French fries bought from McDonald's Pioneer Mall, Singapore |
"This is the first time in brand history we're changing the packaging design of one of our customers' most favourite menu items on a global scale, and what better reason than to share in the excitement of one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world," said Steve Easterbrook, Senior Executive Vice President and Global Chief Brand Officer of McDonald's. "This is about bringing fun, innovative programming to our customers and celebrating our shared love of futbol. We're excited to be able to do that through an engaging, interactive mobile experience, and of course with our World-Famous Fries."
The app at the Play Store. |
Once the app is started, the user can place the French fry box on a flat surface in well-lit surroundings and turn the scene into an augmented reality game involving a ball and an obstacle course of (what else) French fries, at least in the first of several levels. The idea, the company said, is to "kick" the ball with the flick of a finger and divert or use obstacles to get the ball into the goal.
"Our digital vision at McDonald's is to bring an entirely new level of everyday convenience and fun to the world, and our Augmented Reality app is just one example of how we are bringing fun to our customers' lives," said Atif Rafiq, McDonald's Chief Digital Officer. "We are very excited about the numerous opportunities in front of us to bring even more innovative digital experiences to our customers in ways only McDonald's can do."
Scanning... |
Instructions for download are a little cryptic, but basically direct the user to gol.mcd.com which redirects the user to the Play store and the App store. The Android Play store had only registered 500+ downloads at the time of writing.
The artists showcased on the specially-designed fry boxes include:
-- Australia: David Spencer, Artwork Title - 'The Perfect Kick'
-- Brazil: Eduardo Kobra, Artwork Title - 'O mundo unido pelo futebol' (translation: 'The world united by football')
-- Canada: Muegluc, Artwork Title - 'Unite Together'
-- China: Hua Tunan, Artwork Title - 'World of Victory'
-- England: Ben Mosley, Artwork Title - 'Fans of the World'
-- France: Skwak, Artwork Title - 'The Maniac Football Party'
-- Germany: Roman Klonek, Artwork Title - 'Freaky Fan Club'
-- Japan: Doppel, Artwork Title - 'Kick the One'
-- Russia: Egor Koshelev, Artwork Title - 'The Perfect Goal'
-- South Africa: Adele Bantjes, Artwork Title - 'Heart of the Game'
-- Spain: Martin Sati, Artwork Title - 'Flamenco Number One'
-- US: Tes One, Artwork Title - 'Formations'
Screenshot from level 1. |
Visiting gol.mcd.com also leads to a YouTube video of amazing football stunts, here.
The company has used augmented reality for mobile marketing in Australia in 2013 with the Track my Macca's app. Read about McDonald's other apps here.
*The box depicted in this post is by Hua Tunan, 'World of Victory', and is numbered 9/12.