CHEERS TO…MCDONALD’S
McDonald’s have gone all in on digital-first with this year’s Monopoly promotion - it’s now exclusively app-based, and on paper (pun intended), it’s a really clever play (also pun intended).
Force people into the MyMacca’s app and suddenly you’ve got:
📲 a bigger database of logged-in users.
📈 better ability to retarget and retain them.
🍔 a pathway to streamline production by conditioning people to order ahead on their phones.
It also saves Maccas millions in manufacturing those special Monopoly cups and fry boxes, not to mention eliminating the annual packaging wastage from unused promotional cups year on year.
From an operational and marketing point of view? Genius.
But here’s the problem: we hate it.
Macca’s have underestimated just how much Australians love the tactile thrill of peeling back a sticker and instantly seeing if you’ve won.
By forcing it into the app, they’ve made it feel harder to play, less fun, and more like work.
And in a world where we’re already drowning in digital log-ins, verifications and app notifications, this just feels exhausting.
Add to that the awkward reality that 70% of McDonald’s revenue comes through drive-thru - and they’re encouraging us to pull out our phones mid-order? It’s a weird and potentially deadly clash between brand strategy and real-world customer behaviour.
So yes, it’s smart in theory.
But it’s also a case study in how “digital-first” can become “customer-last” without you even realising it, because sometimes the low-tech thrill of a cardboard peelie is worth more than the data
This piece first appeared in Excessive Consumption - a weekly dispatch on culture, branding, politics and whatever other modern internet brain rot the algorithm has emotionally assigned me that week.
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