connect between the product and the consumers. It attempts to actively engage customers to reach out to what they believe is Pakka Indian.”

The communication objective was to create an instant connect between the 'Indian-ness' of the burger with consumers. To distinguish the campaign on OOH and interact with consumers more effectively, Milestone Brandcom took the communication message from OOH on to activations.

To draw more attention to these spicy delights, Ronald McDonald's look was spiced up to appear more 'Indian'. Across all McDonald's outlets in India Ronald was seen wearing a pagdi (turban). An instant hit with the youngsters and other customers, Ronald completely stole the show and employees of McDonald's stores requested they too be given this pagdi! Along with Ronald, the employees and delivery boys for McDonald's wore this pagdi. The pagdi was customised across various regions to appeal to religious diversity.

Stalls were set up across all major McDonald's outlets and promoters took interviews of consumers asking them if they were aware of the new spicy delights and what they thought of Ronald's new avatar. Many customers, fascinated with the pagdi, even went ahead and took photos for a memory. Their feedback was then captured and posted on Facebook for them to share with their friends, tagging McDonald's India. A picture that got more than 10 likes would be rewarded with a free Masala Grill.

The love for 'masaledar' food with herbs and spices is clearly seen in an Indian kitchen. McDonald's decided to add some spice to an otherwise monotonous day at Kalyan Mall in Mumbai. A circular platform with three mortar and pestles was set up in the central atrium. A group of ladies dressed in traditional Indian attire were seen grinding spices on the podium and inviting people to pound spices and interact with them. To make it more exciting, arrangements for on the spot clicking and printing of pictures complemented the activity to make it a 'Pakka Indian' experience to cherish.

Commenting on the campaign, Hanoz Patel, Founder Member & Managing Partner, Milestone Brandcom, said, “We are honoured to be associated with brand McDonald's. We have executed great work together in the past. The objective for the Pakka Indian campaign was to maximize impact of the new launch. In order to create buzz among customers, it was essential for us to take an unconventional approach. We carried the message of 'masaledar' across engaging innovations at relevant audience-centric touch points.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com