Success stories

McDonald's Thailand

Increasing sales of soft serve ice cream and in-store traffic with native content and Spark Ads

130 %

Increase in sales of soft serve ice-cream

83 %

Increase in-store traffic vs. previous month

9 M

Video views

The Objective

Leveraging an organic trend with community-led creativity

McDonald's fans in Southeast Asia have an impressive imagination. Every now and then, there's an idea so creative, it opens up an opportunity for real, authentic community interaction that goes viral. In this case, it started when TikTok users in Indonesia posted a new, inspired way to enjoy McDonald's soft serve ice cream. The trend quickly snowballed into a full fledged viral challenge that caught on in Thailand as well. Seeing an opportunity to join in the fun, McDonald's Thailand wanted to jump in on this soft serve challenge, and leverage native content and Spark Ads on TikTok. As a first-time adopter of native-format ads, the brand's goal was to connect with consumers and increase brand visibility on TikTok, where the craze first kicked off.

The Solution

Amplifying user-generated content to build a joyful community spirit

It all started with two McDonald's customers in Indonesia bringing their own container to the restaurant, and smashing multiple soft serve ice creams into a mouthwatering mash up. Soon, others began to catch on, leading to countless of fun and creative videos uploaded by the community under the hashtag. Lovin' this fun new trend, McDonald's Thailand saw this as an opportunity to not only promote their product, but engage their audience authentically at scale, and build brand love.

To do so, McDonald's Thailand decided to try a TikTok-inspired approach. The brand amplified the user-generated content by boosting users' posts with Spark Ads, spreading joy in the process. Spark Ads are a native ad format that enables advertisers to leverage organic TikTok posts and features in their campaigns. This unique ad format allows advertisers to publish ads using their own TikTok account's posts, as well as by using organic posts made by other creators, with their consent.

To build on the success of the trend, McDonald's Thailand also pushed the soft serve mash up challenge on other digital platforms, creating a halo effect for the whole brand. The fast food brand even created an entirely new menu item to celebrate the community-created dessert, with ads promoting the latest craze highlighting its origins on TikTok. And to make life easier for customers who wanted to join in the trend, McDonald's Thailand now provided the container in-store.

The Results

Increasing brand visibility and sales with native-format ads

In addition to creating a massive cultural wave on the platform with over 9M video views, McDonald's Thailand discovered TikTok trends also impact the outside world. The brand saw sales for soft serve ice cream increase by 130%, alongside an 83% increase in guest counts (in-store traffic) compared to the previous month. It seems McDonald's Thailand fans really were lovin' this trend.

In addition, this was the first time McDonald's Thailand had used native-format ads on TikTok, resulting in a 10x increase in the 6s view through rate compared with the brand's original thematic assets. With the native content driving such a significant improvement in campaign results, McDonald's Thailand has adapted its TikTok strategy to continue including native-format ads ever since.

McDonald's Thailand's experience proves TikTok is a living community that thrives on collaboration. The brand found out first-hand how this community-led entertainment platform opens doors to drive engagement and make impactful connections with consumers, not only to entertain, but also drive sales and brand visibility, and even brand love.