McDonald’s had been losing relevance and share with Multicultural (MC) Young Adults, the future driver of Quick Service Restaurant (or any category’s) success. Competitors had gained share with young adults, while McDonald’s fell behind.

To ensure future business success, we needed to immediately draw MC Young Adults back into the restaurant, while building long-term brand love to ensure their visits would continue.

McDonald’s has made progress, but the battle for this audience requires constant vigilance and investment. We needed to make strong cultural connections to continue gaining traction with this important audience due to their untapped lifetime value potential, influence across generations, and higher propensity to spend money on fast food.

Our objective was to enhance McDonald's relevance within MC Young Adult culture and increase penetration among MC Young Adults - and do it at a time when the entire QSR category was softening due to macroeconomic factors like inflation.

We knew MC Young Adults were turning the status quo upside down when it came to almost everything, including relationships. In fact, they are the least traditional generation when it comes to relationships. When it comes to personal connections and dating, they value authenticity and prioritize meaningful connections due to their upbringing in an uncertain world shaped by economic and political instability.

MC Young Adults have always incorporated dating apps into their relationship experiences. Beyond that, they are also embracing dynamic communication avenues for forging connections. Think sliding into DMs, Snapchat rendezvous, and even harmonizing on TikTok duets. These simple and direct ways of connecting with others lie at the heart of what they value in relationships and how they view love.

Our plan was built around the insight that MC Young Adults push beyond “traditional” definitions of relationships and love, redefining and reshaping it as they seek meaningful connections.

McDonald’s fans share stories of special moments sparked by the simple act of enjoying a McDonald’s meal with a loved one. So we focused our new Famous Order on sharing it with someone special. Frequently posting on social about their dates at McDonald’s, Cardi-B and Offset were the perfect couple to embody the idea that sharing a McDonald’s order with a loved one makes for a special moment.

MC Young Adults hunger for easy and authentic ways to connect with those they care about. So, our media approach created opportunities for MOMENTS OF CONNECTION - aligning with modern dating culture and embracing how relationships happen in multiple ways for MC Young Adults.

To launch, we picked the most traditional day of love - Valentine’s Day. But we did it in a completely modern way, connecting multiple touchpoints that complemented each other to perfectly resonate with MC Young Adults.

Our channel integration embraced and amplified how our audience forges bonds:

DIGITAL

• Leveraging Match’s ecosystem, our first-to-market push notification invited users to share the meal with their matches.

• Our brand-first Instagram activation encouraged fans to invite their special someone to McDonald’s via an innovative DM Bot creating custom invitations.

• Custom Snapchat lenses brought meal-sharing to life with fans placing their face next to their someone special.

INTERACTIONS

• Instagram influencers developed engaging story takeovers and memes, driving meal-sharing awareness.

• Popular TikTok influencers showcased Gen-Z’s expressions of love through their own shared meals.

• QSR-first takeovers of Amazon Fire TV featured a custom rom-com playlist.

TV

• MC Young Adults pay attention to the culture around Super Bowl, so teasers ran across their screens. Our February 12th Super Bowl TV spot featured couples talking about knowing each other’s order, setting the stage for February 14th’s launch!

We redefined love and delivered stellar results!

• Driving visits we achieved our penetration goal, with McDonald’s penetration among MC Young Adults +2.7% versus year ago dramatically outpacing the QSR category down -1%

• We drove halo impact on the business with a significant lift in unit sales of Cheeseburgers, Pies, and QPCs

Relevance-wise, the campaign was a huge success, keeping McDonald’s involved in cultural dialogue:

• "Cardi B & Offset Meal” was the 7th most searched term on Google during Valentine’s Day with 100,000+ searches

The digitally-led channel mix drove strong overall awareness and engagement:

• Store Visit Lift (Placed) showed Podcasts and DV360 delivering double-digit percent lifts

• Engagement rates were very strong

o Instagram Custom Story Takeovers 6x over benchmark

o Display activations >3%, higher than other campaigns in the past year

o Match Group placements 1.5x to 3x over benchmark

o Instagram Click-to-Messenger 2.3x over benchmark