Mcdonald's

The Objective

In 2021, McDonald's (or Macca's, as it’s known to Aussies) celebrated 50 years down under.

As part of its nationwide birthday party, McDonald's wanted to connect with its existing superfans and re-engage with people who may have drifted away from the brand – all while turbo-charging brand love.

Alongside the golden arches and Big Mac, Macca’s iconic jingle – "ba da ba ba ba" – is one of the most recognisable parts of the brand and an audio icon. So, the brand wanted to leverage this iconic sound and stand out on TikTok by connecting with the community authentically and giving its audience the chance to play with the sound. With the community already playing organically with the brand on TikTok, Macca’s knew this was a natural fit for the platform.

The Solution

McDonald’s did something it had never done before with this campaign; it asked six up and coming Aussie artists from a spread of musical genres to reinterpret the jingle with their own musical flares.

Each creator brought a unique lens to the brief: violinist @joelsvnny had cinematic drama, @h3rizonmusic showed off their acapella nous. Rapper @jaycee spat some bars, @mikaela_swan showcased incredible skills in drumming, @jhekhoos brought a laid-back acoustic spin and @djparislawrence created the remix to remix them all.

Each creator brought their own special sauce to the iconic jingle, and by partnering with a diverse range of creators, Macca’s was able to show up in unexpected ways to many different communities. And now, those audio beds live on the platform as a tool for Macca’s and every-day Aussies to celebrate the brand and continue to drive brand love.

To deliver the campaign, Macca’s leveraged TikTok’s Creator Solutions team to strategically support the delivery of the remixes. To reach Australians at scale, the McDonald's team amplified the campaign through a range of TikTok advertising placements, including One Day Max's, In-Feed Ads, and TopView ad formats. The team also used Spark Ads, which allowed them to boost organic creator content in the For You feed.

The Results

This fit-for-platform campaign showed how sound-first creativity on TikTok can be a powerful brand-building tool. View-through rates of all creative performed well above the benchmark at 10.28%, indicating high community interest. Total impressions hit an impressive 41.2 million.

There was also a 34.9% increase in ad recall, more than 10,000 comments, and 400,000 likes. This indicated the campaign not only stayed with users but also authentically encouraged fan engagement.

The One Day Max placement also performed incredibly well with a 12.56% view-through rate, vastly exceeding the benchmark.