Monopoly at McDonalds
It’s time for Monopoly at McDonalds again, a promotion that has been running for about 6 years over a few countries - if something works, repeating it is always a good idea. I’ve seen heavy TV promotion, lots of in-store stuff and online promotion. There’s bound to be print and radio out there as well. This is a big push for McDonalds.
They are actually running 2 games, one off-line and one on-line. For the off-line work, you need to colelct the various Monopoly properties from the game cards that are given out with the food. Make a set and you get your money. The on-line game cannot be combined, you play it completely separately; you get codes from food purchases, enter them into the site and get moves around a board. Again, get a set and win some money. The prizes are actually pre-loaded American Express cards, a great tie on for the two brands. They limit the number of times you can play to 10x a day, which is still probably slightly too much food for oneperson but would suit a family. The big prize is $1million, which is obviously large enough to drive sales up as people chase those missing peices.
There’s a couple of things on the site that reassure players that this is for real, if they had any doubts even with a big brand such as McDonalds. The first is some stories from last year’s winners - rel people, real stories, telling how they have won the money. The second is the ever increasing ticker of the number of winners - if someone else is winning it gives you hope that you will as well.
Looking at the social media aspects of the promotion, I’m not sure if there was planned outreach.. The campaign has been going for long enough and has been successful enough that it may not be needed. There’s a lot of buzz about the promotion over the years already (for example, see this really nice analysis of the 2006 game and ways to win at badpirate.) There was a lot of anticipation on the game/prize/sweepstakes forums, with people discussing how many envelopes they need to write and other tactics needed to win; McDonald’s staff responded to emails from board members askign if it was being re-run with proposed dates and where the rules would be.
One strange insight that I found was a comment from a person who was unhappy with the rules this years and was wondering what McDonalds were doing about disappointing their loyal fans, then goes on to say that they only eat at McDonalds once or twice a year except during this promotion. The fact that someone identifies themselves as a loyal fan ONLY for promotions is something that probably never gets mentioned, from a value perspective they may not be high value over the year, but they could have a high influence factor for the rest of the year. The same person later posts about being a hype machine, getting all their co-workers involved in the game after explaining the odds. Interesting behaviour to take account of when planning these things.
Another side effect are the Craigslist requests and ebay auctions for guides, the Yahoo answers requesting information or pieces. The tools are being used to connect people about the game, far more than ever before.
Tags: macdonalds, mcDonalds, monopolyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Buzz Marketing, Fun and Games, Influence Marketing
32 opinions for Monopoly at McDonalds
Linker Barn: Hump Day October 10
Oct 10, 2007 at 1:39 am
[…] What’s to be learned from the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion? […]
McDonalds Monopoly
Oct 10, 2007 at 6:40 am
[…] on the 2007 US McDonalds Monopoly Game […]
ALYSSA
Oct 14, 2007 at 2:40 pm
IM LOVIN IT LIKE THE CLOWN SAYA AAAAA IM LOVIN IT
TG
Oct 17, 2007 at 7:50 pm
I did the online game first time and was given the virtual dice to roll it mentioned that if I had connecticut ave I won a $500.00 giftcard from Amex I had it punched it in and of course te site gave me errors and I contacted them I believe this is a huge scam not a monoploy maniac I had 4 little game pieces and was bored so figure I would punch them in
Charlene
Oct 19, 2007 at 12:39 am
I can’t get on playatmcsd.com to play monopoly
ryan
Oct 20, 2007 at 6:22 pm
yeah its a scam half the codes you get robbed from rolling the dice, the other half makes you land on what you already hav.e
T
Oct 21, 2007 at 5:28 pm
It’s all a big rip off, I don’t know anybody from Kentucky that has won. Maybe that girl that sued them for 6 million pissed them off and they decided that no one from kentucky can win.
Marc
Oct 22, 2007 at 5:32 am
I finally decided to actually get involved with the McDonald’s Monopoly game this year… I’ve spent a lil over $50.00 on random menu items at random locations and collected all the peices. I now find myself with all but one piece in every prize category… Conspiracy maybe??? Anyone else in this boat with me??? e-mail me at mcr1225@yahoo.com.
ryan
Oct 22, 2007 at 7:53 am
what a scam i got screwed outta 2 more dice rolls yesterday.. i won a stupid game download from real arcade, and the game just gives me an error installing… what a mother fu(king scam i am so pi$$ed
ryan
Oct 22, 2007 at 7:59 am
mcdonalds computer programmers are a bunch of NOOBS you think when your dealing with a lottery like this, you would make sure your CODE IS GOOD peices of sh!t robbed me out of like 10 dice rolls now….. NOT COOOL IF I COULD KILL SOMEONE I WOULD
ryan
Oct 22, 2007 at 12:02 pm
yes i agree i have 2 of tons of stuff but cannot get the third, 90% of the time you land on something you have already., its defineatly a a scam, theres no way the dice rolling is even close to random. so gay its not even funny. .
JP
Oct 22, 2007 at 12:47 pm
The on-line version doesn’t work for many, many people. When I try to e-mail them the web-site keeps sending me to a FAQ. So if you play, you shouldn’t think you’re playing two games.
Rachel
Oct 22, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Having seen how much work it takes to set something up like this - and how many lawyers are involved - there will be no intention of scamming. the game is not even being run by MacDonalds, but by a firm called Corsis, which is a promotions agency. You always tend to use specialist agencies due to the complexity involved and all the legal issues.
That said, the website is unstable and does not always seem to appear.
