The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
McDonald's UAE let customers pay for a McCrispy with a crunch and won an Effie Bronze
For one hour, singing a CRUNCH song bought a free McCrispy — a launch built on the one word 200 nationalities share.
McDonald's UAE
The solution
Introducing a new chicken burger in the UAE means reaching more than 200 nationalities who speak 30+ languages. McDonald's UAE and FP7 McCann Dubai had no shared slogan to fall back on — but every customer could hear one thing: the crunch of the McCrispy.
The campaign turned that crunch into the entire universe of the launch: a 10-track album in which every lyric, beat and chorus revolves around the word CRUNCH (from 'Cruncherific rock' to 'Crunchtastic dance'), a McCrispy x Spotify playlist, and radio and university activations that made the sound inescapable before the burger itself did the talking.
On 27 February 2025, sound became literal currency: for one hour, customers who sang one of the Crunch songs walked out with a free McCrispy. The launch won a Bronze at the 2025 MENA Effie Awards, where the jury recognised its effectiveness for a product introduction in a fragmented market.
Why it worked
- One universal word bypassed a 30-language media problem instead of translating 30 campaigns
- Making the crunch a song gave the product an earworm that outlived the launch
- Pay-with-crunch turned every participating customer into a performer and a witness
- The sound was the product, so attention and message were the same thing
What can be applied
When your audience has no shared language, launch with the one thing the product itself provides — a sound — and let customers perform it, so the ad becomes a participatory moment rather than a claim.
Aftermath
After the one-hour 'pay with crunch' window and the album rollout, the campaign became one of FP7 McCann UAE's strongest effectiveness stories of 2025, earning a Bronze at the MENA Effies as part of the agency's 15-win night. Letting customers pay in the product's signature sound became a cited example of launch marketing that needs no translation.
Sources
- McDonald's Spotlights the Only Burger That Brings You the Sound of Joy, If You Sing It
- McCrispy – Pay in Cash, Card or Crunch
- FP7 McCann Named Most Effective Agency Network at 2025 MENA Effie Awards
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