McDonald’s to Tempt Hungry Fans During Key World Cup Moments


Official FIFA World Cup sponsor McDonald’s is aiming to take advantage of this summer’s tournament through a range of activations. The latest is trying to anticipate when fans might become hungry during games, and then targeting advertisements in real time that might trigger orders through McDelivery.

“The team has done an amazing job to use the learnings accumulated through our data management platform to deliver the most relevant messaging during such a big event for real business results,” said VP of marketing for McDonald’s Hong Kong, Agnes Lung, in a statement.

The system works through a partnership with Google and the media agency, OMD Hong Kong. McDonald’s is tapping into Google’s ‘real-time trigger’ and data management platform to understand when fans get hungry. Advertisements are activated surrounding pre-defined moments that will hope to entice viewers to purchase food. The key moments when ads will run are the beginning, halfway and end of matches, along with any goal-scoring plays.

“This campaign is a testament of our endeavour to inject human insights into data technology, a belief which also resonates with McDonald’s,” said Gary Wong, managing director of OMD Hong Kong, in a statement.

SportTechie Takeaway

McDonald’s has been taking full advantage of the World Cup buzz. All 207 of the company’s Swedish locations are streaming matches via Red Bee Media’s OTT service. Also, at the beginning of the tournament, the fast food company also launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #TeamForPirlo to find a team that Italian star Andrea Pirlo could support during the tournament. Pirlo, who won the World Cup in 2006, is without a team this year after Italy failed to qualify.