• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, November 26, 2012

Gaming and eating come together in a location-based campaign for McDonald’s China.

TBWA\Helsinki and Gamelab collaborated with Rovio, creators of the popular Angry Birds franchise, to create a customized game that’s available for download when a gamer is playing Angry Birds inside or near a McDonald’s in China.

“Players unlock game modes such as ‘king-pig,’ where players can shoot pigs against eggs,” said Väinö Leskinen, vice president of TBWA\Helsinki and Gamelab. “The players are offered the hidden game modes when they start the game inside a McDonald's restaurant.”

The campaign kicked off with a TV commercial describing the game. A battle between the pigs and the angry birds begins when a group of pigs steal a McDonald’s burger from a customer.

A social media component allows residents to place their votes for one of four cities eligible to have an actual slingshot, like those seen in the Angry Birds games, built outside a McDonald’s to protect the food from the pigs.

The campaign took six months to create and thus far there are no plans to replicate it in other countries.

“The core of the campaign is the mobile game and its custom modes at McDonald's,” said Leskinen. “In addition to this, the campaign also offers customers a custom-made, McDonald's branded web game. The potential of in-game advertising is something every consumer brand should consider. You could say that it is Super Bowl every day.”