Case Study: McDonald’s achieves increased local store visits and 1.42% CTR with Millennial Media’s location-based mobile ads

McDonald’s Leverages Mobile Location to Point German Consumers to Their Next Big Mac

McDonald’s Deutschland wanted to drive more customers into its 1,500 restaurants across Germany by using mobile’s native capabilities to reach nearby consumers. The challenge was to engage 14–30 year-old urban smartphone users with timely, location-relevant messages that would motivate immediate store visits.

Working with Heye OMD Munich and Millennial Media, McDonald’s ran location-aware in-app interactive banners within a 2,000 m radius of branches that displayed how close users were to their next Big Mac and linked to a store finder with native map directions. The campaign delivered over 3 million impressions and a 1.42% CTR—more than double the vertical benchmark—with top-performing channels posting CTRs around 2%, demonstrating strong ROI and mobile engagement.

McDonald’s

Roland Meves

Department Head, Marketing & Media