Big Mac Special Sauce Integrated Communications

National campaigns rarely fit local markets out of the box. The Big Mac Special Sauce giveaway was designed with broad strokes — CKP’s job was to give it a Houston character that would drive both media coverage and sales. The brand’s own research presented a clear strategic problem: an overwhelming majority of millennials had never tried a Big Mac. This wasn’t a campaign about feeding existing fans. It was about creating new ones through a moment of genuine cultural excitement.

The logistical challenge was equally real. Two hundred fifty bottles, distributed across five Houston locations, had to generate enough earned media and social momentum to move product across the entire market — not just at the giveaway sites. The strategy had to be local enough to feel authentic and scalable enough to produce results well beyond the event itself.

CKP built the campaign around three Houston chefs with strong social media presences and genuine followings in the food community. Each chef created a signature recipe using Big Mac Special Sauce — not a promotional stunt, but an actual culinary interpretation that gave food media a real story to tell. CKP produced high-quality video content featuring each chef’s creation and distributed it across channels, where it earned local and national press coverage on its own merit.

The giveaway locations were selected strategically. The University of Houston site was chosen specifically to capture millennial engagement — the demographic most critical to the brand’s long-term health. On-site brand activation was designed to generate user-generated content organically, creating a secondary amplification layer that extended the campaign’s reach without additional media spend.

Micro-influencer engagement layered on top of the chef partnerships, and a blended advertising strategy — original photography, videography, and copywriting — carried the message across press, paid, and social channels simultaneously. Every element of the creative pointed back to the same story: the sauce wasn’t just an ingredient. It was a piece of American food culture, and for 72 hours, Houston owned it.

83 media placements. 9.3M+ impressions. $260K publicity value. 557% increase in Facebook engagement. 260% increase in Twitter reach.

And a 90% increase in Big Mac sales. Awareness campaigns are easy to run. Revenue campaigns are harder. CKP delivered both.