Every brand dreams of creating the next big social media sensation. McDonald's Germany successfully achieved that through its "My Burger" crowdsourcing campaign.

An online burger configurator gives fans the opportunity to create their own burgers and give them individual names.

The burger creations are then voted on and the winners are marketed and sold at all of McDonald's 1,415 restaurants in Germany. Around 330,000 burger recipes were submitted in 2012 with a combined total of 5 million votes for all creative burger ideas.

The successful crowdsourcing project has set an international example. Fans are creating and have created their favorite burger online in the Netherlands, Spain and Austria.

Global brand with local relevance
The McDonald's classics are known worldwide – but Nuremberg grilled sausages or Black Forest ham on a burger? Those were some of the typical German ingredients, which were most successful at last year's "My Burger" contest. 

The competition was back this year, and again traditional German ingredients were highly preferred. The first burger to be sold will be the "Pretzelnator", starting April 26, 2012 at all of McDonald's Germany restaurants.

Another four winning burgers will be making their debut for one week only. Last year's five contest winners were immediate bestsellers, providing a major sales boost.

"My Burger": Crowdsourcing made in Germany
The introduction of the interactive campaign by McDonald's Germany in 2011 captured the spirit of its time. The number of participants doubled in 2012.

By combining a never before seen level of McDonald's fan and guest engagement, with countless combinations of some unusual and local ingredients, alongside the integration of Facebook and general marketing through television, radio, in-store and media/PR, McDonald's set a new benchmark in terms of customer interaction.

The campaign was developed by the digital agency Razorfish in Berlin, Germany.