Situation:

Given the Black Panther franchise had a groundbreaking cultural impact in 2018, McDonald’s teamed up with Marvel as the exclusive marketing partner to the kid audience for the highly anticipated sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Knowing the importance of representation to children of color, McDonald's wanted to use their scale to give all kids access to the characters and movie in neighborhood restaurants everywhere.

Brief

Bring this cultural phenomena to kids in every community to further cement McDonald's iconic place in culture.

Objectives

- To inspire kids of color to see and celebrate their inner hero with this new Happy Meal—because seeing is believing

- To make this more than just a Happy Meal promotion, but a cultural connection, specifically with kids of color

- To get all kids excited to visit McDonald’s and get a Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Happy Meal

Wakanda Lives Here was inspired by the impact Black Panther had on the Black community and how children of color were able to see themselves positively represented for the first time. The center piece of the campaign was a Black Panther-themed Happy Meal box, with a Black superhero character inside, that opened a portal into Wakanda through a mobile experience. Speaking from a kids perspective, the commercial 'Seeing is Believing' emphasizes the importance of representation and how McDonald’s is helping kids experience that sense of pride with every Black Panther 2, Wakanda Forever Happy Meal.

Our creative target for this program was black families and kids between 4-10 years old who have big dreams for the future.

McDonald's approached them primarily through their own kid-centric Happy Meal boxes, creating a special edition Happy Meal with superhoroes that looked just like the target audience, and an experience that would virtually transport them to Wakanda. A TV/internet commercial featuring Black kids invited everyone, especially Black families, to experience it at McDonald's.

We tapped into the fan truth "McDonald's is a place where I can just be me" because at McDonald's everyone is welcome.

Before Black Panther, black kids didn't see reflections of themselves in superhero movies. McDonald's recognised the film's powerful message that couldn't reach those who needed it most because 9 in 10 Black families rarely go to see movies in cinemas (Statista) due to costly film tickets, streaming paywalls, and “cinema deserts” in Black neighborhoods.

To bring this film of representation to life, McDona;d's partnered with Kevin Wilson Jr. As an African American-Oscar nominated filmmaker out of Chelsea pictures, he wanted to bring forth the pride kids of color feel when seeing themselves portrayed as superheroes. Shot in multiple locations in Los Angeles with a diverse crew in August of 2022. This story was brought to broadcast channels where kids could see it running on Disney, Disney XD, Teen Nick, Nick, Nick Toons and Cartoon Network during the promotion window of 11/1-12/5/22. Other bespoke creative appeared in Times Square on a massive digital OOH billboard located above a McDonald's restaurant, which spotlighted the promotional Happy Meal packaging and toy line up, which were available at all the 14,000+ McDonald's restautants across the U.S. Kids also had the ability to extend the toy experience through an engaging digital extension on HappyMeal.com during the promotional window.

The Black Panther Wakanda Forever Happy meal drove tons of excitement with families and Marvel fans alike. This milestone moment for representation in film was a tremendous way to highlight the ways McDonald’s represents and celebrates the communities they serve.The overall impact of the program resounded as passion for the Black Panther Happy Meal gained 1.9 Billion earned media impressions.

Most importantly McDonald's efforts to lift-up diverse voices were heard as black media placements exceeded McDonald's goals by 460% and overall earned media placements exceeded McDonald's goals by 740%.

From a business performance perspective, Happy Meal 2022 full-year performance ended strong with URWs (units/per restaurant/week) 15%higher than the 10-year average.

Further, meeting core objectives this program achieved higher measures specifically among black kids and parents vs. total respondents across engagement (+83%), intent to visit (+85%), ad appeal (+82%), and favorable brand impressions (+61%).