Nothing adds joy to a trip quite like a spontaneous visit to the McDonald’s drive-thru. To encourage more of these impromptu visits, McDonald’s partnered with Waze to couple traditional outdoor media with Waze Ads that promoted Dollar Menu offers, the limited time return of the McRib, and breakfast deals. Whenever a Wazer passed a McDonald’s billboard, Takeovers would pop up to increase awareness and provide turn-by-turn navigation directly to stores. McDonald’s also took advantage of Waze targeting solutions to reach Spanish speakers for a truly hyper-local campaign. With this campaign, McDonald’s drove more restaurant visits by coupling traditional outdoor media and Waze ads.
Iconic menu items, innovative messaging
As part of limited time promotions of Dollar Menu offers, the return of the McRib, and breakfast deals, McDonald's wanted to reach users on the go and prompt spontaneous reroutes to its restaurant locations.
Combining traditional media with Waze Ads
McDonald’s is the world’s biggest spender of outdoor media — so they clearly understand the power of reaching drivers. But to promote their exciting new offers, the iconic brand wanted to complement their traditional billboard messaging with Waze ad formats in Southern California. After Wazers approached traditional McDonald’s billboards and came to a complete stop, a full-screen, Takeover ad would appear in Waze on their devices.
These ads promoted limited-time Dollar Menu offers, the return of the McRib, and enticing breakfast deals. McDonald’s also ensured this messaging was actionable,with a “Drive There” CTA that encouraged navigation to a McDonald’s location.
Integrating the targeting technology of Waze with McDonald’s billboard locations harnessed the power of combining out-of-home and mobile media to enhance engagement with the consumer, while providing metrics of success and attribution—something with which out-of-home has grappled for years.
Ryan Laul, President, Outdoor Media Group
Wazers are lovin’ it
By complementing its billboard messaging with ads on Waze, McDonald’s saw 8,400 navigations to stores in just eight weeks. The immediate success of this innovative campaign proved that Waze is a powerful supplement to McDonald’s out-of-home efforts and a key part of its overall advertising strategy.
