This year the star of the McDonald’s Christmas Advert is ‘Archie the Reindeer’ , a loveable reindeer brought alive by one girl’s imagination. The advert was hosted on Sunday 17th November during ITV’s flagship show, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! and tells the story of a young girl called Ellie at Christmas.

Ben Fox, Marketing Director, McDonald’s UK and Ireland said: “We’re proud of the role we play in getting the nation Reindeer Ready each Christmas and this year is no exception. We’re celebrating the magic of Christmas through the eyes of Ellie, an imaginative little girl, in an advert which illustrates scenes recognised by parents across the country, as the whole family comes together to get Reindeer ready. We hope the public enjoy Ellie and Archie’s adventure as much as we do.”

Commenting on the campaign, Chaka Sobhani, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett London said: “This campaign celebrates the power of a child’s imagination which comes even more to life at Christmas time. Kids have that incredible ability to embrace the magical side of Christmas and see wonder where we struggle to especially when teenagers. We hope this Christmas tale of a little girl and her tutu wearing dog warms the heart and gets the country Reindeer Ready.”

As part of the campaign, McDonald’s will be launching a brand-new ‘Archie the Reindeer’ storybook, also available in ebook and audiobook form. Books can be ordered and downloaded from 17th November from the McDonald’s Reindeer Ready Hub. The Reindeer Ready Hub has everything you need to get you and your family in the Christmas mood this festive season, including a competition to win this year’s McDonald’s Christmas jumper, inspired by their festive cups, also launching on 17th November.

Reindeer Ready Live is also returning on the hub this year. This augmented reality tool allows parents to share with their children the magical moment Father Christmas’ reindeer enters their home at Christmas, and will be available for parents to use in the run up to Christmas from 18th December.

With media planning and buying led by OMD UK, families can also create a magical digital experience on Snapchat, with a lens that transforms the user and their dog into a reindeer. Snapchat filters are also available for customers visiting McDonald’s restaurants.

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McDonald’s launches McDonald’s Monopoly Win Win, the latest version of its annual Monopoly promotion, on March 22nd 2017. The promotion ends Tuesday May 2nd 2017.

This is the 12th consecutive year that McDonald’s has teamed up with Monopoly’s owner Hasbro for a game-themed promotion. McDonald’s has also announced that to celebrate the launch of the game promotion, it is bringing back the Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry and Cadbury Caramel McFlurry products for a limited time.

This year sees McDonald’s and Hasbro offer customers a number of different ways to participate and win – including a new fourth way to play.

Each game sticker now has a multipurpose and allows customers the opportunity to win whatever way they play. These include:

• Instant Win – peel and reveal one of millions of prizes to win instantly
• Collect to Win – collect and complete property sets to win prizes
• Online Win – stickers carry a unique nine-digit code which can be entered online at mcdonalds.co.uk/monopoly for the chance to win cash every minute, Deezer premium subscriptions and CEX vouchers, plus millions of other prizes.

New for 2017, the fourth way to play allows customers to turn any 10 property sticker combinations into a Now TV pass with winners choosing between a one month’s Sky Cinema pass, a one month’s Entertainment Pass, a one month’s Kids pass or a one day Sky Sport’s pass.

Prizes on offer include four lots of £100,000 (for getting both Mayfair and Park Lane), four lots of £25,000 in cash (instant win prizes), 20 MINIs, 150 £1,500 Airtours vouchers, 500 Sony PlayStation 4 games consoles, 13,000 bundles of a NOW TV box and annual pass, Best Western Hotel breaks, Monopoly sets, Red Letter Day vouchers, BooHoo.com vouchers, KitSound Wireless Speakers, Sony cameras, Mello skateboard kits, cinema tickets, PrezzyBox.com vouchers plus discount vouchers and free McDonald’s menu items.

