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McDonald’s: Make Your Own CBO-Style Mix

Posted on January 26, 2009
Laure Pignat

McDonald’s has recently launched the CBO (Chicken, Bacon, and Onion) sandwich in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Alongside its traditional communications campaign run by TBWA Zürich, McDonald’s in Switzerland has opted for a non-conventional viral marketing solution. By using new communication strategies and the expertise of Vanksen/Culture-Buzz, McDonald’s and Vanksen|Culture-Buzz in Geneva have created an interactive and innovative trilingual website, available in French, German, and Italian: cbo.ch.

The website is simple and efficient and brings visitors directly into the hip-hop world. The Internet user can create his/her own CBO group, consisting of a singer, break dancer, and DJ. The Internet user can also choose whether his/her music group is going to be “Old School,” “Funky,” or “New Style.”

After forming his/her group, the Internet user decides the lyrics of the group’s future single. The key element to the website, its text2speech technology, aids the user to make his/her song come alive. The words typed by the Internet user are then transcribed by vocal synthesis. This rich media application has just the right ingredients to entertain a young and urban public and to become a viral sensation.

Internet users can send their music video to their friends, who they can dare to make an even better song than theirs. This is an excellent viral-creating technique for the campaign. For each video made, Internet users can receive a coupon for a free sundae with the purchase of a CBO meal.

Non-traditional campaigns like this one are good both for consumers and for brands. Internet users get to have fun interacting with the website while brands get closer to their young and Internet savvy target audience. Operations like this McDonald’s/Culture-Buzz collaboration get consumers to the store and result in increased sales. By combining the Internet, a competitive game, and the Internet users’ own creativity, McDonald’s has hit the mark perfectly.

If you can read French, German, or Italian, then why not head to cbo.ch to make your perfect mix? What a good excuse to take the trip to the Swiss Alps you’ve always dreamed of...to claim your free sundae within 10 days!