ChaCha. Ask Away.

McDonald’s has been experimenting with integrating their Monopoly game into various new engagement channels. This year, they are using Mobile (SMS shortcode 96363) as a participation mechanism — as an optional alternative to the traditional, tangible game board that we’ve used since the game’s inception. Alternatively you can play via a Facebook application or online at playatmcd.com.

I probably won’t win anything this year, because the game’s halfway over and I just “rolled the dice” for the first time last night! But I thought I’d write about my experience playing via SMS, because as cool as the idea is, it wasn’t perfect.

I was reading the packaging and instruction associated with playing the game on my phone. The fries, the sandwich, the drink — they told me the shortcode to text (96363), but it wasn’t clear to me what exactly I was supposed to text to the shortcode. (There are a few codes on those little game pieces.)

I was hoping it was the smaller code — piece number 123, for example, is Reading Railroad. So if you text 123 to 96363, you get an error message that tells you the code is supposed to be 11 digits. I was disappointed because the 11 digit code on the game piece was complete jibberish, seemingly random numbers and letters. How annoying it would be to text that. Not to mention texting 7 different codes of jibberish, for all 7 game pieces (6 were legitimately mine, I stole Park Place off of a cup peeking out of the trash can).

Then, when I did text the 11-digit code for Reading Railroad, it told me that I had landed on “Go to Jail”. My Connecticut Avenue game piece, when texted, gave me the Oriental Avenue property. Etc, etc. Only 2 of my 7 codes were correctly associated with the properties I should have received.

I SO did not deserve to go to jail. I legitimately landed on the Railroad. And I didn’t buy anything that I should have been luxury-taxed.

If you’re playing McDonald’s Monopoly via Mobile or Facebook, how has your experience been? What are your thoughts as, together, we discover new and effective ways of connecting consumers with brands?