1/ Introduction about McDonald’s and Monopoly Campaign:

McDonald's is an American fast food restaurant chain with more than 30,000 restaurants
around the world, this brand has been serving 43 million customers every day with their
dishes. Talking about its history, McDonald's was started around the middle of the 20th
century (1940) by two brothers Richard and Maurice. Their first facility opened in San
Bernardinho. However, the success and growth of this brand at the present time is due to the
event, Ray Kroc bought all the shares of the McDonald's brothers. Through innovative
policies and processes, he elevated McDonald's to a global brand. The number of employees
serving this chain of more than one and a half million people shows the size and level of
market dominance of McDonald's. Now, when it comes to McDonald's, people not only think
of a fast food brand but also consider it as an icon in the American business world.

Starting from a small store to becoming one of the largest restaurant chains in the world, the
success of McDonald's certainly stems from many factors. Indeed, a big part of McDonald's
success is the right marketing strategy. The role of Marketing in the past or Digital Marketing
will now be a good foundation for the company to scale into new markets, especially
overseas markets. Especially for some regions like Asia or Africa, fast food was a somewhat
foreign concept in those days, so development strategies may be complicated without
Marketing. Moreover, in order to reach a diverse audience of customers and thereby
maximize their revenue, McDonald's must not only make one but also make many efforts to
change consumption habits and behaviors. During the development of this business, they
have deployed many promotional campaigns, including Handfuls, Search It, Reflections,
Iconic Stacks, and more. These include successful campaigns, but there are some
campaigns that do not achieve a positive effect on the market. However, there is an awe-
inspiring marketing campaign that customers will immediately remember McDonald's
Monopoly whenever it is mentioned. It was inspired by a card game of the same name by
Hasbro. This campaign was initiated in 1987 in the first market, the United States, and then
spread to many other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and
Australia. From its impressive results and impact in deployed markets, Monopoly is one of
the most classic marketing campaigns in McDonald's history. This essay will help clarify
some of the issues surrounding the success and how Mcdonald's has used to create an
extremely effective promotional project for their brand.

2/ 
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is no longer strange, especially in business
and marketing. CRM is considered the simplest and most effective way to manage customer
data that businesses can apply to their operational strategy (Fairhurst, 2001). Commonly,
CRM is understood as software or technology solutions, but it is a customer management
process that includes many different operations, such as management, information
collection, and customer care. For McDonald's, the business model is oriented to B2C, which
means that customers will be directly using their services without going through any other
intermediary (Duermyer,2019). Therefore, in order to achieve stable and growing sales,
McDonald's must build a good relationship with their customers. This thing has been
demonstrated in a precise way based on the situation of this business. Currently, McDonald's
is present in almost every country in the world, with millions of diners using their food every
day. Not only that, but they also have a massive number of loyal customers, which is their
primary revenue source. These results can be achieved thanks to this business's excellent
customer relationship management process. Specifically, in the case of the Monopoly
campaign, CRM plays a vital role in contributing to the success and popularity of this
marketing project. With CRM, McDonald's can exploit much information accumulated on its
database. This company can know the consumer behavior, the leading customer group, the
needs and changes of customers over time, and so on to design the perfect Monopoly game.
Thanks to CRM technology, implementing a Monopoly campaign has become more
accessible. Understanding the characteristics and analyzing user behavior, McDonald's has
created Monopoly with three different types: Instant Win, Play Online, and Property Sets to
ensure that it is suitable for all their customers (wikiHow, 2022). For example, for Instant
Win, through CRM, McDonald's recognizes some of its customers who are middle-aged and
older, or who are impatient. It will allow customers, after peeling the code on each box of
hamburgers or fries, to immediately know their reward as well as receive the reward
immediately. However, the rewards will only be food, because the purpose of the participants
in this game is usually not the big prize, but the fun. That's why McDonald's designed the
gameplay to focus on the simplest and fastest. The process of developing gameplay based
on the data managed and analyzed by the CRM system is similarly applied in two categories,
Play Online and Property Sets. In addition, for each Monopoly campaign in each country,
CRM helps McDonald's deploy various ways and suitable content. CRM technology will
concentrate on the core information about customers in that region, making the accessibility
and identification of customers to Monopoly most effective. From the success of this
marketing campaign in the past and present, CRM is one of the decisive factors in creating
that achievement.

