Restaurants: DAZN offers Ligue 1 season pass to French customers who buy a €14.15 McDonald’s meal
- InsightTrendsWorld
- Mar 20
- 7 min read
Why it is the topic trending:
Innovative Cross-Industry Promotion: The partnership between a sports streaming service and a fast-food giant is an interesting example of cross-industry collaboration to attract customers.
Addressing Subscription Challenges: DAZN's reported lower-than-expected subscriber numbers in France highlight the challenges in the competitive sports streaming market, making this type of promotion noteworthy.
Value Proposition for Consumers: Offering a three-month Ligue 1 season pass with a relatively affordable McDonald's meal presents a significant value to football fans.
Leveraging Existing Consumer Behavior: The promotion taps into the popularity of both fast food and football fandom.
Navigating Broadcast Rights Issues: The article touches on the broader context of the crisis surrounding Ligue 1's broadcast rights, making DAZN's efforts to gain subscribers particularly relevant.
Overview: The article discusses a promotional partnership in France between sports broadcaster DAZN and McDonald's. Customers who purchase a specific €14.15 meal from the special Ligue 1 menu on the McDo+ app will receive a three-month subscription to DAZN, allowing them to watch Ligue 1 matches for the rest of the season. This initiative aims to boost DAZN's subscriber numbers in France, which have reportedly fallen short of expectations, and provides a valuable offer to football fans. The article also provides context on the ongoing challenges surrounding the broadcast rights for Ligue 1.
Detailed findings:
DAZN is offering a three-month Ligue 1 subscription to French customers who buy a €14.15 McDonald's meal from the special Ligue 1 menu on the McDo+ app.
The offer is available to the first 120,000 customers and runs until April 30, 2025.
This deal is significantly cheaper than DAZN's regular monthly (€39.99) or yearly (€29.99 per month) subscriptions, and even the option to watch a single matchday (€14.99 or €10 for under 26s).
DAZN's Ligue 1 deal in France has reportedly only attracted 400,000 subscribers, far below their 1.5 million target.
The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) in France has faced a crisis over broadcast rights for Ligue 1.
DAZN pays €400 million per year for the rights to eight of the nine Ligue 1 fixtures each weekend.
DAZN had previously withheld a portion of a payment to LFP due to concerns about digital piracy and lack of promotion support from the league and clubs.
DAZN has a break clause in the four-year deal if subscriber targets are not met.
Key takeaway: DAZN is employing an innovative promotional strategy by partnering with McDonald's in France to offer a heavily discounted Ligue 1 season pass with a meal purchase, aiming to significantly increase its subscriber base in a challenging market and leverage the popularity of fast food among football fans.
Main trend: The central trend is Strategic Cross-Industry Partnerships to Drive Subscription Growth in Content Streaming.
Description of the trend (Strategic Cross-Industry Partnerships to Drive Subscription Growth in Content Streaming): This trend involves content streaming services, particularly in competitive markets where subscriber acquisition is challenging, forming strategic partnerships with companies in unrelated industries (like fast food) to offer bundled deals or discounted access as a way to attract new subscribers. This approach leverages the existing customer base and marketing reach of the partner company to provide a compelling value proposition that can overcome consumer hesitation and boost subscription numbers. DAZN's collaboration with McDonald's in France is a prime example of this strategy in action.
What is consumer motivation:
Value for Money: Consumers are attracted to the opportunity to get a significant discount on a sports streaming subscription by making a relatively low-cost purchase they might have made anyway.
Convenience: The offer is easily accessible through McDonald's existing delivery app.
Access to Desired Content: Football fans in France are motivated by the chance to watch Ligue 1 matches at a much more affordable price.
Incentive to Try a New Service: The limited-time offer might encourage consumers who were previously hesitant to subscribe to DAZN to try the service.
What is driving trend:
Competitive Streaming Market: The market for sports streaming is highly competitive, making subscriber acquisition difficult and expensive.
Need for Innovative Growth Strategies: Streaming services are looking for creative ways to stand out and attract new users beyond traditional marketing efforts.
Leveraging Partner Reach: Partnering with companies with a large customer base offers a significant advantage in reaching potential subscribers.
Creating a Win-Win Scenario: The partnership benefits both DAZN by increasing subscribers and McDonald's by potentially driving more meal purchases.
What is motivation beyond the trend: Consumers may also be motivated by the novelty of such a partnership and the feeling of getting a "deal" or a special offer.
Description of consumers article is referring to: The article refers to football fans in France who are interested in watching Ligue 1 matches. This demographic is likely to include a wide range of ages and backgrounds who are also customers of McDonald's delivery service in France. The price point of the meal (€14.15) suggests an appeal to a broad audience.
Conclusions: DAZN's partnership with McDonald's in France is a strategic move to address lower-than-expected subscriber numbers by offering a compellingly priced bundle that provides significant value to Ligue 1 fans. This highlights the growing trend of cross-industry collaborations in the competitive streaming market.
