MCDONALD'S: The ‘MAc-COIN’

In 2018, the Big Mac celebrated its 50th anniversary and we needed to reignite the love. The Big Mac is sold at more than 36,000 restaurants in 120 countries across the globe and has become universally recognizable. So much so, the ‘Big Mac Index’ was created by the Economist in 1986 to measure the purchasing power of international currencies every year. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the world’s most iconic burger, we created the world’s first food-backed currency. Each MacCoin was worth one Big Mac in restaurants, but collecting them all… priceless.

The MacCoin was released on the 100th birthday of the inventor of the Big Mac. We created 5 coin designs to commemorate each decade of the Big Mac. Six million coins were created and distributed in 50 countries, minted in 7 languages and accepted in more countries than the Euro. The MacCoins were activated differently in each market with everything from a coin toss at a professional soccer match in Argentina to a fan getting a Big Mac tattoo in exchange for the MacCoins.

The MacCoin reignited love for the Big Mac: Global social buzz was 906k (80% more than the goal), there were 85k global social mentions with a 95% positive tone leading to a 40% lift in social conversation (and 1 million earned social mentions and engagements). We saw a 3 billion global impressions (more than any other McDonald’s global campaign to date), 40% sales lift in the US, 6% increase in global Big Mac sales (that’s $1.8 million incremental Big Mac sales in the US alone).