The Promo Pro: Karon Brown, Account Director, IMS (asi/215310)
Client: McDonald’s
Job: Provide approximately 1 million custom “SodaSok” cup sleeves for McDonald’s locations in more than 20 U.S. markets as part of a charity-benefiting campaign.
Order Value: $2.1 million

STEP ONE

Become a Preferred Vendor
The “Golden Arches” doesn’t do big orders with just any distributors. The good news for IMS? It was in a position to execute this massive feel-good campaign after previously becoming a preferred vendor with McDonald’s. After securing that status, IMS worked diligently and became a value-adding marketing partner to the popular fast food corporation. “We’re always looking for ways to collaborate and implement great programs to support the McDonald’s brand,” says Brown.

STEP TWO

Collaborate on a Unique Project
Teaming up with McDonald’s and its brand partner Coca-Cola, IMS played a pivotal role in creating and fulfilling what would become the “Sleeves For Support” campaign. The initiative, it was determined, would center on custom SodaSok sleeves from insulated drink sleeve maker JavaSok – cup sleeves specially built to fit McDonald’s 30-oz. soft-drink cups. Consumers could buy the sleeves for $5 at certain McDonald’s locations. Proceeds would benefit local chapters of Ronald McDonald House Charities, a nonprofit family and children’s charity dedicated to supporting families with sick children in their time of need. “The goals of the campaign,” Brown explains, “were to raise money for RMHC and to promote summer beverages and soft drinks to increase sales.”

STEP THREE

Do a Test Run
Before launching at scale, Brown and Coca-Cola conducted a test campaign in Ohio, an effort aimed at everything from assessing consumer reception to ironing out potential kinks. Custom-built to fit the McDonald’s/Coca-Cola cup and co-branded with the logos of RMHC, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, the SodaSoks were a hit. “The test campaign was a huge success, so planning began to expand the campaign across U.S. restaurants in more than 20 markets in the spring of 2020,” says Brown, noting proceeds from sales during the test run supported RMHC in the Buckeye State.

STEP FOUR

Overcome COVID Upheaval
Getting the fully custom socks built on time was a challenge given the unprecedented disruption caused by the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic and extended Chinese New Year. Still, Brown and IMS came through by operating strategically. “We worked really closely with our vendor partner and factory,” Brown relates. “Those great relationships, along with timelines and regular status meetings, kept production and shipping milestones on track and helped us identify any potential challenges sooner rather than later.”

STEP FIVE

Communicate & Coordinate Around Closings
Sadly, COVID-19 didn’t just cause issues on the back end. Some McDonald’s restaurants that were slated to participate in the campaign had to temporarily close amid societal shutdown orders that resulted from the pandemic. That was, to put it mildly, a bit of a monkey wrench.

“Although more than 60% of the program was committed, we had to pivot when the restaurants closed temporarily,” explains Brown. The pivot came off with aplomb. “We maintained communications with the campaign steering committee and kept in frequent contact with client partners in individual markets to stay on top of plans to reschedule the campaigns,” she says. “These dialogues allowed us to quickly prepare and ship materials to the markets to meet new campaign launch dates.”

For McDonald’s Sleeves For Support campaign, Top 40 distributor IMS created “SodaSoks.” Proceeds from sales of the custom cup sleeves benefited various local chapters of Ronald McDonald House Charities throughout the U.S.

STEP SIX

Take Pride in the Client’s ROI
As of this writing, the Sleeves For Support campaign had generated more than $2 million for RMHC. That number was expected to rise as the initiative continued. For Brown, there was satisfaction in helping a valued client achieve an important objective that directly benefited a truly worthy cause. “The Sleeves For Support campaign,” says Brown, “was a perfect example of identifying a need and coming up with a solution that not only benefits McDonald’s customers, but also generates much-needed funds for Ronald McDonald House chapters across the U.S.” Given the strength of the relationship with McDonald’s and the achievement of the charity cup sleeve initiative, similarly successful collaborations are in the cards.