The iconic Big Mac celebrates its 50th anniversary amidst future trends

The anniversary is coming… The event started at 11.00 at the Santa Bárbara Palace. A large green carpet at the entrance welcomed the attendees, along with a breakfast based on McCafe products such as croissants, muffins, chocolate cookies, or walnuts with caramel, before making way for the event on the second floor of the palace.

A room to remember the milestones of the Big Mac. In one of the rooms, an exhibition showed the most important milestones of the 50 years of that hamburger: its origin, contents and curiosities about each of the ingredients was displayed. “It is important to remind attendees of the origin of the product, what it represents in our society and its evolution,” says Natalia Echeverría, marketing director of McDonald’s Spain.

Strategy in social networks. Increasingly, events are not measured by the number of people attending, but by the diffusion in social networks and the “noise” they generate. “Our goal is to reach the public, it is a campaign that aims to be close to our consumers”, says Natalia Echevarría. For this reason, during the event, posters were placed in different places of the palace, with messages such as “take a picture, share your moment and run for your Big Mac” with the hashtag: #BigMacHouse. Without a doubt, a great way to motivate attendees to participate and spread the content of the event.

Moment to explain the trends of the future. McDonald’s also revealed some data of a study on leisure and gastronomy trends, carried out among consumers, highlighting what will stay the same and what will evolve in the future.

 Exceptional hosts. During the opening, famous faces like “Los Javis” (directors and screenwriters) shared the leisure trends for the coming years, answering questions such as: what do you prefer, hamburger in a traditional format, or in a capsule ?; Eating with your friends at a table or through a digital platform? The responses generated laughter among the guests… 

Show cooking. The chef Pepe Rodríguez got to work: “we prepared on the stage a small kitchen with ingredients so that the chef cooked in front of the attendees the ‘Big Mac’ of the future: toasted bread, caramelized onion, pickle caviar and quality meat, a delicacy that the guests had the opportunity to later test their preparation”, points out the agency TBWA, responsible for the production of the event. 

Artistic activities. Attendees could participate in the collaborative work of urban artist and illustrator José Antonio Roda. A “half-painted” mural located outside the entrance of the palace, with the aim of completing with strokes inspired by the gastronomy that the guests were contributing as they left the event. 

Students contest. An interesting way to position yourself as more modern than ever, focused on innovation and trends (and do this in a viral way) (and gather good ideas in the process) is to involve the youngsters; so 25 students from the Miami Art School participated in a workshop on marketing and communication trends, conceiving a campaign for the coming 50 years of the Big Mac. The winners won an internship at TBWA creative agency.