How can a business such as McDonald’s make use of Web 2.0 and social media to improve their market image?

[Elliott]

In partnership with social gaming giant Zynga, the social games giant created a branded digital farm where users garnered rewards, following on Microsoft's Bing promotion for Farmville earlier this year.
It’s a significant crossroads for in-game branding and a first-of-its-kind campaign for McDonald’s. McDonald's currently serves 26 million customers daily, while Zynga attracts more than 215 million monthly active users, and FarmVille remains its most popular title.

Dubbed a “neighbor farm” for the one-day campaign which ran yesterday, Farmville highlighted the MacFarm and visitors who helped grow tomatoes or mustard seed crops received in-game rewards dubbed FarmVille McCafe Consumable.

The Consumable is a valuable virtual good that makes game-play easier and delivers energy to players that doubles navigation speed and awards McDonald's Hot Air Balloons for decorating one’s farm.

Led by AppsSavvy, Chris Cunningham, CEO comments, "McDonald's on FarmVille represents the re-thinking of the delivery and reception of advertising. Today it is about understanding the social activity taking place and only then figuring out a way to join relevantly through value-added marketing, which McDonald's has done to perfection."

For more info and a video about it http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/20...ville.aspx