McDonald’s UK Customers Can Sip to Win Feel-Good Prizes in ‘Winning Sips’ Campaign by tms

tms has launched the refreshingly fun ‘Winning Sips’ campaign for McDonald’s UK, unleashing millions of feel-good prizes with every medium or large soft drink.

McDonald’s wanted to deliver some much-needed generosity and joy for their customers as the cost-of-living crisis impacts the nation. So tms created ‘Winning Sips’; an attention-grabbing promotional campaign with millions of prizes up for grabs, from cash and food to playful McDonald’s merch, with Coca-Cola as the supporting prize partner. 

An integrated campaign, ‘Winning Sips’ visual language has been designed to engage consumers in feel-good moments that help the generosity of the brand shine through. The visual language features across food and drink packaging, in store communications and the McDonald’s app, and is key to the storytelling designed to trigger a real sense of joy and generosity – leaving customers fizzin’ with excitement to win with every cold cup drink they sip. 

The ‘virtual sips’ mechanic at the heart of the campaign dramatises the thirst-quenching rush of your first sip for a chance to win millions of feel-good prizes.

‘Winning Sips’ goes live on March 29th, running for four weeks in the UK. Customers can reveal one of three winning outcomes by peeling back the game piece to play: Instant cash prizes (between £5-£100); instant food prizes; or gameplay via the McDonald’s app, which extends the sips and slurps fun through a playful experience that offers even more chances to win. All customers who don’t win will be entered into a wrap up draw to win one of 10 x £10,000 cash prizes.

tms, the global company uniting technology, marketing and sourcing to drive transformational change for the world’s leading brands, developed the strategy for ‘Winning Sips’ based on McDonald’s value framework, to show generosity to McDonald’s customers and engage consumers as they seek brands they can rely on in tough financial times. tms worked across functions to bring together technology, marketing and sourcing expertise from the creative conception, in-app experience to packaging and merchandise.

McDonald’s 'Winning Sips' is supported by an above-the-line campaign created by Leo Burnett. The campaign leads with a feel-good 30” film which showcases the fun, excitement and winning possibility that will be unleashed with 'Winning Sips'. The film will go live across TV, and is supported by OOH, radio, press and social.

Media planning and buying by OMD, restaurant and below-the-line campaign by Linney, PR and influencer activations from Oliver and Ready 10, and emails and push notifications created by CRM agency Armadillo. 

John McClure, brand manager at McDonald’s commented “McDonald’s wanted to provide customers with some light hearted fun, and reward them with something extra when they visit us, and what better way of doing that than ‘Winning Sips’.  We look forward to launching four weeks of sipping, slurping and a chance to win.”

John Viccars, international marketing strategy lead at tms added “‘Winning Sips’ cleverly utilises the iconic McDonald’s cup as a promotional vehicle, and through playful sips and slurps, we’ve inspired an integrated campaign that plays on McDonald’s equity, in a time when customers are looking for familiarity and brands they can depend on, during the cost-of-living crisis.” 

Stephen Bushe, executive creative director, McDonald's International at tms said "With times so tough right now, we needed to find a way to make the brand's generosity shine through and engage our consumers. Our campaign mechanic dials up that generosity by dramatising the thirst-quenching rush of 'first sips' through in-app 'virtual' sips to win millions of feel-good prizes. It's a fun playful in-app experience, all made possible by the collaboration of our technology, marketing and sourcing experts at tms."

Rules of play for ‘Winning Sips’:

• Instant Win Food Prizes can be redeemed in restaurants via kiosks, counters, or Drive Thrus, or via the McDonald’s app.
• Instant Win Cash Prizes, between £5-£100 can be redeemed by entering the game piece code on the redemption website.
• In-app Play offers another shot to win in the app, if you don’t win on the pack, by playing the game piece code via the McDonald’s app. All customers who don’t win will be entered into a wrap up draw to win one of 10x £10,000 cash prizes. The prize draw will take place at the end of the campaign.  

In-app prize pool: Free food, Cash £5-£200, Merch, Prize draw entry for 10x £10k prizes.

In-app Play codes can be played from 05:00:00 March 29th – 23:59:59 April 25th, and prizes can be claimed up until May 9th.