McDonald's 'Pay with Lovin" ads not making people love McDonald's
McDonald鈥檚 鈥淧ay With Lovin鈥欌�� campaign launched during the Super Bowl got people talking, but not necessarily positively about the chain, according to a聽聽released today from YouGov BrandIndex.
Giving free meals in exchange for 鈥渞andom acts of lovin鈥欌�� earned McDonald鈥檚 the highest word-of-mouth gain of all Super Bowl advertisers. The report finds 29% of adults saying they talked about McDonald鈥檚 with friends and family over the past two weeks. This is up from the 24% level McDonald鈥檚 had before the campaign
On the day the campaign broke (Feb. 1), 36% of consumers 18 and older said they would consider McDonald鈥檚 for their next QSR food purchase. The good intentions not only lasted, they grew: 11 days later 39% were saying they would consider McDonald鈥檚. How well purchase consideration was converted to actual additional purchases (offsetting more than 1 million free meals) won鈥� be known until McDonald鈥檚 February sales results next month.
But the report does conclude that consumer perceptions of the McDonald鈥檚 brand improved very little as a result of the campaign. YouGov BrandIndex鈥檚 Buzz score comes from responses to the question, 鈥淚f you heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?鈥� McDonald鈥檚 Buzz score actually dipped briefly to -1 (slightly negative) before rising to a 3 by Valentine鈥檚 Day.
YouGov BrandIndex interviews 4,300 people each weekday from a representative US population sample, more than 1.5 million interviews per year. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 2MM individuals.
