• Situation: A pressing need to engage a younger audience who were disproportionately rejecting traditional advertising.

• Brief: Reinforce the timeless and unrivaled iconicity of the McDonald’s menu for a new generation.

• Objectives: Win Gen Z’s hearts and drive brand affinity gains versus the Canadian competitive set.

Rather than simply tell our audience how iconic our menu is, we partnered with rapper and former McD’s employee Lil Yachty to reimagine the original 1989 Menu Song for a new generation.

It was a fully integrated partnership launched just like Lil Yachty would release a new album. At every digital touchpoint we gave Gen Z’s the opportunity to play within our campaign. Filters to sing with Lil Yachty could be found on Snapchat and TikTok. Signed remixable bucket hats and vinyls were given away on Meta.They could create personalized Remix Playlists based on their McD’s order on Spotify. Even in restaurants, by scanning the Remix Menu items you’d be directed to the Remix Hub, a microsite that gave fans the chance to karaoke the song and remix it further.

The entire look & feel of the campaign was inspired by the unpredictable liveliness that is Lil Yachty’s social presence.

As outlined in the cultural context section above, we’d hit on a collection of perfectly intersecting insights.

In summary:

A Gen Z audience for whom singing their McD’s orders was becoming a bit of a thing.

A precious part of McDonald’s history that saw us sing the entire menu for ourselves before Gen Z’s were even born.

An intense Canadian competitive context, but one in which our main rivals typically only had their one big ‘icon’ menu item.

Our strategy was to stand out from the competition and reinforce McDonald’s brand iconicity, via the iconicity of its menu. From golden fries, to apple pies – these were all icons in their own right. And nobody else could say that.

Launching March 2024, this was a 4 month collaboration bringing together the style, vibe and cultural relevance of Lil Yachty, the award-winning expertise of Beacon Street Studios, and the bubble of happy of the McD's brand.

We found reach via TV and OOH. But unlike the original version, digital was where the remix really came to life. We teased then dropped the track in social. Fans then remixed their own versions on our microsite. And Snapchat and TikTok filters challenged fans to keep up with the lyrics.

But we didn’t stop at remixing the Menu Song. We also remixed the menu – with the limited-time launch of a range of Gen-Z-hack-inspired menu items. Craving a Surf ‘n Turf burger maybe? Well, it made it to the official McD’s menu.

And if you were really lucky? You might’ve gotten your hands on the limited-edition vinyl that paid homage to the 1989 rollout.

Just one week into the campaign at the time of submission, the Menu Song was already a hit.

Our launch post garnered:

3,491,848 impressions (6,306% over benchmark)

312,508 engagements (14,421% over benchmark)

4,147 conversations (5,285% over benchmark)

8.95% engagement rate (126% over benchmark)

Across social media, we saw:

Approx. 85M+ impressions

327K total engagements

7.1K total conversations

93% positive sentiment

And the week one media buzz beat all McD’s benchmarks:

408 total pieces of earned media coverage

73M+ earned media impressions

98% positive media sentiment

Most significantly of all, the Remix campaign drove an immediate sales impact, with a 36% lift in total burger sales in week 1 alone.

“McDonald’s dropped a banger with this one” @Ohsnaps233 on X

“I LOVE YACHTY & MCDONALDS OMGGGGG” @gxstarz_6 on Instagram

“Best McDonald’s ad and song fr” @99centsstorebarbie on Instagram