McDonald’s has tapped into cutting edge mobile advertising technology in order to boost its sales of Happy Meals by engaging consumers with an augmented reality campaign for the Smurfs movie toys, as well as mobile check-ins.
The Smurfs augmented reality promotion is being run throughout North America, Europe, Britain, Latin America, and Brazil. This mobile marketing campaign also includes an extensive happy meal program from around the world that encourages customers to be more environmentally conscious and to enjoy the taste and benefits of veggies and fruits.
According to McDonald’s spokesperson Becca Hary, “The sustainability efforts in Europe will center around games on Happy Studio, in which kids can follow Happy’s example and help the environment.”
She explained that the program’s signage shows the Smurfs interacting with Happy in order to plant and maintain new trees so that they will grow. She added that the Happy Studio game helps children to understand the importance of caring for the environment using the flowerpot machine with Papa Smurf. Children learn what plants need to grow and can practice this knowledge by taking care of the digital plants on the screen.
McDonald’s serves about 64 million customers every day from over 32,000 locations within 11 different countries.
On top of the worldwide promotions, an additional Latin American augmented reality program will also be launched that allows children to view the Smurfs within their village. This new technology promotion will be printed on the menu board displays for the restaurants as well as on the Happy Meal boxes, and will feature animated footage of the Smurfs.
