We knew every man, woman, and their corgi would jump on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and as an official sponsor of the pageant, McDonald’s had a right to play a central role in this most iconic of cultural occasions.

In relation to the sponsorship, our objectives were to increase engagement and conversation across earned and owned channels, drive people into restaurant and to engage with the McDonald’s App.

Whilst our brief was to create an impactful PR campaign which would put McDonald’s right at the heart of the action, we knew there was potential to do so much more.

The McDonald's ‘five-note sting’ (known to millions simply as “ba da ba ba baaaa”) is one of the most recognisable pieces of music in the world, and sits at the end of almost every piece of McDonald's branded content globally, including in the UK.

An historic occasion like a Platinum Jubilee afforded us the chance to pitch something equally momentous using McDonald’s iconic brand assets.

If we were going do something innovative with this iconic piece of music and re-score it in a majestic manner, who better than to ask the equally iconic (and regal) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to do it for us?

A full 44-strong ensemble of the world-renowned musicians featuring brass, strings, percussion, and woodwind gathered at a recording studio in London to lay down a regal version of those five iconic notes, creating a piece of audio-led content the whole nation went wild for.

Our series of activations, led by the re-scoring of the brand’s iconic jingle, put McDonald's at the centre of the conversation around the Queen's Jubilee, driving 250k McDonald's App competition entries, 240k product offer redemptions, and over 300 pieces of domestic and even international PR coverage, all featuring our audio-led film. We delivered 1.63million impressions across owned social channels, and the new jingle was used on every TV & radio ad for six days.

Named as ‘campaign of the week’ by trade publications in three continents, and, as one national journalist told us: “McDonald’s won the Jubilee with this campaign”.

Our Royal Makeover wasn’t only on the lips of the industry, it was talked about everywhere – but, crucially, it delivered commercially. McDonald’s said they’d never seen UK franchisees jump on a campaign the way they did with this campaign, not just in the UK, but in Commonwealth markets too.