I am taking you back to my distant past and an idea that netted me McDonald’s very first Marketing Achievement Award. The concept still works today.

In 1975 my client McDonald’s Restaurants introduced BEAKFAST. They challenged our Boston agency team to come up with a promotion that would impact sales of breakfast entrees. Target audience: men 18-34. Coincidentally, Boston’s Gillette Company introduced a product of their own – the Gillette Good News disposable razor. Target audience: men 18-34. Hmmm.

A match was made in heaven. “Buy a McDonald’s Breakfast Entrée and Get a Free Gillette Good News Disposable Razor”. An amazing New England test resulted in a Spring National Rollout. Gillette produced 23 million razors for this campaign. In less than a year, McDonald’s became America’s number one breakfast restaurant, while the product trial catapulted Gillette to Huge Success in this new category.

The point here – take another look at your product or service… is there a non-competing tie-in partner out there that can help propel sales of your product or service in a brand new channel? Combined promotional funds can create a much greater impact on the marketplace.

We’re in marketing planning season for 2017. Time to explore ALL your options.

Happy thinking!

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