Case Study: McDonald's achieves real-time interactive digital billboard engagement with PubNub

McDonald's Powers Digital Billboard Campaign Using PubNub

McDonald's, via digital agency Arc Worldwide, ran a "Save the Sundae Cone" activation on a connected digital billboard in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur where a virtual sundae was visibly melting in the heat. The campaign needed a fast, reliable, low-latency real-time network that could handle hundreds of simultaneous participants, provide 100% uptime during short airtime windows, and be implemented quickly to let passersby spin a virtual fan from their phones to "un-melt" the sundae and earn a voucher.

Arc implemented PubNub Data Streams to stream browser spin actions to the billboard's Flash app, broadcast temperature and state back to users, and push voucher commands and analytics to management consoles. The result was a tightly synchronized, tangible experience that drove high engagement and foot traffic to McDonald’s, enabled remote control and real-time metrics, and was built rapidly (within two weeks) with low latency and reliable uptime.

McDonald’s