Jack in the Box's campaign, which encourages consumers not to get "McShammed" this St. Patrick's Day, is a creative use of competitive sparring tactics that have been used by QSR marketers for years, aside from a period early in the pandemic when brands backed off as marketing priorities shifted.
McDonald's is notorious for its ice cream machines being broken, to the point where the chain has faced a $900 million lawsuit and an FTC investigation. Jack in the Box's effort revolves around a takeover of McBroken.com, a website launched in October 2020 that taps into the McDonald's mobile API to determine if the ice cream machine is working at the chain's locations.
The takeover helps to raise awareness of Jack in the Box and its similar ice cream offerings, including a limited-edition Oreo Cookie Mint Shake. By providing a link to the Jack in the Box app and providing a coupon, the chain hopes to engage with McDonald's customers at a point of frustration. The campaign will also include forthcoming out-of-home ads that are strategically positioned near key McDonald's franchises known to have out-of-order machines. Overall, the campaign resembles buzzy efforts by Burger King that looked to divert traffic from McDonald's to its locations.
The campaign is the first major effort from Small Girls PR, the chain's new public relations and integrated campaigns AOR. The agency was selected after a competitive review due to its experience creating culture and connecting brands to trending conversations — increasingly an imperative for brands, especially QSR ones. Small Girls PR will handle public relations and refine strategic efforts, along with producing events and mailers with its in-house experiential team, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
Previous Jack in the Box campaigns have looked to tap into consumer culture with efforts around Discord and a celebrity-focused virtual restaurant.
Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
Topics covered: social media, mobile, advertising, marketing tech, content marketing, and more.
Marketers face a steep road this year juggling emergent tech and changes to online tracking while trying to meet the shifting moods of pandemic-weary consumers.
Celeb-studded campaigns and newcomer categories like cryptocurrency represent an eye on a future less bogged down by today's doom-and-gloom.
Subscribe to Marketing Dive for top news, trends & analysis
Topics covered: social media, mobile, advertising, marketing tech, content marketing, and more.
Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
Topics covered: social media, mobile, advertising, marketing tech, content marketing, and more.
Marketers face a steep road this year juggling emergent tech and changes to online tracking while trying to meet the shifting moods of pandemic-weary consumers.
Celeb-studded campaigns and newcomer categories like cryptocurrency represent an eye on a future less bogged down by today's doom-and-gloom.
The free newsletter covering the top industry headlines
Topics covered: social media, mobile, advertising, marketing tech, content marketing, and more.