Dive Brief:

• Lovers of McDonald’s signature secret Big Mac sauce were in luck yesterday when the fast food giant decided to give away 10,000 bottles of the condiment, according to reporting by Adweek.
• At selected restaurants, patrons could say "There’s a Big Mac for that" as a secret code to win a bottle and everyone else could claim their prize via live streams on Facebook Live, Instagram and Twitter, as well as McDonald’s branded iMessage app.
• The campaign was put together by Interpublic Group’s Golin with the goal of promoting the new Mac Jr. and Grand Mac menu items.

Dive Insight:

The Big Mac sauce promotion shows McDonald's being smart about tapping what's hot in social right now, both through the live streaming giveaways and especially with the iMessage component. IMessage has long been popular with Apple fans, retaining an audience of 1 billion daily active users, but the tech company only enabled a dedicated app store for the feature in the fall of last year, building out its offerings for brands looking to connect in a more personal way with consumers. 

Messaging is a growing space for marketers, and iMessage is likely aiming to put a bit of a dent in the dominance of apps like Facebook Messenger, which is well known for its hosting of branded chatbots and has lead much of the conversation around messaging marketing. Other players in the space including Kik have also launched chat marketplaces, as bots and other messaging tools can provide one-to-one customer care and even facilitate in-app purchases. 

Back in October, McDonald’s beefed up its social media team by adding 200 employees with a specific goal to better reach millennials. At the time, an internal company memo said that only 20% of millennials had ever tried a Big Mac, the brand's signature offering. Since that time, McDonald's has become more active on Instagram, which is integral to its current sauce giveaway campaign.