Steve Howells, Head of Marketing, Food and Beverages, at McDonald’s UK, said: “I know our customers excitedly await this promotion so I’m delighted to welcome back Monopoly at McDonald’s for a 12th year. We’ve listened to our customers and we know it’s frustrating when customers have stickers but not sets. I’m therefore excited to introduce this fourth way of playing, enabling customers to put these stickers to good use. I look forward to seeing some of our customers win big!”

McDonald’s Monopoly saw over 10 million prizes claimed last year.

The promotion was created by The Marketing Store, which has been working on the McDonald’s Monopoly promotions for many years, with advertising created by Leo Burnett London.

Full terms and conditions are available via monopoly.mcdonalds.co.uk/terms

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Telefónica, Leo Burnett/Arc and Space were crowned the big winners at The IPM Awards 2016, taking home the trophies for Brand Owner of the Year, Agency of the Year and the coveted Grand Prix Award respectively.

This year’s winners, which were announced at the IPM’s black-tie Awards Gala on Tuesday 14th June at the London Hilton Park Lane, showcased and celebrated the very best in creativity and effectiveness in the promotional marketing industry.

With an opening address from Lord Guy Black of Brentwood, President of the IPM, the evening included creative highlights from the past year in promotional marketing.

Telefónica was named as Brand Owner of the Year, after collecting a series of awards during the night.

Leo Burnett/Arc, which took the Agency of the Year accolade for the second year running and which also shared it two years ago, were presented with their Award by Greg Mulholland MP, who started his professional life in marketing agencies BD Network and The Marketing Store.

Integrated agency Space proudly took home the Grand Prix Award for its #CheltenHAM campaign for Gala Coral, featuring a festival of micro-pig racing, after collecting a series of trophies for the campaign during the night. The picture above shows Space collecting their award from Lord Black (left) with the evening’s host, Bill Bailey, third from left.

Other agencies celebrating multiple trophies included Savvy, iD, P&MM, Haygarth and whynot!

Graham Temple, Chairman of the IPM, said: “The IPM Awards celebrate outstanding promotional marketing from the very best UK agencies. Each year, we continue to be wowed by creativity, innovation and effectiveness in the campaigns that are entered. Our Awards are open to everyone in the industry and we were delighted to see both old friends and newcomers to the IPM collecting Awards last night.”

Temple added that this year, winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze IPM Awards all qualify for entry into the IMC European Awards. “If last year’s UK success in Europe is repeated, then last night we were seeing not just the best campaigns in the UK, but also Europe and possibly the world.”

Sponsors for the IPM Awards 2016 included The Lettershop Group, Snipp!, POD Staffing, i-movo, The Black Tomato Agency, Selby Marketing, SVS, Limelight PR and Pictures Experience.

A full list of this year’s winner can be found on the IPM website.

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Arc, the shopper marketing and activation agency which is part of marketing services group Leo Burnett, has signed an exclusive partnership with Thin Film Electronics ASA, a global leader in printed electronics and smart systems.

The two companies will collaborate to deliver Thinfilm’s NFC OpenSense technology to Arc and Leo Burnett clients across a variety of product categories.

NFC OpenSense tags are thin, flexible labels that adhere to products and can be activated with the tap of an NFC-enabled smartphone. Each tag is uniquely identifiable and can detect both a product’s “factory sealed” and “opened” states. Once tapped, the tag wirelessly communicates with a smartphone, instantly delivering contextual brand content at shelf or when using the product at home.

Thinfilm’s products can be used to create ‘smart packaging’ – the company has just announced at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona that leading Spanish winemaker Barbadillo has launched a rare sherry in “smart bottles” protected by Thinfilm’s NFC-based authentication technology (see image). The NFC OpenSense tags incorporated into each bottle are specifically designed to beat counterfeiters, prevent unauthorized refills, and facilitate product authentication.

Thinfilm and Leo Burnett/Arc teams will work side-by-side, ensuring the technology is accessible to brands and creating custom NFC OpenSense solutions for agency clients. In addition, the combined team will help further shape the technology to ensure the technology is more attractive and accessible to brands.

