Since March 17, 2025, McDonald's France has been offering an offer that has quickly captured the attention of football and fast-food fans: three months of free DAZN subscription with the purchase of a Ligue 1 Golden Menu via the McDo+ app. While on paper, this marketing initiative seemed destined for great success, it has encountered significant difficulties in practice, generating a wave of discontent among many consumers who claim not to have received the long-awaited promotional code.
The idea behind this collaboration may seem surprising, but it is based on a very real strategic logic. DAZN is seeking to consolidate its position and expand its subscriber base in the French market after acquiring a large portion of the Ligue 1 broadcasting rights, while McDonald's, the championship's official partner, is a leading fast-food restaurant in France. The goal is clear: attract new users to the British platform.
And the operation seems to have reached its initial target in terms of popularity. According to information reported by the daily newspaper Le Parisien, sales of the Golden Ligue 1 menus have seen a spectacular increase, tripling on the second day following the launch of the offer. A representative from McDonald's France even revealed that the results exceeded their initial forecasts: "It's beyond our forecasts", illustrating the enthusiasm generated. This enthusiasm is easily explained by the perceived value of the offer: a menu that generally costs around ten euros entitles you to a subscription whose value over three months costs at least three times as much. Indeed, an offer currently allows you to take advantage of the End of Season Pass for 35 euros.
Users, including us, assure us that they have received nothing
However, this apparent commercial success is overshadowed by a problem that frustrating many customers. On social media, including X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, testimonies from dissatisfied consumers are multiplying. Armed with screenshots of their orders as proof, they denounce never having received the email containing the famous DAZN activation code, even for purchases made in the first days of the operation. A legitimate question then arises: were the 120,000 promotional codes announced as available distributed at lightning speed, exhausting the stock in a few hours or days?
The answer is no, according to McDonald's France. The company stated on its X account on March 24 at 5:30 p.m. on X: "YES. CODES ARE STILL AVAILABLE."
It also advises carefully checking spam or any other tab in your inbox, such as the Promotions category in Gmail. However, this statement hardly puts out the fire, especially since the experience of some, including ours, tends to confirm these malfunctions. After ordering a Ligue 1 Golden menu, apparently respecting the conditions at the beginning of the week, the wait for the DAZN pass remained in vain at the time of writing this article. Note that other people around us received a code within 24 hours when ordering at the start of the offer.
Specific conditions to take advantage of it
To take advantage of this offer, there is no need to go to a restaurant, whether at the counter, at the terminals, or at the McDrive. It is, in fact, accessible only via an order placed on the McDo+ application. The latter requires an account and ordering a McDonald's Golden Ligue 1 Menu or a McDonald's Golden Ligue 1 Duo Menu. While the brand assures that the customer will receive "within 24 hours a unique code by email", nothing indicates during the process that one will be entitled to the DAZN subscription.
Last but not least, the order must be placed between Monday and Thursday inclusive. Purchases made from Friday to Sunday are not eligible to receive the DAZN code. Finally, McDonald's France specifies that registration must be completed on the DAZN website or app no later than April 30, 2025. Given the success of the campaign, we wouldn't be surprised to see DAZN continue its operations, but it will first have to resolve the issues reported by current customers.
A delicate context for DAZN
It is important to place this promotional campaign in the context of DAZN's strategy in France. The platform only reached the 500,000 subscriber mark in February for its first season of Ligue 1 broadcasting, a figure well below the initial target of 1.5 million. This operation with McDonald's therefore clearly aims to significantly and quickly boost this number before the end of the season.
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