Are You Able to Solve McDonald's 'Golden Number' Riddle?

The McDonald's jingle is one of the world’s most famous melodies. What many do not know is that you can play the well-known jingle on the keypad of your phone. McDonald’s latest campaign encouraged people to find and call The Golden Number for the chance of winning an exclusive Golden Card at McDonald's. 5000 lucky people managed to solve the riddle and call the number in hopes of winning the magnificently golden price. 

With their latest campaign, 'The Golden Number', McDonald's in Sweden wanted to use their well-known jingle to spread positive feelings in these mundane times. In this new raffle, you had the chance of receiving a golden card loaded with a large amount of money which can be used at any McDonald's throughout Sweden. 

All you had to do to participate in the raffle was play McDonald's well-known jingle with the keypad on your phone and call that number. Finding the right combination of numbers was up to the participants. You could either follow the various clues that McDonald´s ad had given or listen for the right sound from your keynote. Once you had managed to find the golden number you just had to call it to be in the draw. With about 5000 people participating, the campaign took people by storm.

"We saw this as an opportunity to spread joy. It was about time for a real McDonald's enthusiast to get the chance to lay their hands on a gold card. We were really happy to see how eager people were about figuring out the right combination, and how many people joined in the raffle. If you managed to play our jingle on your keypad and dial the golden number – well, then you deserved to be in the running of winning the golden card," says Staffan Ekstam, marketing director at McDonald's Sweden.

The campaign started on December 27th, with the golden number being displayed on staff's name tags and on some of McDonald's packaging as a teaser, without further explanation of the meaning of the number. The number has also made its way into McDonald's own commercials, where the entire number has been seen for a second and the audio logo has been replaced by the telephone jingle in radio commercials. After the teaser, McDonald’s revealed that their famous jingle can be played with a 10-digit number. Whilst all this had been going on, McDonald's asked people to call them via outdoor boards, and through their own social media channels. On January 27th, the winner will be announced on McDonald's app. Behind the campaign is the creative agency NORD DDB.

"It is always difficult to know how a campaign will be received in advance, but the reception from McDonald's fans has been enormous and the fact that about 5,000 people have called is a bit bizarre. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I think McDonald’s is the only brand where the sound logo is also their phone number. That is pretty cool if you ask me," says Felix Jörneman, one of the creatives behind the campaign at NORD DDB.