Reading the FAQs they seem to do it by time - randomly selected times are chosen and the first entries after those times are winners. So it sounds like you can keep going round and round the board collecting 2 out of three of each set until you enter a code at the right time. (as an aside, I’d hate to have to had to design that, it does not sound fun).
So the dice sort of does not roll at random - it rolls to give you everything except the winning tickets UNTIL the winning time ticks by and then you’ll get a winner. The winning time is randomised. When it ticks by, the first person to enter a code that has a possible winning hand will get it. That’s my reading of the rules anyway.
V. M.
Oct 23, 2007 at 1:49 pm
“Instant Win” prizes: hourly go, hourly chance, daily free parking, community chest (game download) are tied to randomized specific “Winning Times” per cycle.
“Collect to Win” prizes: the property sets, are tied to specific “Winning Codes”. Odds are the code that gives boardwalk is in a dumpster somewhere.
Its all in the fine print on the rules or “how to play” page.
JMcC
Oct 24, 2007 at 6:18 pm
anybody got boardwalk? I’ve got park place
Briane
Oct 24, 2007 at 9:30 pm
i dont no how to keep going on the monoply game.And why do u have to keep putting in codes just to keep playing the monoply game.
Angie
Oct 25, 2007 at 3:38 pm
We have been collecting the peices also and have several of each but are missing one peice from each color, I am thinking that these peices don’t exist.
richard kenney
Oct 25, 2007 at 10:36 pm
This game is a ripoff. I rolled a 7 which would have given me atlantic ave for a $5000.00 win and it only moved 6 spaces. I think something should be done for such a scam !
taylor
Oct 25, 2007 at 10:55 pm
you guy give great imformation but did not
answer my qeustion.
john
Oct 27, 2007 at 3:01 am
corosis, which rachel say, {”randomizZes”} winners is such a bs term, nobody wins
faith
Oct 27, 2007 at 3:47 pm
trust me this is a scam. I got a few pieces when the game came out now in Alberta there are nolonger any pieces the stores are out of them. I also can’t get onto the website to play. That to me is scamming the public. The game is not supposed to be over yet and I just go in now and ask if they have there supply of cups and containors from the company yet. If not I go to Tim Hortons for coffee.
marko
Oct 28, 2007 at 5:55 pm
There are no O’s only zeros on your code entries. That means the stamps you threw away for not working are your fault not Mcdonalds
VIRGINIA CHAVEZ
Oct 29, 2007 at 1:44 pm
One word!!!No two…Make it three….
TOTAL BULL-$HIT!!!
Rachel
Oct 29, 2007 at 1:57 pm
nope - only two words by my reckoning
Nicole
Oct 30, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I won twice in a row…The only thing i Don’t like about the game is the wait. I won $500 dollars on the online game board, But i have to wait 8-10 weeks for it… its kind of Lame. The second prize i won was a game download, i got that right away and it actuall a pretty nice prize sine we play it everyday! *i picked the monopoly game*
Christy
Nov 1, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Come on people, this is a FREE game. It is supposed to be all in fun. McDonald’s is a big company, do you really think they are specifically targeting YOU to not get your prize? Wake up and enjoy it for the fun of it. If it stops being fun, stop playing, but really stop compaining.
Audrey
Nov 6, 2007 at 12:18 am
Total Bull$hit, I lost out on the 6 spaces twice. This game is a total ripp off. Too bad they are ripping off our children as well. So much for Mcdonalds and their multimillion dollars they make on a daily basis. Total greasers!
McDonalds Monopoly UK 08
Mar 22, 2008 at 7:29 pm
[…] promotion in the UK. They seem to run it in different countries at different times, like last October in the US. The ad campaign for the promotion was created by Leo Burnett (link to cool but really annoying […]
peapod
Mar 31, 2008 at 8:09 am
Collecting Board game cards-
I partly agree with Angie above who mentioned certain game stickers don’t exist. Oh they exist alright, just in very few numbers. I’ll use the stations for example. Fenchurch, Marylebone and
Kings cross are in excess. But Where is LIVERPOOL ST ? Nowhere to be seen, except residing in the UK with lots of delays. Here’s a recent example on ebay.co.uk with one
Liverpool station sticker going for a cool £51, (last I checked). 220218221451 - Note, there’s NO picture and the seller isn’t a 100% feedbacker. To state the obvious, I would not advise risking it if you own the other 3.
Dodgey scandalous stuff mikey dee.
hanger
Mar 31, 2008 at 8:30 am
Collecting game stickers,
Posted this before but the draconian who owns the blog removed it, (assuming it was spam I guess). I won’t include the links to back myself up. I agree with angie above, there are in excess of certain game stickers, very few of others. I’ve yet to see certain stickers.
blah
Rachel
Mar 31, 2008 at 8:51 am
Hey hanger -don’t call me a draconian!!!! I’ve checked all the comments I received (they’re all in my email) and I’ve not got one from you before. What may have happened is Akismet (the automated spam trap) caught it and never showed it to me - I get that much spam I rarely find the genuine comments that get accidentally caught.
If you want me to add some links to your comment email me - up in the top right side of page. I should get that and will edit your comment. By the way, this post is about the US game last October; if you are playing the UK game, there’s a discussion developing http://www.behindthebuzz.com/mcdonalds-monopoly-uk-08/
hanger
Mar 31, 2008 at 9:17 am
Apologies Rachel, I’m just tired of submitting stuff to boards & blogs only to have it removed 2 secs later. Many thanks for the link.
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