The Challenge
The 2008 Beijing Olympics - also known in our circle as the "Marketing Olympics" - are a battle for consumer attention, not just a competition between athletes. Tribal DDB Shanghai and DDB China, part of DDB China Group, identified a key factor to differentiate McDonald's campaign from the others. Through research they understood that people in China were excited and proud to be hosting the Beijing Olympics. The problem is that the games in Beijing felt remote and out of reach.

Idea
By turning McDonald's global tagline "I'm Lovin' it" into a creative new slogan, "I am lovin' it when China wins", people could record this cheer and upload it onto the website via video, photo, or audio. The most innovative part was cheering stations at restaurants over the country. In phase 1, which took place over 3 months, 220,000 people uploaded their Cheer for China onto the website. The top 10 cheerers were picked through internet voting and they moved into a Cheering Training House in Beijing for Phase 2. There they were coached in dancing, singing and cheering! The training clips from the camp were broadcast on the internet and in McDonalds restaurants across the country every week. This online reality show culminated in the 5 best cheerers being picked by a panel of celebrity judges.
In the final and third stage of the campaign these 5 - now the official McD's Cheering Team--led 1,200 people in Beijing to dance together just meters from Beijing's Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium. Dressed in red outfits they performed a special 'I'm lovin it when China wins' dance for 5 minutes to create a new world record.

Results
Over 32 million unique visitors to the website and 1.2 million people joined our Olympic Cheering campaign. During phase 2 over 7 million people viewed the online reality show videos. All that translated into a big increase in sales and traffic to McDonald's restaurants! Proof of the campaign's effectiveness was highlighted by the campaign winning a GOLD at the China Effie Awards 2008!