Implications for brands (DAZN & McDonald's):
Increased Subscriber Acquisition (DAZN): The promotion has the potential to significantly boost subscriber numbers for DAZN in France.
Enhanced Brand Visibility (Both): Both brands will benefit from the cross-promotional exposure to each other's customer bases.
Positive Brand Association (Both): Offering a valuable deal can create positive sentiment among consumers.
Potential for Increased Meal Purchases (McDonald's): The special Ligue 1 menu might incentivize more orders through the McDo+ app.
Implication for society: Such partnerships can make premium content more accessible to a wider audience through creative bundling.
Implications for consumers: Football fans in France have the opportunity to watch Ligue 1 matches at a significantly reduced cost.
Implication for Future: We may see more streaming services exploring similar cross-industry partnerships to drive subscriber growth and offer value to consumers.
Consumer Trend (name, detailed description): Bundled Value in Entertainment Consumption: Consumers are increasingly drawn to bundled offers that provide access to multiple services or products at a lower combined price, as seen in this partnership between a streaming service and a fast-food chain.
Consumer Sub Trend (name, detailed description): The Confluence of Food, Sports, and Entertainment: Partnerships that combine food, sports, and entertainment are proving to be effective in engaging consumers and driving consumption across different sectors.
Big Social Trend (name, detailed description): The Growing Importance of Partnerships in Content Delivery: In a crowded media landscape, collaborations are becoming crucial for content providers to reach new audiences and offer compelling value.
Worldwide Social Trend (name, detailed description): While this article focuses on France, the strategy of cross-industry partnerships to drive subscriptions is a trend that could be observed in other markets as streaming services face similar growth challenges.
Social Drive (name, detailed description): The Pursuit of Value and Convenience: Consumers are driven by the desire to get the most value for their money and to access the content and services they want in a convenient way.
Learnings for brands to use in 2025:
Consider Non-Traditional Partnerships: Look beyond your industry for potential collaboration opportunities.
Focus on Value for the Consumer: The offer needs to be genuinely appealing to attract new customers.
Leverage Your Partner's Reach: Tap into their existing customer base and marketing channels.
Strategy Recommendations for brands to follow in 2025:
Streaming Services: Explore partnerships with fast-food chains, mobile providers, or other high-reach consumer businesses.
Fast-Food Chains: Consider partnering with entertainment or streaming services to offer added value to your customers.
Final sentence (key concept) describing main trend from article: DAZN's innovative partnership with McDonald's in France offers a discounted Ligue 1 season pass with a meal purchase, illustrating a growing trend of cross-industry collaborations aimed at driving subscription growth in the content streaming market.
What brands & companies should do in 2025 to benefit from trend and how to do it: In 2025, content streaming services and consumer-facing businesses should explore strategic cross-industry partnerships to drive customer acquisition and offer enhanced value by:
Identifying potential partners in complementary or high-reach industries whose target audience aligns with their own, such as streaming services partnering with fast-food chains or telecommunication companies.
Creating compelling bundled offers or discounted access to their services or products when consumers engage with the partner brand, as seen in DAZN offering a Ligue 1 season pass with a McDonald's meal purchase.
Leveraging the marketing reach and customer base of their partner to promote these bundled offers and attract new customers who might not have otherwise considered their services.
Final note:
Core Trend:
Name: The Subscription Super-Bundle
Detailed Description: Unexpected partnerships are creating bundled offers that provide significant value and drive subscriptions.
Core Strategy:
Name: Collaborate for Customer Acquisition
Detailed Description: Form alliances with non-competing industries to reach new customer segments.
Core Industry Trend:
Name: The Blurring Lines of Commerce and Content
Detailed Description: Traditional boundaries between different industries are fading as companies find creative ways to offer combined value.
Core Consumer Motivation:
Name: Seeking Maximum Value and Convenience
Detailed Description: Consumers are attracted to offers that provide access to multiple desirable services or products at a reduced overall cost.
Final Conclusion: DAZN's partnership with McDonald's showcases an innovative strategy that other streaming services and consumer businesses can consider in 2025 to overcome growth challenges and offer compelling value to customers.
Core Trend Detailed (words on Core Trend): The core trend of "Strategic Cross-Industry Partnerships to Drive Subscription Growth in Content Streaming" highlights a creative solution emerging in the increasingly competitive landscape of digital entertainment. DAZN's collaboration with McDonald's in France perfectly exemplifies this approach, where a sports streaming platform has joined forces with a popular fast-food chain to offer a compelling bundled deal. By providing a significantly discounted Ligue 1 season pass to customers who purchase a specific McDonald's meal, DAZN is not only directly incentivizing sign-ups but also leveraging McDonald's extensive customer base and marketing infrastructure. This kind of partnership demonstrates a growing recognition that in a saturated market, innovative and value-driven collaborations with seemingly unrelated industries can be a powerful tool for attracting new subscribers and overcoming the challenges of organic growth. It's a win-win scenario where consumers benefit from added value, and both partner companies gain exposure to new customer segments.
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