Nick Jones, EVP, Innovation & Growth at Arc/Leo Burnett, says: “Technology affords people the opportunity to plan, shop, and buy on their own terms anytime and anywhere, resulting in highly sophisticated shoppers and a highly competitive marketplace. Thinfilm’s NFC OpenSense technology is a game changer. It allows brands to connect with shoppers beyond the point-of-sale, delivering multiple messages throughout a product’s lifetime.”

In June 2015, Thinfilm highlighted its NFC OpenSense technology at Leo Burnett/Arc’s fifth annual FutureShop showcase in Chicago. Leo Burnett/Arc clients and staff learned firsthand how next-generation, mobile-centric retail marketing technologies can change the way brands communicate and the way consumers make purchase decisions.

Davor Sutija, CEO of Thinfilm, adds: “Thinfilm is very excited to partner with a global leader and innovator in the field of digital communication and shopper marketing. We look forward to working closely with the team at Leo Burnett/Arc to help provide the agency’s clients with solutions that strengthen consumer relationships and ultimately, grow their businesses.”

Thinfilm was the first company to commercialize printed, rewritable memory and is creating printed systems that include memory, sensing, display, and wireless communication, all at a low cost.

Thinfilm’s roadmap integrates technology from a strong and growing ecosystem of partners to enable the ‘Internet of Everything’ by bringing intelligence to disposable goods.

Thin Film Electronics ASA is a publicly listed Norwegian company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway; product development and production in Linköping, Sweden; product development, production, and business development in San Jose, California, USA; and sales offices in the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Arc is the Intelligent Activation Agency within Leo Burnett Worldwide. Headquartered in Chicago, Arc provides brands with innovative, insightful and imaginative creative solutions rooted in understanding people and behaviour through the lens of a shopper. As part of one of the world’s largest agency networks, Arc has 26 offices in 22 countries with more than 1,000 employees.

Arc works with some of the world’s most valued brands including Coca-Cola, Fiat, Adidas, Samsung, Microsoft, McDonald’s and P&G.

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McDonald’s UK has launched a new campaign that encourages the British public to film themselves singing Wizzard’s ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day’ for the chance to appear in the fast food giant’s TV advertising over Christmas.

The campaign, which is part of McDonald’s brand platform ‘Good Times’, is centred around a new ad that explores the journey to Christmas and the role that McDonald’s plays during these memorable trips.

Created in partnership with Leo Burnett London, OMD UK and Razorfish, ‘The Journey to Christmas’ 60 second TV campaign features a young family making a long car journey just before Christmas Day, joyfully singing together the well-known Christmas classic by Wizzard, ‘I wish it could be Christmas everyday’. They break up the trip with a visit to McDonald’s.

The call to action at the end of the advert encourages the people of Britain to film themselves singing this same song while on their own Christmas journeys and uploading their videos to a brand new festive themed hub on www.mcdonalds.co.uk.

Each video entry will be in with a chance of starring in McDonal’ds special 90 second Christmas day ad, played inthe ad break of the most watched programme – Coronation Street. The ad will give insight into those ‘Good Times’  created on Christmas journeys, showcasing people from all across the country singing along to a festive classic.

The ‘Journey to Christmas’ campaign will be supported in a number of different ways, including a paid partnership with Heart FM, a fun ‘cab-i-oke’ experience touring cities across the UK and a McDonald’s restaurant in Southampton being transformed into a Winter Wonderland.

Steve Hill, Head of Marketing at McDonald’s UK, says: “We’re really excited to be doing something different this year. Whilst we want to highlight the role that McDonald’s can play during the festive period, we also want to encourage a little bit of fun.  Combining a well-known song like Wizzard’s ‘I wish it could be Christmas everyday’ with the traditional festive journey, we’re creating the perfect environment for people up and down the country to enjoy themselves and get the chance to feature in our Christmas day advert.”

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