SerSan: Hello Kitty X McDonald's Colors of Summer 2008 Messenger

In summer 2008, McDonald’s introduced summer desserts – some new and some old favourites – along with a set of Hello Kitty premiums under the “Hello Kitty Messenger” theme.

16 unique ‘Hello Kitty Messenger’ plush toys were released with 5 special summer desserts and a limited offer collector’s kit.

To boost the evening traffic of McDonald’s’ 24 hours business, a special edition plush toy, Black Wonder Kitty, was made available only after 9pm.

Promotion Tools

To capture the target demographics, both above- and below-the-line promotion efforts were employed. The campaign used a 360° media approach, traditional and new, from print, electronic, online and mobile.

To increase the campaign’s engagement level, a virtual Hello Kitty Live Messenger on MSN was released; a first in Hong Kong. Different Hello Kitty Messengers were displayed in the MSN Live Messenger picture box, and they would ask questions. Those who could answer the questions correctly were given unique emoticons as rewards.

Overall Performance

Over the 6 weeks of the campaign, sales records surpassed all previous summers, with a 14.2% increase in incremental sales and a 12.4% increase in guest count.

All Hello Kitty Messengers were sold out. Black Wonder Kitty sold out half way through the first week of the promotion, and the Collector’s Kits were sold out by Week 2. 65,000 users added Hello Kitty to their MSN contact lists, and had exchanged 70 million messages with her.

Complete Series of Hello Kitty Messenger

16 Hello Kitty Messengers

I'm Busy! /(@_@)\
Do Not Disturb! /('+_+')\
I'm Sorry /(*.*)
See U Later ! \(^-^)
I Love You! (*3*)
I'm Happy! (^0^)
I'm At Home! ||| (0_0)
I'm Angy! | (\ . /) |
I Miss U! (*_*)/
Happy B-Day! (-c-)/
Thank you! * | (^.^)
Work Hard! \(>_<)/
I'm Sad! (; . ;)
Let's Celebrate! \(>0^)
Out For Lunch! \('0')
I'm Sleepy zzz