Grimace's Birthday
Overview
From email to paid media, we united every channel to throw McD’s biggest birthday bash, cranking up engagement, app registrations, and sales of Grimace’s Birthday Meal and Shake. Outcomes: - 67% Above Unit Sales Projections - 139% Bounceback Push CTR - 1 Billion Views on TikTok Awards: - Effie Gold Award: Grimace Birthday - Adage Best Brand: Grimace Birthday
Deliverables
Experience Strategy
Experience Flows + Approach
Creative Direction + Design
User Testing
We set out to reintroduce Grimace to a whole new generation by tapping into the nostalgia McDonald’s fans still swear by. And if we were bringing back America’s Sweetheart, we weren’t going halfway. We built a full-on birthday celebration, anchored by McDonald’s first new shake flavor in nearly a decade. The result? A nationwide Grimace Birthday Meal that turned a cultural icon into a cultural moment.
Challenges
Turn around brand declines by engaging the future growth engine of the business, multicultural youth, increasing relevance and penetration.
Insight
Young people love celebrating birthdays, but the timeless magic of a McDonald’s birthday wasn’t a core memory for today’s youth.
Strategic Idea/Build
Invite America to celebrate Grimace’s Birthday.
Design Impact
We threw a month-long celebration of everyone’s favorite brand character, Grimace, with the ingredients to let young people make it their own. We also used the character’s playfulness—and, of course, iconic purple—to make the visuals stand out from McDonald’s traditional palette.
Solution
We tailored messaging by Grimace and food affinities, while celebrating diverse youth birthday traditions across digital, driving traffic into a fully purple’d-out McDonald’s app experience.
Results
Publicis One delivered 1.6MM+ additional Guest Counts, powering the strongest non-celebrity campaign to date and beating targets for app registrations, birthday capture, and engagement.
