• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 11, 2016

McDonald’s owners in the 15-county Bay Area region are running an ambitious, multichannel, multilingual campaign spanning original, locally filmed TV spots, radio ads and traffic report sponsorships, transit-based out-of-home and paid digital and mobile ads.

The “Good Morning Bay Area” campaign, developed and led by H&L Partners’ San Francisco office, aims to foster brand goodwill and showcase friendly customer service while also promoting breakfast and McDonalds’ ongoing offer of $1 for any size McCafé.

Three TV spots, each in 30- and 15-second versions, show actual local McDonald’s employees (chosen through a casting call) surprising Bay Area residents with free, hot McCafé coffee and Egg McMuffins as they go about their morning routines. 

One spot (screen shot above) features workers at a golf course in Half Moon Bay. The other two feature commuters and others encountered near the trolley in San Francisco’s Marina District and two Oakland locations.

The TV ads were “a great way for our restaurant crew to engage with the community and brighten people’s mornings,” said Nick Vergis, one of the McDonald’s owners/operators in the Greater Bay Area McDonald’s Cooperative. 

The campaign’s OOH efforts, including rotating-message digital LEDs and billboards, are customized by location (“Good Morning, Santa Clara,” “Good Morning, Daly City,” and so forth). 

For the transit OOH, ads and messaging were created in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Hindi. The rest of the creative elements were created in English and Spanish.

Web site ads’ messaging also varies according to the type of site. For instance, users of a sports site may see “Good Morning, Armchair GM,” while those on an entertainment site might see “Good Morning, Internet Commentators.”

The campaign launched March 7 and runs through April 3.