Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

It's that time of year again where McDonalds (MCD) continues its successful Monopoly Game promotion. This year they've brought on Toys R Us, Foot Locker and American Express as partners.

One of the key elements of their marketing campaign is that people really do win. Over the last four years, the promotion has increased sales by an average of 8.25 percent in the U.S., with customer transactions growing by 4 percent. That's a huge increase by any measure.

The key to the success is the authenticity, measured by the large number of winners, which over the last four years has reached over 350 million, and also the integrity involved with the game of chance, where people that win really receive what the contest says they should.

What is a good insight to consider in this, is many people will go to McDonalds to attempt to win a prize, and the food is just a byproduct of playing the game. I mean that from a consumer's way of looking at it.

An interesting thing in online marketing, is many people make decisions to buy a product or service based on the extra goodies offered them for participating in the offer, rather than the offer itself.

This is why McDonalds gets partners that offer useful products they can use or give to someone else. That's why toys and footwear and American Express are used this year, while last year it was Best Buy ... another company with products a huge portion of the population has use for.

When we market, I think these types of things should be a big part of our strategy. The internet especially gives opportunites to offer all types of products we can include with our offers. One thing to keep in mind is to include things a large number of people can use; it makes the offering more enticing and relevant.

Another interesting thing that makes the McDonald's Monopoly Game so successful, is it offers what an online alternative where people are given a "second chance" at winning prizes or money.

All of this works to make the promotion successful, but what makes it in my estimation succeed virally, is the number of prizes offered.

Here's what Toys R US Bucks offers:

1. $1 Toys R Us Buck - 40,000,000 total
2. $3 Toys R Us Buck - 3,000,000 total
3. $5 Toys R Us Buck - 2,000,000 total

What this does is create a huge number of winners, which greatly increases the buzz and chatter that generates interest and more involvement.

What is exciting about this to me, is this type of promotion can be adapted and changed to fit into almost any campaign, in any product or service category. It's a powerful way of increasing sales and building a brand.