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Some people view dining at McDonald's as a way to quickly satisfy hunger. For others, at least for a few weeks out of the year, it's a moneymaking opportunity. We're talking, of course, about the fast-food titan's popular Monopoly game, which resumes Oct. 3.

Diners can still amass game pieces in-store for prizes ranging from fries to big money. But an online component is allowing McDonald's to gather data on its customers while giving them a second chance at winning.

“You still collect pieces and you can still win many fabulous prizes. [But now,] every single one of those pieces that you collect has a code,” said Reed Roussel, vice president for interactive marketing at The Marketing Store in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, which helped McDonald's develop the online portion of the game. “You go online and register, and every code allows you to roll the dice for another turn.”

Data captured includes name, ZIP code, e-mail address and date of birth (to make sure the player is old enough for McDonald's to collect information from, per the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). Cell phone number is also requested, if players choose to opt in for mobile communications.

The game's online part has grown in the last two years. In 2004 nearly 5.4 million codes were entered by some 760,000 registrants. Last year more than 20 million codes were punched in by over a million registrants, and close to 1.7 million prizes were awarded.

“There are three pillars to the in-store game that consumers look for year after year,” said Chris Hess, The Marketing Store's account director. “The collect and win, where you collect properties and win; the instant win, where you find out on the spot if you've won food or whatever the prize may be; and the guaranteed win.”

McDonald's first tried Best Chance Monopoly in 2004, a co-headlining promotion with Best Buy.

“It was a huge success,” said Hess. “One thing we've always faced is a consumer perception that ‘I'm never going to win.’ We were challenged by the client to address that. How are we going to make consumers feel like they can win? What better way than to tell them they're guaranteed to win something from Best Buy if they purchase certain products. In year one, it was Best Buy Bucks you could collect and use to purchase almost anything at Best Buy. Last year, we increased that to include a $3 Best Buy Buck. This year, while Best Buy isn't a headlining participant, they are participating in the guaranteed-win portion of the game and offering a $5 Best Buy Buck.”

About 55% of players are female, mostly in the 25- to 35-year-old range. “The creative target is much broader, people 18 to 44,” said Hess. “Creatively we aim for a younger audience and hope to get some of the younger consumers aspiring to [be like] that age group, as well as older consumers ‘aspiring down.’”

Roussel also noticed that game traffic differed depending on the time of day.

“During the normal workday, there tends to be more females playing. Then after work and during the night, it skews more male.”