The relationship between food and gamers has been around long before the gaming industry boom.

McDonald’s attempts to infiltrate the gaming space have been limited to standard buys – easily overshadowed by Wendy’s and Burger King’s global deals with giant titles like Fortnite and Call of Duty.

Given the growth trajectory for this audience, McDonald’s knew we could do better. We remained at one-off efforts while our competitors invested in full-blown immersive experiences. Suffice to say (with a bit of chagrin), that when it comes to gaming, McDonald’s had not been behaving like the big global brand that it is.

Okay, so where do we even begin? Which game do we start with? What’s massive enough for a brand like McDonald’s (that other global brands haven’t already tapped)? And as important as the WHERE was the HOW - how do we engage an audience notorious for rejecting marketing efforts?

Undeniable fact : burgers, fries and sundaes in video games, despite being logo-free, look just like McDonald’s.

Why try and integrate McDonald’s into just one game when McDonald’s food has been in who-knows-how-many video games all along - HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT!

To stake our claim on this unbranded menu, McDonald’s collaborated with the country’s biggest gaming influencers to rally the gaming community to screengrab virtual grub from ANY GAME, brand them McDonald’s and redeem corresponding McDelivery coupons IRL.

With this idea, we effectively branded ALL GAMING FOOD in the entire gaming universe.

Instead of viewing gamers as individual targets, we looked at them as a thriving community, and based our approach on what was already existing in their universe.

We doubled down on EXISTING GAMING BEHAVIOR - Whether done for the sake of posterity or for bragging rights, screengrabbing is as natural to a gamer as chopping is to a chef! A behavior so well-grained it needs no explanation and works across mobile, PC and console, too. It was just a matter of directing gamers to do what they already do – with what was ours to claim in the first place! THOUSANDS OF ICONS ALREADY EXISTING IN GAME!

The best way to kick this off? EXISTING ENTERTAINMENT– livestreams of gamers just like themselves

Collaborating with top gaming streamers was the most effective way to kick off the hunt and extend its reach in as many gaming multiverses there are.

INFLUENCERS TRIGGER THE HUNT

The country’s #1 gaming influencer kicked things off by finding a Big Mac lookalike and tagging McDonald’s. Her reel/real-life friends (influencers by their own right with their own communities) were first to catch on, sharing their own screengrabs.

Before long, legions of hungry fans were sharing screengrabs of virtual food that – despite being logo-free – were essentially unofficial replicas of McDonald’s menu items. With each screen grab shared, gamers made the look-alikes officially McDonald’s.

BRAND RESPONDS AND REWARDS

McDonald’s kept close watch, intercepting the screengrabs on influencers’ socials and engaging with bespoke responses in real time. Gamers received coupons equivalent to their “screengrub” so they could have food delivered IRL for free.

While brands were negotiating to be integrated into billion-dollar titles, not only did McDonald’s NOT need to pay any publisher (or invest in any tech or development), McDonald’s also wasn’t limited to any one game. Thus far, this epic cross-gaming hunt has surfaced McDonald’s grub in over 350 DIFFERENT GAMING TITLES – from The Sims to Roblox to Final Fantasy to Grand Theft Auto.

In a single move, McDonald’s asserted its iconicity and ubiquity and got gamers to think of McDonald’s every time they see fast food inside ANY video game.

Even tastier than this unprecedented spread of games? Our brand and business results!

· Reached 27 million gaming fans (that’s ⅔ of Philippines’ gaming population!)

· +108% brand mentions

· +140% brand engagement

· +35% McDelivery sales (thanks to hungry gamers ordering on top of their coupons, and showing off on their feed, triggering even more cravings, and orders!)