Situation: McDonald’s sponsored the FIFA World Cup 2022. The challenge with any sponsorship is to find something to say that’s relevant to your audience, true to the brand, and will feel distinctive surrounded by what often looks like cultural wallpaper.

Brief: Identify a message and platform that resonates across countries and cultures and magnify this cultural moment beyond traditional media.

Objectives:

Commercial Objective:

Drive sales around the world, especially across McDonald’s top 10 markets.

Marketing Objective:

Drive growth in mobile orders and delivery, capitalizing on 64 can’t-miss viewing occasions for McDelivery during the tournament.

Communication Objective:

Reinforce McDonald’s status as a culturally-leading icon brand by driving fame and saliency around the FIFA World Cup.

Relevance: McDonald’s saw a global sponsorship not as an opportunity to just insert its logo or drive reach, but to create new brand storytelling around a shared insight between this iconic sporting event and the brand.

McDonald’s brought this insight to life creatively by focusing on a universal question that connects McDonald’s-loving football fans in every corner of the world. A question that fans ask, no matter where they are in the world, what language they speak, who they support, or the result of the match: "Wanna go to McDonald’s?".

McDonald’s celebrated this question being asked by a world of fans in different locations, all united by their love of McDonald’s before, during or after a match.

An idea with a call-to-action embedded within it that could become part of the conversation during matches. And an idea that lends itself to partnering with some of our most well known brand fans from TV, music, social influencers and gaming, strengthening McDonald’s position as a global cultural icon and providing proof that the FIFA partnership isn’t just a vehicle for consumer reach—but also for scaling consumer relationships.

McDonald’s has unlocked enormous value by tapping into commonly understood truths about the way that people eat and enjoy McDonald’s. These truths - that we call Fan Truths - have helped McDonald’s rediscover its voice in culture.

But to grab the audience’s attention during an unrivaled and crowded global moment, we needed to find a universal and global insight.

The answer came in a Fan Truth that proved how deeply McDonald’s is woven into the football experience for fans in every corner of the earth: “While borders may define football fandom, fans from around the world all have McDonald’s in common”.

This allowed McDonald’s to celebrate the diversity of fans around the world. Because while they might be divided by football rivalry, McDonald’s knew that - as the world’s most global and local restaurant - they would be united beneath the Golden Arches before, during and after the match.

Communications Objective:

Drove fame/saliency for McDonald's around the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Teaser tweet alone had 43.9M+ impressions and highest ever engagements and shares - McDonald’s second top performing social post ever.

US organic social alone had 67.9M impressions and 1M total engagements.

Global paid content racked up 4.6B impressions, 775M video views, 20M video clicks, and 62M social engagements, across 75+ participating markets.

Social-first campaign increased our social SOV by 4pts.

Marketing Objective:

All this helped drive growth in our digital channels, making every game an opportunity to drive immediate sales.

Global Mobile App saw its highest ever engagement – with an increase in Digital Sales and a significant increase in Digital Average Check, across participating restaurants.

Saw double-digit McDelivery comps across the top 10 markets, exceeding benchmarks on Uber Eats and Doordash delivery platforms by up to 20%.

Commercial Objective:

Double-digit comp sales growth across our top markets.