3/ Metrics
In the traditional marketing method, businesses often set KPIs to measure the effectiveness
of each campaign. Besides, these KPIs will be an essential basis for leaders to evaluate the
success of the project based on the investment costs that the company has paid; it is
commonly known as ROMI ( return on marketing investment) (Florès, 2014). With digital
marketing, too, these campaigns are managed and measured by unique metrics. They will
be a picture that reflects the state of the digital marketing campaigns. Based on these
metrics, marketing teams can analyze customers' habits and consumption behaviors to
improve service quality to meet those standards.

As for McDonald's, their Monopoly campaign is more than 20 years old and has expanded to
23 countries with millions of engagements yearly. In order to achieve a positive response
from the community, they must undoubtedly spend much effort throughout the
implementation process to monitor and analyze the data. These digital marketing metrics are
the key for McDonald's to reach its customers' deep-seated thoughts and desires in the most
accurate way.

Overall Website Traffic: (Feil, 2021)

Usually, for digital or online marketing campaigns, one of the critical metrics companies have
to measure is the traffic to their information platforms. The number of user visits in the
periods before, during, and after the campaign will reflect the customer's actual level of
interest. In the McDonald's Monopoly game, they have developed a way to play online on the
company's main website. Customers who wish to participate in this promotion must visit their
website. Therefore, the total website traffic during implementation will be the most objective
result for McDonald's to evaluate the effectiveness of Monopoly.

Engagement rate: (Feil, 2021)

Previously, McDonald's concentrated on integrating Monopoly directly into restaurants.
However, this strategy needs to attain explosive efficiency in terms of dissemination. As a
result, in recent years, McDonald's has aired advertisements across social media channels,
including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Regarding these social networks, the
number of likes, comments, and interactions should be noticed. This also implies that the
success of Monopoly may be judged using these statistics. The level of engagement of these
platforms' accounts on Monopoly material will indicate how interested users are in this
campaign.

Email Click Through Rate (Email CTR):

Another metric that will also help McDonald's evaluate Monopoly's coverage is Email CTR.
According to Monopoly's gameplay, customers must register their accounts with their private
email. McDonald's will send them to play codes through this address, and users must open
the mailbox to receive the code. A unique tool can help McDonald's control the number of
mailbox openings from customers. If the other parameter increases, it will mean more
players.

4/ GDPR
Technology is increasingly advanced, which means that the Internet environment is
increasingly complex, and the impacts related to businesses, organizations, and people are
clearly shown. Therefore, the introduction of GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation,
is credited with providing assurance and balance in all areas related to personal data
(Wolford, 2022). Digital marketing campaigns of large enterprises will typically exploit data
from users for the purpose of analysis to come up with appropriate strategies. However, not
all businesses guarantee the security of their customer data. There are a few sanctioned
cases where these companies intentionally leaked user information illegally. Most notably,
Facebook (2019) and Yahoo (2013), it is this that makes users more and more careful about
what they share or participate in on online platform (Swinhoe, 2022). The European Union
imposed GDPR in May 2018 to protect users from the risks of data theft from other
organizations or individuals (Wolford, 2022).

McDonald's Customer Privacy Policy:

McDonald's Monopoly campaign is implemented in many countries, and each place will apply
different policies to comply with the laws and regulations of the government. Users' data and
information to this business during the Monopoly campaign period or regular days are 100%
confidential. Some services need to mine customer data, and McDonald's asks for users'
permission as well as proves to users the legitimacy and how they use such data. For
example, every time users visit the McDonald's website to participate in the game Monopoly;
they will receive a notification about whether or not to allow cookies to access the
information. In addition, to give users more peace of mind, McDonald's makes all information
public, including the information it collects; how they collect information; how they use the
data; how to contact them. McDonald's operates with the criteria of transparency, safety,
security, and legality. Therefore, they have built trust and credibility with their customers
worldwide. Besides, to improve customer data security efficiency, this Monopoly campaign
has different regulations in each country. For the UK market, McDonald's stipulates that their
customers participating in this game must be 18 years or older, while in Canada, there is no
age limit. It also proves that McDonald's has in-depth research on the market and customer
data privacy laws in all countries to have appropriate strategies. 

Marketer Responsibilities:
Customer data is a massive resource for any company; it can help capture vital information
to improve business services. However, this resource's inappropriate exploitation and use
can lead to many consequences. Usually, users do not distinguish between two situations:
the company violating the security, and the other is using the right to exploit information.
Therefore, it requires the head of the company to have specific strategies and responsibilities
to protect customers' safety without affecting the company's interests. (Slodki, 2018)

4/
According to Forbes research, thousands of advertisements appear daily around consumers
(Simpson, 2022). Therefore, for the messages to be conveyed most effectively and saved in
customers' minds, brands need to have appropriate methods. From time immemorial, people
have always been interested in stories. Therefore, Storytelling is a form of communication
that quickly goes deep into people's subconscious emotions. Digital Storytelling is a
marketing method based on creating, developing, and communicating brand-related
messages and stories. A captivating story approach not only helps customers understand the
fundamental facts of the business, but it also fosters an emotional bond between the
customer and the brand. There are five highly powerful techniques to employ storytelling in
digital marketing: Know Your Brand Story; Show, Don't Tell; Keep Your Story Consistent;
Create An Emotional Connection and A/B Testing. (Yec, 2021). 
Creativity in the McDonald's story
The details appearing in the promotional video of the Monopoly campaign in the Australian
and New Zealand markets are about horror. The character Rich Uncle PennyBags is always
very mysteriously present as soon as the customer peels the code, making them feel
something scary. He was getting closer and closer to the users while they were looking at the
game tickets increasing the nervousness and anxiety of the members. Finally, when the
winning result was obtained, Rich Uncle Pennybags shared happiness with everyone. This
plot is full of elements from horror, suspense, and anxiety to an explosion in happiness. If
only by skimming through the first scenes, viewers can be deceived that this is a creepy ad
because it has a similar lead to horror movies. However, we can understand the content
exceptionally positively if combined with the ending. The character Rich Uncle Pennybags
appears throughout from the time a customer buys McDonald's food until they unlock the
code and win a reward, and after each stage, he gets closer. Understandably, he is the one
who brings luck to customers. Whenever he away means the player has not entered the
game and when he is sitting next to them means the reward has been obtained.

Social Media:
In today's competitive environment, the ability of a business to succeed is more than just a
matter of product and service quality. The two aspects of marketing and communication also
play a big part in the steps of the business; they can help the company expand and reach
more customers. Especially as consumers are increasingly familiar with social networks and
online sites, it is time for marketers to turn to new advertising methods. Marketing
communication will be the most effective method of connecting with customers, not only
helping businesses to convey messages but also establishing a close relationship between
the two parties. Rely on resources from existing social networking platforms such as
Facebook (over 80 million followers), Twitter (over 4 million followers), Instagram, and
Snapchat. They will be the best method of communication for McDonald's to spread its
campaign to everyone.

Not only that, for each different market, McDonald's also has its communication channels for
that region. For example, they have Twitter UK, Twitter JP, Twitter Canada, and many other
effective ways of promoting information to consumers. Besides, dividing each area for
marketing not only helps McDonald's save costs but also identifies the behavior of customers
in each place accurately. During the Monopoly campaign, in each country, McDonald's will
develop different advertising content that is culturally appropriate to that place. Their
marketing team posted dozens of posts, videos, hashtags, and images about the Monopoly
campaign on social media. This also helps the number of customers who follow these
platforms to get the information faster. In addition to loyal customers, McDonald's will also
have the opportunity to reach more potential customers when their interesting advertising
content is shared back and forth on these platforms. 

Digital Advertising methods of the Monopoly campaign:

In addition to conveying the content, a reasonable transmission method will also be a plus
point for customers to engrave the message clearly. The proper advertising methods will help
the company save costs and increase the probability of project success. McDonald's
Monopoly campaign achieves a significant response from consumers and a huge source of
revenue in each phase they launch because they have very effective digital advertising
methods. Customers in countries where this promotion is applied can easily see ads about it
everywhere. (Employment, 2022)

Video ads:
Most of the pre-launch Monopoly campaigns were advertised by McDonald's through intro
videos. These videos are conceptualized and content according to each region, including the
UK, Singapore, Australia, Canada, and more. These videos will help McDonald's introduce
necessary information such as campaign time, application area, rewards, and how to
participate. Statistics on views on the YouTube platform show how popular these videos are
among consumers.

Email advertising:
For customers who have their personal information saved in McDonald's database, on each
promotion, they will receive the latest notifications. During the Monopoly campaign, the
company used this email marketing method to remind participants whenever there was a
new code or announcement of their prizes. With a vast user resource after many years of
operation, this advertising method is also very suitable for McDonald's to introduce its
campaign.

Website advertising:
One simplest but highly effective way is to advertise through the website. The data
McDonald's obtains through its CRM system allows the company to understand specific
numbers of visits, bounce rates, retention rates, and time spent on customers. These metrics
will help McDonald's confidently implement advertising content about this Monopoly program
on the website. This way of advertising will also be straightforward to attract customers'
attention because every time they go to the website to search for information, they will come
across this content.

