To get families back to McDonald’s, we set out looking for moments where we could offer families some emotional release during Summer.

Research revealed that while Summer holidays are full of joyful anticipation, the reality also consists of toddler tantrums and expensive excursions.

Digging deeper, we discovered the most pressing pain point of all: family road trips! UK newspaper, The Independent, reported that families were averaging 103 hours in the car during Summer (that’s more time on the road than at the beach!).

However, with 32 McDonald’s occupying motorway service stations across the country and 938 drive-thrus, we knew we had a credible role to play. Families would never be far from the golden arches to help break up the journey!

Our brief was clear:

We needed to win back visits by extending the feel-good release of a McDonald’s to families on the road during Summer.

‘Next Stop, McDonald’s’ was a ground-breaking campaign for the brand. To bring this to life we turned thousands of roadside OOH spots into giant invitations to enjoy our most iconic products.

The results were powerful - successfully boosting Brand Love with families more than ever before: our family HOT score of ‘Is a brand I love’ went up three percentage points to hit 55% in Q3, and our ‘Is a place for kids and families’ score shifted from 77% to 79% in a matter of weeks! (Source: IPSOS campaign tracking)

The campaign also boosted visit frequency amongst infrequent family visitors, helping reverse the trend of visit loss amongst this critical audience.

Our market share went up from 18.1% - 18.8% versus the previous year, and this was supported by an increase in family sales from £889 million to an impressive £928 million in Q3 2023. (Source: CREST)