Macca's Run
- Brand
- McDonald's
- Year
- 2020
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Goodboy Digital
Objective
February is McDonald's Australia's weakest month for traffic, as post-Christmas spending dips hit both dine-in and delivery. The brand needed a tangible reason to open the mymacca's app, place an order, and walk into a restaurant — not another push notification or ad, but something that tied a game win directly to a real transaction.
Solution
Inside the mymacca's app, players find a hub of four games. Three are free, one play each per day, and take just 10-20 seconds: guide a character through a fry-shaped maze, flick a giant nugget into a dipping sauce, or sink a golf ball in one putt. Every attempt wins — a food coupon lands straight in the player's account, ready to redeem at the till or on a mobile order before 3am the next day. The fourth game, Macca's Run, only unlocks after a purchase through the app: it's a timed obstacle run through a McDonald's-themed world across 24 levels, collecting letters that spell M-A-C-C-A-S to unlock bonus rounds along the way. Progress here doesn't pay out in food — it earns entries into a weekly draw for Visa gift cards.
Results
Macca's Run was played by over 100,000 people, who together completed more than 6,000,000 levels, and 14% of players finished all 24 levels. Average session length across the hub was 17 minutes, with 73% of users returning to play again. 59% of users played Macca's Run (meaning they made a qualifying in-app purchase), and 38% redeemed at least one food prize in-restaurant. Millions of food offers were given out from the mini-games, and McDonald's app held the No. 1 spot in the Food & Drink category of the Australian iOS App Store for the full run of the promotion.
- 1
Players download the mymacca's app and sign into their account; a hub opens showing three free mini-games plus a fourth game, Macca's Run, locked behind a purchase.
- 2
Each day, players pick one of the three free mini-games, each playable once per day with no purchase required: guiding a path through a maze of fries (Totes A-Maze), dipping a giant nugget into the correct sauce (Lucky Dip), or sinking a hole-in-one on a mini golf course (Mini Mini Golf).
- 3
Every attempt at a mini-game is a guaranteed win, awarding a coupon for a free or discounted menu item that appears instantly in the player's account and stays valid until 3am the next day; it is redeemed in-restaurant or via mobile order without any extra code, since it is already tied to the account.
- 4
Making a purchase through the app's mobile order and pay feature unlocks Macca's Run, with the app prompting the player to play right after checkout.
- 5
Macca's Run is a timed obstacle-course runner set in the McDonald's world, where the player controls a character racing against the clock to reach the end of each of 24 levels.
- 6
While running, players collect the letters M-A-C-C-A-S and can reach bonus games; each letter, a completed full set, a cleared bonus game, and each completed level all convert into sweepstakes tickets.
- 7
Ticket earnings are capped at 200 per player per day, after which further play stops adding tickets for that day.
- 8
Tickets enter a weekly sweepstakes draw run during the promo period, with no cash reward for the run itself — only a chance to win one of a weekly batch of $100 Visa gift cards.
