McDonald's Capitalizes on Cubs Fever with Clever Billboard

McDonald's is capitalizing on the buzz surrounding the 2011 Chicago Cubs baseball season with a terrific billboard display just outside Wrigley Field. The billboard uses McDonald's french fries to illustrate the laces of a baseball - an absolutely brilliant marketing campaign.

Look for more creative marketing tactics to come throughout the season!

Source: Kelly Hafermann's Flickr Photostream 

McDonald's Drives Business in Ohio with Sports...

Are you looking for new ways to advertise on team websites? Are you looking fpr new ways to leverage QSR partners?

McDonald's of Northeast Ohio is currently doing a tremendous job leveraging partnerships with the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Cavaliers to drive business at retail. The leading QSR chain is offering a collection of promotions designed to reward sports fans in the local marketplace and drive traffic to retail.

• Cleveland Indians
  • McDonald's is featuring a Big Mac Mondays promotion where fans can redeem their Big Mac top for a free Upper Deck ticket when they purchase a regularly priced one for eight (8) Monday Night Cleveland Indians home games. Fans can redeem their Big Mac top at the Progressive Field box office to capitalize on the offer  
  • McDonald's is also distributing coupons at Gates A&C to stimulate post-game traffic
• Cleveland Cavaliers
  • McDonald's featured a Cavs McFamily Night during the 2008-09 season that offered Cavs fans the chance to purchase four (4) tickets and four (4) McDonald's meals for just $72. The tickets, located in the Loudville section at Quicken Loans Arena, are valued at $116 ($29 apiece). The offer was made available to fans for 15 games during the season.

McDonald's is currently featuring an eye-popping advertising campaign on the Cleveland Cavaliers team website. McDonald's created a "Go for 3" tab in the upper right hand corner of the site that folds down to reveal an offer that enables Cavs fans to purchase three (3) quarter pounder with cheese sandwiches for $5. The tab clicks through to the promotional site for the McDonald's of Northeast Ohio. Check out the advertising feature below:

McDonald's Knocks it Out of the Park with Big Mac Land...

Are you looking to create new venue destinations? Are you looking for unique ways to leverage QSR partners?

In 1998, The St. Louis Cardinals and McDonald's teamed up to create Big Mac Land, a special outfield section at Busch Stadium designed to help McDonald's capitalize on the frenzy surrounding Mark McGwire's chase for the home run record. The special in-venue destination instantly became (and remains) a hit with the team's fan base.

Why? Because every time a Cardinals player hits a home run into the Big Mac Land section, all fans in attendance can redeem their ticket for a free Big Mac sandwich at particpating McDonald's restaurants up to a full week after the game. McDonald's also features "Big Mac Land Bonus Nights", when ticket holders can receive a free Big Mac when a Cardinals player hits a home run anywhere in the stadium. The initiatives have resulted in millions of Big Mac sandwiches being distributed to Cardinals fans over the past ten (10) years.

The 181 seats available in the Big Mac Land are a hot commodity (an example of how the Cardinals organization has been able to create artificial ticket demand). Each ticket for the section comes with a souvenier, free McDonalds coupons, and a chance to be seen on the video board at the new Busch Stadium.

What's interesting to point out is that when the hamburger chain created the Big Mac Land during McGwire's chase of baseball's home run record, the slugger did not approve of the tactic. When the Cardinals moved into the new Busch Stadium, the section changed from #383 to #272.

Enclosed is a video of fans seated in the Big Mac Land waving giant foam French Fries while making an appearance on the video board: