McDonald's gets more customer-'friendly'

The fast food chain's new India campaign urges consumers to spend more time with friends and family over the new Maharaja Mac burger.

The fast food chain McDonald's India has introduced the Maharaja Mac, its latest product offering in the counry, with a new campaign titled 'Thoda Time Aur'. Created by Leo Burnett, the campaign revolves around time or the lack of it. People hurry through their lives and also through their meals, and hardly find the time to communicate and share experiences. The campaign has been released as a series of TVCs with titles such as Career planning, Father-son, Solve a problem, and Salary. Each TVC revolves around the central concept -- the need to take out the time to socialise.

The new product is available in two variants - Flame-Grilled Chicken and Veg Mac. Both choices take time to finish, thus giving you thoda time aur (a little more time) to catch up with friends and family. The product is, therefore, also called 'the Social Burger'. The Maharaja Mac burger is India's equivalent of the International Big Mac in terms of size.

Commenting on the new campaign, Kedar Teny, director, marketing and digital, McDonald's India - West and South, says, "As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of McDonald's in India this year, we decided to reinvent one of our most iconic burgers -- the Maharaja Mac. The new Maharaja Mac offers a fulfilling dining experience to customers and is a meal in itself. The build of the burger is such that it takes more time to finish, thereby giving people more time to socialise. This proposition takes forward the brand's agenda of building sociability at the heart of everything it does."

The campaign strikes up a conversation with consumers and largely focusses on help them gain their share of time. "Our campaign tagline #ThodaTimeAur highlights how the Maharaja Mac allows customers to socialise and spend quality time with their friends and family, and enjoy a memorable dining experience. We are extremely delighted to kickstart the year with this exciting launch, and will continue to stay attuned to the evolving needs of our customers and constantly innovate the menu to stay ahead of the curve," adds Teny.

RajDeepak Das, chief creative officer, Leo Burnett, says, "Maharaja Mac is the social burger from McDonald's and its purpose is to allow people more time to socialise with friends and loved ones. Aptly titled #ThodaTimeAur, the campaign demonstrates how with Maharaja Mac's great taste and large size, one can involve in long conversations, thus helping to further establish the brand's image as a great place to connect and share for real."

With this campaign, McDonald's India wants to portray itself as a sociable, relevant and contemporary food destination. The company has previously focussed on this particular concept last year with its Kuch Pal Offline campaign, which worked well for the company.

The fast food chain is present across 26 cities, and has over 7,500 employees in the country currently. It operates through various formats and brand extensions such as standalone restaurants, drive-thru's, 24/7, McDelivery, and dessert kiosks.

Leo Burnett India has created popular campaigns for several brands such as McDonald's, Complan, Glucon D, Thums Up, Maaza, Tide, Whisper, Samsung, Tata Capital, Tata Chemicals, Sony, AdLabs Imagica, Bajaj Discover, HDFC Life Insurance, and Bacardi in the past.