McDonald’s Germany is now serving its first burger created by a fan. What was the campaign behind this new addition to the menu? The “Pretzelnator” is the first of five burgers to be created from the crowd-sourced “Mein Burger” campaign started by German agencies Razorfish, Berlin and Heye & Partner, Unterhaching for McDonald’s Germany. In this campaign, McDonald’s encouraged their customers to create their own custom made burger and compete for a place on the menu of the fast-food chain. 2011 marked McDonald’s 40th anniversary in Germany and Razorfish had to create a campaign to mark the big occasion, but with a small budget. “So many promotional burgers had been launched. Would yet another one excite our fans?” explains the Razorfish video. “We knew that many dreamed of creating their own individual McDonald’s burger. A burger that would appear on the plates of our two million daily guests. So we created a competition and invited everyone to take part. It was time for Germany’s first crowd-sourced burgers. By the fans, for the fans.” Fans were invited to create their own burger using the “Burger Configurator”, an online tool that allowed users to compile their design using mora than 70 different ingredients. “We gave them the tools, they created the buzz,” says Razorfish. The cost-effective campaign allowed fans to name their creations and even promote them on social media platforms with personalised spots, with the aim of generating votes from other users. The ten most popular burgers made it to the next round in the McDonald’s test kitchen. The inventors then get to present their creations to the jury who decided which made it to the next stage. Facebook fans were able to watch the event live on video and root for their favourites. Of the ten finalists, the five best burgers will be available in McDonald’s restaurants throughout Germany and their inventors get to star in their very own ad campaign on national TV and radio. In total, more than 116,000 burgers were posted (45 individual burgers were created in the first seven days of the campaign). Fans generated over 12,000 personalised campaigns and more than 1.5 million votes were cast, with seven million page visits made to "My Burger". With all the buzz generated, the campaign managed to reach more than 21 million people, making it one of the most successful campaigns in terms of reach for McDonald’s Germany. The winning Pretzelnator burger is now being served in McDonald’s locations across Germany for a limited time. This particular creation is topped with ham, American and Italian cheese and has a pretzel-like bun. So, what would you have put in your burger? Image: The "Pretzelnator" is now being sold in McDonald's across Germany as part of a campaign by Razorfish, Berlin and Heye & Partner, Unterhaching. Video: The creators of the new burgers star in their own TV spots.