Behavioral Outcomes:
Through the Monopoly campaign, McDonald's wishes to influence customers' consumption
behavior. Advertising and promotion programs will contribute to changing consumer
psychology, and they will tend to buy more. This detail is clearly shown through the
gameplay of Monopoly. Instead, regular customers will only get what they paid for, but now
with this campaign, McDonald's gives them extra free rewards. It will make the buyer
psychologically get more than what he spends. Besides, Monopoly also has a way of playing
that requires users to collect codes to redeem rewards. This regulation makes customers
who want to receive more valuable prizes have to use McDonald's services more. In the long
run, it will form new user habits and benefit businesses.

Besides, creating many gratitude and customer care campaigns like Monopoly will also form
a close relationship. The prestige and quality of McDonald's will be enhanced in customers'
hearts, making them always consider this brand their first choice. For example, between two
fast food brands with the same quality and price but with the high awareness that
McDonald's has built, users will tend to choose this company's service over the other
competitors.
(Peek, 2022)

Ref:

Fairhurst, P. (2001, January 01). E-CRM - journal of database marketing & customer strategy
management. Retrieved January 6, 2023, from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/palgrave.jdm.3240028

Duermyer, R. (2019, June 26). Understanding the business-to-consumer (B2C) model.

Retrieved January 6, 2023, from https://www.thebalancemoney.com/b2c-business-to-
consumer-sales-1794400
WikiHow. (2022, January 21). How to play mcdonald's monopoly: 15 steps (with pictures).
Retrieved January 6, 2023, from https://www.wikihow.com/Play-McDonald%27s-
Monopoly

Florès, L. (2014). How to Measure Digital Marketing. London: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN.

Feil, C. ( 2021, 4 28). Marketing: Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from Similarweb:

https://www.similarweb.com/blog/marketing/marketing-strategy/digital-marketing-
metrics/

Wolford, B. (2022, May 26). What is GDPR, the EU's new Data Protection Law? Retrieved
January 6, 2023, from https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/

Swinhoe, M. (2022, November 08). The 15 biggest data breaches of the 21st Century.
Retrieved January 6, 2023, from https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-
biggest-data-breaches-of-the-21st-century.html

Slodki, J. (2018, August 02). Council post: It's our responsibility as marketers to use
consumer data for good. Retrieved January 6, 2023, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/08/02/its-our-responsibility-as-
marketers-to-use-consumer-data-for-good/

Simpson, J. (2022, October 12). Council post: Finding Brand Success in the Digital World.
Retrieved January 6, 2023, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/08/25/finding-brand-success-
in-the-digital-world/?sh=761adfc3626e

Yec. (2021, July 19). Council post: How to use storytelling in digital marketing to Transform
Your Business. Retrieved January 6, 2023, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2021/07/19/how-to-use-storytelling-in-digital-
marketing-to-transform-your-business/?sh=6fc62f5867e0

Employment, S. (2022, December 01). Ways to Advertise Your Business. Retrieved January
6, 2023, from
https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/marketing-sales/marketing/
activities/advertising

Peek, S. (2022, December 21). The 6 principles of influencing consumer decisions. Retrieved
January 6, 2023, from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10151-how-to-influence-
consumer-decisions.html

https://s7d1.scene7.com/is/image/mcdonalds/History_Brothers_SanBernadino_2COL_1-1:2-
column-desktop?resmode=sharp2
https://news.mcdonalds.ca/system/files-encrypted/nasdaq_kms/inline-images/Monopoly%20-
%20EN.png
https://cdn2.wpbeginner.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ubersuggest-traffic-overview.png
https://www.spcdn.org/images/campaign-stats-sendpulse.png
https://wavemakerglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mcdonalds-768x399.png
https://i.vimeocdn.com/filter/overlay?src0=https%3A%2F%2Fi.vimeocdn.com%2Fvideo
%2F819562793-
b8402227318d9d6f48e033060d37df2c738b13f73d0e44622aca3e59d27bbbbb-
d_1280x720&src1=https%3A%2F%2Ff.vimeocdn.com%2Fimages_v6%2Fshare
%2Fplay_icon_overlay.png
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5b/df/83/5bdf83982858519c357fc0f013c03914.jpg
https://stackla.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/maccas-monopoly2.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZa-uZqWsAEulmo.jpg