A five-year McDonald's esports partnership with Blizzard, from a Starcraft entry to all five titles and Overwatch consolidation, one of the longest-running brand and gaming relationships in Australia.
Millennial love for Macca's was in decline. For the first time in the brand's Australian history it was struggling to connect with the youth of the country. The data was blunt: 85% of millennials watched less than four hours of TV a week if any at all, 50% used ad-blockers, and they were spending 25 hours a week online, 20 of them inside video games.
Multiple brands had already failed here by running traditional sport tactics at gaming and losing the audience for good. Macca's did not want to slap a logo on esports. They wanted to enhance gaming culture in a Macca's way.
Five years built one credibility step at a time, from a single title to the whole Blizzard roster to the biggest arenas in the country.
YKG built a multi-tiered solution that positioned Macca's as adding value to esports rather than borrowing from it. It launched with Starcraft, chosen for its esports heritage and fiercely loyal fanbase, to prove Macca's understood the space before asking anything of it.
YKG produced and amplified behind-the-scenes content and unlocked access to local and international events that had been out of reach for Australian players and fans. Blizzard opened their platforms and databases to drive a partnership for the first time.
After the community backed year one, Macca's increased their commitment by over 15x and expanded across all five Blizzard titles, a global esports first. The scale gave the brand a permanent seat in the scene rather than a seasonal one.
YKG launched Path to Pro, an online learning tool and content series with professional players coaching players at home. It aligned with Macca's wider sport and brand strategy and delivered over 40 million minutes of branding watched and 20 unique content pieces in year two alone.
Years three to five consolidated around the number one title, Overwatch, and took the partnership into the two biggest esports events in Australia. YKG created the Macca's MVP broadcast segment, ad placements that were global firsts and new commentary structures, drove live hype in stores using Blizzard's in-game assets, and merged in-game rewards into McDonald's Monopoly for the third highest prize redemption across all partners.
In 2017, Maccas faced a challenge. Millennials love for the brand was in decline. While we know millennials are always connected and looking for the next big thing, they also have the leading ad blocker penetration in Australia, making them difficult to reach online. But with millennials spending over 20 hours a week immersed in esports, we had discovered our way in.
Gamers demand authenticity, and we needed this tribe to love Maccas. We needed to demonstrate we were here for a long time, not just a good time. So, we partnered with Blizzard and set our strategy on delivering authentic value. We helped create two live tournaments, launched our path to pro approach to develop online and realworld training opportunities for the next generation of esports stars, and with Macca's help, got several Aussie players signed to global contracts.
The partnership came alive in restaurant via an onpack promotion and searchable hack, letting the gamers game the game. And guess what? They loved it. 50% of the tournament attendees interacted with our in restaurant promotion, which drove incremental sales at over 100 restaurants. Over our 3-year partnership, we have delivered some outstanding shared results.
We reached 4.7 million people, delivered over 90% positive social sentiment, and became the global benchmark for Blizzard partnerships. Maccas are now proudly the number one non-endemic sponsor of esports in Australia. Not bad in 3 years.
