McDonald’s recently gave new meaning to the term “fast food” with a clever experiential campaign that took the drive-thru concept to a whole new – and amusing – level in our stunt of the week.
Truck stop
The brand created the unfortunately named ‘Drive-Thruck’ and took to the streets of Brazil (the name comes from mixing ‘truck’ with ‘thru’ apparently). The truck looked like a normal bricks-and-mortar drive-thru, but instead of waiting for customers to come to it, the truck hit the road to serve customers wherever it could find them.
The truck drove around the streets of Brazil, before pulling over in random locations and taking orders from passing cars, providing an unusual experience.
On the road
Simple but effective, the activation was designed to remind consumers that they can find a McDonald’s drive-thru on most journeys these days.
It not only promoted the convenience of their drive-thru’s, but also the fact that with 36,899 restaurants worldwide, people are never far away from a Big Mac.
By going directly to its customers, McDonald’s also reinforced brand loyalty and visibility. All in all, an effective and engaging experiential activation.
Mobile market
Fans of mobile promos will also like the new innovation from retail start-up Wheelys: a prototype self-driving supermarket that drives to different locations throughout the day and uses artificially intelligent holograms to help customers.
The vehicle is designed to be almost completely self-sufficient, using software that tracks its inventory and alerts the Moby-Mart when it’s time to restock.
AI assistance
It has a hologram store assistant, powered by AI, which can keep a note of shopping habits and make recipe recommendations.
These virtual attendants would use the cloud to form a network that tracks worldwide behaviour, and it means the shop can remain open around the clock, without having to rely on human staff. Plus purchases are made through an app, meaning there are no queues.
The Moby-Mart is currently being beta tested in Shanghai, but Wheelys hopes to start deploying units in 2018, expecting them to cost around $100,000 (£78,000).
Is this the future of shopping? Find out more here.
