• by Aaron Paquette , Columnist, February 10, 2022

Most brands see hackers as a mortal threat. But this month, McDonald’s celebrates its hackers and their work, with four innovative “menu hacks” that pay tribute to TikTok, YouTube, mukbang videos (where "a host consumes various quantities of food while interacting with the audience," according to Wikipedia), and mashup culture.

All four hacks are promoted by TikTokers with strong followings among those who enjoy food and beverage videos, including Julian Broadway, who loves the Land, Air & Sea, a McChicken sandwich stacked on a Big Mac, stacked on a Filet-O-Fish.

The campaign checks numerous boxes for McDonald’s. It shows the brand is social-media savvy and connects with Gen Z, honors “hacking culture," and encourages customers to buy up to three different entrees at full price rather than just one.

It also creates new menu items out of thin air, sponsors a mashup using only internal brands, provides a way for regular customers to enjoy a new brand experience, and drives users to the company's app (the only place where they can order a Surf & Turf).

Finally, it makes for one heck of a viral ad campaign. (There’s no way you can see a picture of a Land, Air & Sea and not send it to a friend, at least if you’re this author.)

And at a time when brands continue to struggle with labor shortages and supply-chain issues, McDonald’s achieves all these goals without having to source a single ingredient that’s not already in its kitchen.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, McDonald’s dramatically scaled back its menu to maximize efficiency, and stopped serving its All Day Breakfast menu. So it doesn’t even assemble these menu hacks for you. if you want a Land, Air & Sea, you can order it by name, but you’ll receive separate McChicken, Big Mac and Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and then “some assembly is required.”

McDonald’s says consumers build these hacks by hand “because that’s half the fun.” Not only does that save precious labor, but it also avoids the poor optics of McDonald’s serving a triple-sized entree with gut-busting levels of fat, calories and sodium.

What can brands learn from menu hacks by McDonald’s, Starbucks, In-N-Out and others?

*Let consumers create use cases. Actively listen on social media to how consumers are using your products, and then reflect that usage in your marketing. Promote their time-, energy- or cost-saving hacks, creative mashups, or new ways of using your product.

*The crazier the hack, the better. In the old days, food and beverage brands went out of their way to avoid depicting nauseating use cases. Not anymore. For today’s consumer, “the more extreme, the better,” and mukbang videos are as mainstream today as Martha Stewart was in decades past.

Even if a Surf & Turf's combo of a Double Cheeseburger combined with a Filet-O-Fish. is off-putting to consumers, mentioning it might remind them they haven’t had a Filet-O-Fish since Lent, or encourage them to try the Double Cheeseburger (or even to buy the two and eat them separately, rather than together).

*Product development is cheaper than you think. You don’t need new ingredients or a ton of R&D to expand your product portfolio. Can you remove an element, or take an element from Product A and add it to Product B? Can you put the two products together? Maybe with a third? Take a look at your product portfolio, and the raw materials that go into them. Then, with a beginner’s mind, think of new ways of mixing and matching them to decompose and recompose your products in a fresh, modern way.

The brands that encourage hacking are the ones that hack the highest rates of growth.