In 2018, the challenge for McDonald’s was to top the success of Good Times Island. That big and bold campaign created a major buzz and was the talk of the summer of 2017.

The brief was to create a campaign with as much engaging talk-value, yet closer to the brand and the guests of McDonald’s, creating content for the 3 months the campaign needed to maintain top-of-mind awareness. All departing from the brand purpose to spark spontaneous moments of joy and show that McDonald’s Always Open for Good Times.

McDonald’s is perceived as a big and global brand with a standardized formula. One of its strengths is that is the same recognizable restaurant everywhere. But this is a weakness too, preventing it from becoming more personal and emotional for the guests.

To amplify the bond that people have with McDonald’s, we wanted to create a special experience. For once, the big and global brand McDonald’s acts small, close and personal. With a restaurant especially made for you: The McDonald’s For You. The smallest restaurant in the world. Instead of asking guests to visit our restaurants, we invited them to tell us where they would love to have their own McDonald’s and why. Every weekend, we picked winners with a special wish and we brought a McDonald’s to them: An old lady that misses the brand in her nursing home, a girl with a sweet sixteen party and a family that moved to an island, with no McDonald’s in sight. All of the stories were personal and heartfelt, that everyone could empathize with and led to engaging content that we used across all media, to engage the audience for three months.

The brand McDonald’s is synonymous with providing spontaneous moments of joy. By being present at so many locations, everyone is able to go McDonald’s at the ideal time, at the ideal moment, with their own special needs. Part that makes this possible is that there is usually a McDonald’s where you expect there to be one. But what if a McDonald’s is not only where you always expect it, but also where you least expect it?

Research showed that our guests like the idea of a personal McDonald’s, and the idea allowed us to tell stories that were very personal and relatable to a wider audience. Every story ended with a message to the viewer, to tell us where they would want their own personal McDonald’s and why. And in doing so, the personal bond that people had with the brand was brought back to the top-of-mind of our guests.

After two weeks of teasers, the McDonald’s For You was revealed in a TV commercial and in online videos. In it, we surprised applicants of the McDonald’s For You by fulfilling their wish and explaining their story. Online content led guests to a landing page where to could submit their preferred location for a McDonald’s For You, and the reason why they would deserve one.

In media, we created space for the content around the McDonald's For You activation as well as for the food communication.

Smart targeting to the audiences we already knew (Good Times Island audiences, for instance) and retargeting them with content as well as food ads created a very efficient way to reach 'warm' audiences and benefit from previous investments.

We also offered the audience a way to participate via their most trusted device, their smartphone.

The results surpassed all expectations. After the double digit summer of 2017, the brand again had double digit growth in comparable sales and guest counts, in. relation to the same period the previous year. P7D-Penetration of McDonald's was further driven to 19%.

The campaign was highly engaging, resulting in all time high PR-value of €403.290 and over 30 million earned media impressions.

Not just did it push up the advertising likeability (43%), but it also increased the scores on McDonald's as an innovative brand (36%), showing the modernity and relevance of the brand.