Brazil 2014: McDonald's gains 360,000 Facebook fans with "Fry Futbol" marketing campaign

McDonald's modified its communications in real time to create a reactive Facebook marketing campaign during the 2014 World Cup (Brazil, from 12/06/2014 to 13/07/2014). This enabled the fast food company to gain 360,000 fans on the social network, hitting 31.66m Facebook followers as of 15/07/2014 (versus 31.3m followers on 12/06/2014).

McDonald's used its Facebook account to reach an international audience and took advantage of enthusiasm for the 2014 World Cup -- the event got 3bn interactions (posts, comments and likes) -- to market the McDonald's brand.

With its marketing campaign "Fry Futbol", broadcast on Facebook and YouTube, McDonald's published short video animations in which fries were depicted replaying the tournament’s memorable moments hours after they had happened. McDonald's had contracts with the American production company Arc, the British special effects company Framestore and the American media agency OMD (Optimum Media Direction) for the production and the support of these videos.

• McDonald's uses Facebook as a communication channel during major sports events…