McDonald's Switzerland: Golden Win turns a promotional campaign into a driver generating more than 250,000 active users and a 36% offer redemption rate
McDonald’s Switzerland partnered with Eminence to transform “Golden Win,” a promotional game mechanic, into a seamless digital experience fully integrated with its app, CRM and loyalty ecosystem—turning a one-off campaign into a lasting driver of engagement, acquisition and loyalty.
Our challenge was to transform a physical promotional mechanic -peeling a sticker off a cup- into a seamless and engaging digital experience, fully integrated with the McDonald's Switzerland app and digital ecosystem.
- Design a simple, end-to-end user journey, from discovering the sticker to redeeming the prize in the app
- Orchestrate complex back-end connections between prize management tools, the CRM and user data transfer systems
- Ensure a reliable, scalable experience for a high-profile, high-traffic campaign
- Turn participation in the game into a powerful driver of app acquisition and loyalty programme growth
The objectives were therefore twofold:
- Deliver a reliable and engaging promotional experience capable of scaling.
- Turn campaign participation into a driver of app adoption, customer acquisition and loyalty programme growth.
- Design: We defined the complete user journey and game mechanics, then designed a simple, intuitive and engaging UX/UI experience covering every step, from scanning the sticker to redeeming the prize in the McDonald's app.
- Development: We developed the entire game experience, both front-end and back-end, integrating prize management tools, the CRM and automated data transfer systems so that every scan, entry and reward reliably fed into a single, unified customer profile.
- Deployment: We led testing, production deployment and coordination across all stakeholders, then closely monitored the platform throughout the campaign to ensure a reliable, high-performing experience capable of scaling, including during traffic peaks.
Our strategy was to create a connected phygital experience, turning every promotional sticker into an entry point to McDonald's digital ecosystem.
Rather than designing Golden Win as a standalone campaign website, we conceived it as a complete acquisition and activation journey connecting the restaurant, web platform, mobile app, CRM and loyalty ecosystem.
Our strategy was built around four key principles.
1. Create a frictionless phygital journey
The interaction had to remain simple despite the underlying technical complexity.
We designed a clear journey from the physical sticker to the digital game experience, then to prize discovery and redemption in the app. Every step was optimised to reduce effort, provide immediate feedback and naturally guide the customer towards the next action.
2. Make the app the conversion point
The McDonald's app played a central role in the activation.
By directing users to the app to view and redeem their rewards, the campaign gave them a tangible reason to download the app, sign in or use an existing account.
A one-off promotional interaction could therefore contribute to long-term app adoption and loyalty programme participation.
3. Connect participation to customer data
The activation needed to generate more than anonymous traffic.
By integrating the platform with McDonald's CRM and automated data transfer systems, campaign interactions could be linked to customer profiles and offer redemption behaviours.
This approach strengthened McDonald's first-party data ecosystem and created new opportunities for personalised CRM activation after the campaign.
4. Design a reliable, scalable solution
As Golden Win was a high-profile national promotion, the platform needed to handle significant volumes of traffic and participation.
Scalability, accurate code validation, secure data exchanges and continuous monitoring were therefore built into the solution from the outset, rather than added after development.
This approach kept the experience stable and responsive throughout the campaign, including during traffic peaks.
Results
More than 400,000 users actively engaged with the campaign's digital experience.
Customers scanned more than 250,000 promotional codes through the platform.
More than one-third of the offers distributed as part of the activation were redeemed.
The campaign generated more than 1.7 million page views, demonstrating strong engagement with the promotional experience.
