Everyone has McDonald’s in common, it’s the great democratizer. So, we set out to create something universally appealing and globally recognized. Our brief was clear: develop an idea that grabs headlines and gets our fans buzzing on social media. It had to harness our unique place in culture and breathe new life into our brand for the next generation of fans worldwide.

Business objective: Drive incremental sales for McDonald's core products.

Communication objective: Build brand affinity around the influence and the nostalgia of the McDonald’s brand in global culture at large.

The 'As Featured In’ campaign celebrates the brand's presence in culture, showcasing the many roles the brand has played in global popular culture, from fashion to music, literature and film.

While this campaign’s insight was “McDonald’s is Famously Ordered,” another key audience insight that grounded our work was that our target (Multicultural Youth) has an affinity for nostalgia. Because entertainment is a mechanism that evokes positive memories from the past, "The As Featured In” Meal and 60-second spot serve as a capsule for our fans to reflect on the rich, decades-long history and connection McDonald’s has with global pop culture. Our strategic approach for this campaign is, “Act Like an Entertainment Studio''. Embracing our show business DNA, pulling cues from the entertainment industry, encouraging a collective discovery and rediscovery of McDonald’s through brand story, experiences, and merch.

When it comes to our community building and management approach our owned social content leverages IP in socially native ways (memes, gifs, videos, etc.) to hero the meal, spark conversation, and fuel authentic global cultural fandom.

As Featured In presented a handful of unique editing challenges. First, we had to scour decades worth of movies and TV shows to uncover clips with McDonald’s references. After narrowing a couple hundred movies and shows down to the best of the best, we had to edit those clips from disparate genres, eras, and even languages into one cohesive story (all the while avoiding leaks of unreleased Marvel content, another challenge). Licensing threw curveballs our way during the edit; as we learned which properties we could and couldn’t successfully license from studios, we had to find ways to switch up the edit multiple times without sacrificing the narrative flow.

The ‘As Featured In’ campaign worked effectively to engage fans, media, and influencers to showcase McDonald’s role and relevance in culture while garnering substantial, quality national media coverage and social content.

Business objective: Drive incremental sales for McDonald's core products. The ‘As Featured In’ campaign drove over $50MM in incremental sales globally.

Communication Objective: Build brand affinity around the influence and the nostalgia of the McDonald’s brand in global culture at large.

Across earned, owned, and paid channels, this campaign served as a poignant reminder of the brand's impact on the broader cultural landscape. ‘As Featured In’ resonated with our fans - as we saw in an outpouring of praise and love around the world. The campaign reached our fans globally on social media and garnered engagement from over 17 million fans across over 100 markets.