Fast food giant McDonald's has announced a revamp of its packaging around the world to make use of Quick Response (QR) codes for smartphones.
The new designs rolled out in the US in January, and will be rolled out progressively to the rest of the world throughout 2013.
In Australia—as part of its summer campaign which saw the chain temporarily rebrand some of its local restaurants to the more colloquial name “Maccas” — the company has also released an iPhone app, “TrackMyMacca’s”, that lets its customers use the codes to track the ingredients in the food they purchased.
The company said the QR codes were the company’s response to the desire that consumers expressed to be able to access nutrition information quickly and easily.
“Customers tell us they want to know more about the food they are eating and we want to make that as easy as possible by putting this information right at their fingertips,” chief brand officer of McDonald’s, Kevin Newell, said.
“Our new packaging is designed to engage with customers in relevant ways and celebrate our brand.”
The rollout will continue through 2013, to countries around the world as the text undergoes translation into 18 other languages.
In Australia, the chain has taken the concept even further, with a multimedia video application accessible via the codes providing consumers with information on the local provenance of the ingredients in some of its meals.
“Most people like the taste of McDonalds but there is still some confusion about just how real our food is, so we want you take a closer look at where some of our ingredients are grown, fished or farmed and find out what happens to them on their way to you,” the company explained in a video launching the Australian TrackMyMaccas app.
The app works on five menu items - the McChicken, Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, French Fries and Chicken McNuggets.
Consumers with the App can use their iPhone, iPod or iPad to scan the codes printed on the packaging of these menu items.
The application also uses the phone’s GPS to locate which restaurant the customer is in, and image recognition software to identify the product the consumer has scanned. Combining this information with the date and time, it then searches McDonald’s supply chain database to identify where the ingredients were sourced.
A 3D animation then tells the customer where the ingredients in the product they are about to came from.
The TrackMyMacca’s app will track selected menu items in all Australian McDonald’s restaurants to June 2013.
More than 150 million pieces of new packaging have been printed to support the initiative.
This was developed by integrated communications agency DDB Group.
McDonald's has launched a new QR code application enabling Australian consumers to track the ingredients in the food they purchase.
