When my friend emailed me this link (http://freestuffcanadaguide.ca/9900/freebies-free-samples/mc-donalds-free-fries-for-monopoly-money/), I couldn’t believe it! I love freebies and ESPECIALLY free fries…nomnom. I knew I had to get it, and that night, indeed I did!
But I had a burning question with this promotion: why did McDonald’s use this tactic? My friend and I were trying to figure it out for the longest time. My guess was that maybe Monopoly wanted to recall their money, iron it out, and reuse it! My friend logically refuted my theory saying that a piece of paper isn’t worth $2.29 (value of McDonald’s large fries).
After doing some research on the web and asking around, I now finally understand what their strategy is. Apparently, McDonald’s and Hasbro (owner of Monopoly) has been working together for a long time. When their Monopoly game at McDonald’s is in effect, customers can collect tokens that come with certain products (ie large fries, Big Mac, McNuggets, etc). Although there are some “instant winners” rewards, the grand prize can only be attained with multiple tokens, following the nature of the board game.
The McDonald’s Monopoly game is McDonald’s strategy to lure more customers into their stores and to purchase more of their products. By hosting the promotion that took place two days ago, customers who are playing this game will mentally think they are that much closer to collecting the necessary tokens. Instead of going to McDonald’s once a month, they might go once or even twice a week now, hoping to win the grand prize (this year’s: $1 million in cash — http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6940614-mcdonalds-monopoly-2010-kicks-off) by buying ‘tokened’ items on the menu. It is apparent that they are successful with this promotion, and I am quite impressed with McDonald’s cleverness and their ability to execute this advertising tactic.