Some people view dining at McDonald’s as a way to quickly satisfy hunger. But for others, at least for a few weeks out of the year, it’s a money making opportunity. We’re talking, of course, about the fast food titan’s popular Monopoly game. The Marketing Store has worked with McDonald’s on the game for the past six years, instituting an online component and a successful partnership with Best Buy. We chatted with Chris Hess, account director, and Reed Roussel, vice president of interactive marketing of the Chicago-based agency recently about the challenges of keeping Monopoly hot and fresh.
CM PLUS: What was McDonald’s goal when they started working with The Marketing Store?
HESS: They wanted to innovate the game, so they asked us to take a fresh look. One of the challenges we’ve run into is how to innovate without walking away from the core mechanic that consumers [like].
CM PLUS: Is the core component of the off-line game still going into a restaurant and getting the game pieces on cups and food containers?
ROUSSEL: You still collect pieces and you can still win many fabulous prizes. [But now,] every single one of those pieces that you collect has a code. You go online and register, and every code allows you to roll the dice for another turn. A lot of consumers don’t realize that, but a lot do. Last year we had a million consumers play and 20 million codes entered.
CM PLUS: What type of information do you collect from consumers?
ROUSSEL: We collect their e-mail address and birthdate, to make sure they’re COPPA compliant and old enough for us to gather information from online. We also collect their name and zip code, as well as their cell phone number if they’d like to opt-in for future communications from McDonald’s.
CM PLUS: Did you find it was mostly younger consumers willing to share their mobile numbers?
ROUSSEL: Yes. Most people “of age” don’t know how to SMS. (laughs)
CM PLUS: How has the Monopoly program evolved as you’ve worked with McDonald’s over the last six years?
HESS: I think one of the biggest innovations we’ve brought to the table is the online piece. That really changed the face of the game. There are really three pillars to the in-store game that consumers look for year after year—the collect and win, where you collect properties and win; the instant win, where you find out instantly if you’ve won food or whatever the prize may be; and the guaranteed win, which is another layer we introduced via a partnership with Best Buy three years ago. In 2004, we first executed Best Chance Monopoly, which was a co-headlining promotion with McDonald’s and Best Buy. It was a huge success. One thing we’ve always faced is a consumer perception that “I’m never going to win.” We were challenged by the client to address that. How are we going to make consumers feel like they can to win? What better way than to tell them they are guaranteed to win something from Best Buy if they purchase certain products. In year one, it was Best Buy Bucks you could collect and use to purchase almost anything at Best Buy. Last year, we increased that to include a $3 Best Buy Buck. This year, while Best Buy isn’t a headlining participant, they are participating in the guaranteed win portion of the game and offering a $5 Best Buy Buck.
CM PLUS: Demographically, who is the biggest user of the online component of the game?
HESS: It’s interesting. From a gender standpoint, it just barely skews more heavily female, a 55/45 split. Predominantly, it’s 25- to 35-year-old females. The creative target is much broader, people 18 to 44. Creatively we target a younger audience and we hope to get some of the younger consumers aspiring to that age group, as well as older consumers “aspiring down.”
ROUSSEL: The only demographic that skews male is 13 to 17.
CM PLUS: Did different pockets of people respond differently at different times of day?
ROUSSEL: Yes. During the normal work day, there tends to be more females playing. Then after work and during the night, it tends to skew more male.
CM PLUS: When will this year’s Monopoly game start? Anything different planned for 2006?
HESS: It launches on October 3. McDonald’s is taking the lead this year instead of sharing the spotlight with Best Buy. I can’t share too much yet, but you’ll see what we’ve done is very research driven. It’s based on offering money and cash and wealth, versus prizes.
