Brand entertainment experience developed with Perfect Fools celebrates Nordic’s passion for winter sports

www.dreaminginmono.com

McDonald’s will this week unveil an entertaining film-led activity in the Nordic region, aimed at delivering a fun experience to guests just as the company aims to do in real life.

Dreaming in Mono is a 60-minute satire told primarily over seven episodes.  It will be broadcast on four TV networks in the Nordic region and across multiple digital channels including dreaminginmono.com, Twitter and Facebook.  The film is supported by Mono Madness, a downhill skiing viral game.

The groundbreaking transmedia story brings to life the rivalries and stereotypes of the Danes, Finns, Norwegians and Swedes in the story of an unlikely group of Nordic people who come together to beat an old ski record, only on one ski: a monoski. The focus of the campaign is on McDonald’s guests and their stories and dreams, rather than on the brand or its products and the movie taps into the Nordic countries’ enthusiasm for winter sports.

Dreaming in Mono is written and directed by Swedish-born Jens Jonsson, who won a Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival for his movie, the King of Ping Pong. It is the result of a collaboration between McDonald’s, digital creative agency Perfect Fools and TV production company Happy Fiction.

Dreaming in Mono tells the story of an unlikely group of Nordic people who accept an unusual challenge. It starts in 1974, Alain Duchamp and his rival Hansi von Spitzmark are about to embark on the most important endeavour of their lives, a downhill race to immortality. But by meddling with fate von Spitzmark ends up victorious. 36 years later, Alain is still mourning his loss and has been all but devoured by ghosts of the past. But in a last attempt at redemption, and to gain recognition for why he lost that fateful day in 1974, Alain sets out on an amazing enterprise: to gather a team of winter sports enthusiasts and break the dream record once and for all.

The film will be broadcast exclusively on TV6 (Sweden), Viasat 4 (Norway), TV3 Puls (Denmark) and SubTV (Finland) and on their online sites. It will also be screened across McDonald’s 465 restaurants in the region and online. Earlier this week the first episode was premiered to McDonald’s 40,000-strong Nordic crew.

www.dreaminginmono.com will host the seven episodes, additional character and storyline material plus Mono Madness, a downhill ski race viral game that mirrors the theme of the film. The site will link to Dreaming in Mono’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

In addition the hub will offer music, videos, polls, iPhone apps, a contest, monoski tech tips as well as other applications, along with opportunities to start discussions – all designed to connect people around the story. Each episode will have unique content to support both the episode story and McDonald’s core values. McDonald’s staff will be present on the hub during the entire activity period to make sure comments and requests are followed-up directly.

Content will also be spread on all major social media platforms such as Vimeo, YouTube, MSN, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and other niche forums such as freeride.com and more.

Shaun Russell, Nordic Marketing Director of McDonald’s, said: “Effective brand communication can no longer be about interrupting what people are interested are in, it needs to be what people are interested in. Every day, we welcome 750,000 guests at our restaurants across the Nordic region. We welcome all sorts of people from all walks of life. And every guest tells a story, and every table hosts a dream. We thought it would be interesting to tell some of their stories, rather than our own.”

Fredrik Heghammar, Managing Director of Perfect Fools, said: “McDonald’s is a brand that is doing well in the Nordic region. This allowed us together the freedom to come up with something totally unexpected which will surprise and entertain customers and McDonald’s staff alike.”

Jens Jonsson, writer and director of Dreaming in Mono, said: “I’m not a fan of traditional advertising. That’s why I took this chance to make something different with this project. I believe that showing real and complex emotions is a powerful way to involve people with a brand, by giving and not taking”.

For more information contact Naomi Attard on t: +44 (0)1452 760 147 m: +44 7912 570 367 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it