An eight week deal between McDonald’s and Absolute Radio sees the fast food giant sponsor the radio station’s breakfast shows, including the flagship weekdays With Christian O’Connell and Saturday mornings with Frank Skinner’.
McDonald’s is using this radio sponsorship to promote its revised range of breakfast products – including porridge, breakfast wrap, sausage and egg McMuffin and full bean coffees.
The objective of the deal, brokered by OMD, is for the golden arches brand to focus on the quality of its food, including its use of free-range eggs and 100% Arabica full bean coffee.
As well as on air sponsor credits and online product promotion presence, Absolute will include a range of in-show features and competition giveaways relating to the partnership on ‘The Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show’ and Vicki Blight’s show on Sundays.
The partnership will be supported online by a dedicated microsite and Facebook page.
Online copy: “ Your Day Starts Here. Breakfast on Absolute Radio – served by McDonald’s”.
The collaboration began on 19 March with a competition for listeners to find breakfast show co-host Richie Firth in a McDonald’s restaurant in London, wearing a T-shirt with a clue to a breakfast-themed song printed across the front. The first person to follow Christian O’Connell’s clues, track Firth down and call into the studio with the answer will win £1,000.
Another product specific element of the sponsorship is a competition giveaway for McDonald’s new Full Bean Coffee.
Running under the tagline “Monday’s are made better by McDonald’s Full Bean Coffee”, to make each Monday more ‘bearable’ during the sponsorship period Absolute Radio is running a competition offering listeners the chance to win an ‘Amazon Kindle to enjoy with freshly ground coffee’.
Listeners can enter the competition either through the Absolute Radio website or via McDonald’s own Facebook page and entering the Coffee Time App. Consumers then simply upload a photo of themselves to their McDonald’s coffee time moment in the timeline to be eligible for one of the prizes – which include iPod Shuffles, iTunes Vouchers and magazine subscriptions as well as Kindles.
Comment:
A sponsorship revolving around the particular strength of radio’s time and location advantages , breakfast seems a sensible focus for a radio-led partnership. After all, breakfast time is radio’s biggest strength as a media platform.
McDonald’s has a wider objective to change consumer perception of the quality and health characteristics of its ingredients and products and this campaign is part of that wider strategy.
This deal follows Absolute’s last major eight week breakfast show sponsorship deal, which saw Capital One back O’Connell’s breakfast show last November with a campaign built around a Thursday morning technology bundle competition giveaway.
Links:
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/onair/breakfast/
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/freebies/competitions/mcdonalds_breakfast/
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/freebies/competitions/mcdonalds_coffee/
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