McDonald’s Promotion Gets Saucy, Real Saucy

Sometimes you just can’t imagine an outcome and sometimes you just can’t imagine how the world works. This holds true for even the biggest brands on planet Earth. And then you suddenly find yourself offering extremely limited quantities of Szechuan Sauce to fans of a popular Cartoon Network series called Rick and Morty.

That’s exactly what McDonald’s did. And when they weren’t stocked with enough of the sauce, things got a little chaotic. First, the inadequately supplied locations experienced frustrated crowds chanting “Give us sauce” in protest. Then those protestors jumped on Twitter and other social media channels to voice their discontent. It was clearly an issue that ballooned out of control.

But all is not lost. McDonald’s realized very quickly that they made a mistake and fessed up. They released a potential resolution via Twitter for fans of Rick and Morty and the infamously desired-but-not-delivered condiment.

So what does this teach us? As you’ve probably heard at least seven trillion times before, don’t underestimate the power of social media. While McDonald’s clearly didn’t respect the reach their offer would have when they created the promotion, they were able to use social media to listen to their customers and respond to them in a global way.

Use social media channels to research and gain insight before you launch a promotion. Then, keep your eyes and ears open via these same channels so you can experience in real time how your customers feel about it.

Let’s just hope that McDonald’s and their apology repaired the hearts of those who were emotionally damaged before it was too late.