Turning geolocation into a driver of restaurant traffic and conversion
McDonald’s Switzerland deployed a geofencing experience integrated into its app to guide users to the nearest restaurant and generate an 8% increase in restaurant visits.
McDonald’s Switzerland partnered with Eminence to create a new activation mechanism based on geolocation. The objective was to turn proximity to a restaurant into an engaging digital experience that could guide users to the location and deliver an exclusive offer at the most relevant moment
The main challenge was to integrate the experience directly into the McDonald’s app while overcoming the limitations of static native offers and avoiding the need for a full app update for every new campaign.
The solution needed to:
- Identify users located near selected restaurants.
- Display a promotional message only to eligible nearby users.
- Guide each user to the nearest restaurant through a GPS-like navigation experience.
- Verify in real time that the user had entered the restaurant’s designated area.
- Unlock an exclusive offer only after their presence had been confirmed.
- Save the offer in the app’s “Offers” tab so it could be redeemed later, even after the user had left the area.
- Integrate the entire journey with Plexure, McDonald’s CRM and loyalty platform.
- Provide a flexible solution that could be reused and expanded for future campaigns.
The objectives were therefore twofold:
- Generate incremental restaurant visits by turning digital intent into physical footfall.
- Improve offer activation and redemption through a personalised, contextual experience integrated into the McDonald’s ecosystem.
- Concept and journey design: We defined the complete user journey, from detecting proximity to a restaurant through to unlocking the offer. Each stage was designed to guide users naturally, reduce friction and maintain engagement until they reached the restaurant.
- UX/UI experience: We created an intuitive mobile interface that enabled users to view and follow the route to the nearest McDonald’s restaurant. The experience used familiar navigation conventions to make the journey immediately understandable.
- Development: Eminence developed a geofencing solution embedded in a Smart WebView within the McDonald’s app. This architecture made it possible to deliver interactive and scalable experiences without requiring a full app update for every new activation.
- Geolocation: Virtual boundaries were configured around selected restaurants using GPS and Wi-Fi data. The user’s location was verified in real time to confirm entry into the designated area and trigger the offer at the appropriate moment.
- CRM integration: The solution was connected to Plexure so that the offer could be saved directly to the user’s profile and the app’s “Offers” tab. This allowed users to access and redeem their offer after leaving the geofenced area.
- Deployment: We managed functional testing, geolocation data validation, production deployment and coordination between the different technical partners to ensure a reliable and seamless experience.
Our strategy was to turn geolocation into a genuine omnichannel activation tool, connecting an interaction within the app to a physical restaurant visit.
Instead of limiting geofencing to a simple proximity notification, we designed a complete journey combining detection, navigation, location verification, offer allocation and CRM integration.
Our strategy was built around four key principles.
1. Turn proximity into a guided journey
Being close to a restaurant does not always result in a visit. It was therefore essential to guide users to the location and make the journey as simple as possible.
When an eligible user was detected near a selected restaurant, a conditional message invited them to discover an exclusive offer. They could then view the route to the nearest restaurant and follow the journey directly within the app experience.
This continuity between discovery, navigation and arrival helped reduce drop-off and convert initial interest into an actual restaurant visit.
2. Unlock the offer at the most relevant moment
The offer was only to be awarded once the user’s presence within the restaurant area had been confirmed.
Using real-time GPS verification, the system detected when the user entered the virtual boundary and automatically unlocked the exclusive offer. The reward was therefore delivered when the user completed the desired action: physically visiting the restaurant.
This mechanism established a measurable connection between exposure to the digital activation, the user’s journey and their restaurant visit.
3. Combine immediacy with redemption flexibility
Although the offer was unlocked upon arrival, it did not have to be redeemed immediately.
Once activated, the offer was automatically saved in the “Offers” tab of the McDonald’s app. Users could therefore retrieve and redeem it later, even after leaving the geofenced area.
This flexibility improved the user experience and offer redemption while keeping the McDonald’s app at the centre of the conversion journey.
4. Build a scalable activation and acquisition mechanism
Embedding the solution in a Smart WebView enabled the experience to evolve more quickly than a traditional native development. New campaigns, locations, offers and mechanics could be deployed without requiring a full app update.
A shareable link to the experience was also created to support acquisition through organic content, paid media campaigns and social networks.
The architecture additionally opened the door to future activations involving gamification, augmented reality and distance-based challenges.
Results
The geofencing mechanism and the ability to save the offer in the app generated a 12% uplift in offer redemption.
The navigation experience and arrival-based offer activation generated an 8% increase in incremental visits to participating restaurants.
82% of users who completed the geofencing journey activated their offer after entering the restaurant’s designated area.
The distribution of the experience and its shareable link contributed to a 17% increase in incremental acquisition.
