It's lunch time!

Milestone Brandcom has executed an out of home campaign for McDonald's in two phases that comprises innovative billboards and 310 media touch points across six cities including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Baroda.

In a bid to promote its new 'McValue - Super Lunch Super Deal' offer, the out of home (OOH) agency Milestone Brandcom has executed an OOH campaign for the fast food joint McDonald's. The agency has carried out the outdoor campaign across six cities in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Baroda, in two phases.

Hanoz Patel, founder member and managing partner, Milestone Brandcom, says, "The communication strategy was to first tease and excite the audience about something that McDonald's was about to change. Since it was an offer which started midday, the plan was heavily skewed towards morning traffic movement for better recall for action relevant to the midday offering."

The first phase, which was carried out between January 3-5, 2012 (until afternoon) focussed upon introducing the offer, and build up anticipation among the audience. As part of the first phase, the agency created two innovative billboards with a 36-hour reverse digital timer showing hours, minutes, and seconds with a huge bell which was placed below the timer. With the timer, the fast-food joint launched a countdown starting from the 36th hour to the zero hours, to announce the launch of the offer. Meanwhile, the message on the billboard read 'Lunch will never be the same again.'

Overall, two billboards were installed, both in Mumbai. The first one was 20 X 10 feet, and was set up on a mobile van at the Mahim Causeway, while the second one was 35 X 20 feet, and was installed at the Peddar Road junction.

In the second phase, the agency employed a bell ringer to ring the bell installed below the billboards to announce the new offer. The bell was rung every hour, between 12 noon and 3 pm, as the lunch offer is available at the same time. In addition to this, another 40 X 40 feet billboard was created. The billboard had a 20-feet clock mounted on it that showed the actual time and whenever the clock struck 1 pm, 2 pm, and 3 pm, the arms of the clock pointed to the pictures of fries, burger and coke in the clock, further conveying the McValue offer hours. And, during the entire campaign period, a reminder alarm was also set for every hour during the time band everyday.

The agency has used 310 media touch points covering high traffic and footfall areas, arterial roads, and transit media and junctions. The media touch points comprised billboards, unipoles, gantries, bus shelters and display boards inside high footfall density stations.

Rameet Arora, senior director, marketing, West and South, McDonald's India, says, "It is always exciting to be doing innovation. It's the difference between a good and a great campaign. I believe the work done on out of home in Mumbai was a critical, (or crucial?) success factor in a most successful launch."

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com