On its journey to rebuild connections with younger audiences, McDonald’s has traveled into subcultures including hip-hop, K-pop, anime, and streetwear. But for years, one world had fallen off the map: the magical realm of McDonaldland.
First introduced in 1971, McDonaldland is a fantasy realm inhabited by brand characters like Ronald McDonald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, and Mayor McCheese. Apple pies grow on trees, hamburgers sprout from the ground, and the lake is filled with Filet-O-Fish sandwiches.
McDonaldland had been absent from the brand’s advertising for 22 years, but now it’s back in a major campaign from Wieden+Kennedy New York. Familiar elements remain, but the land also takes a new shape both digitally and IRL. McDonald’s dove into its own lore and history after seeing social posts from fans who said, “I want to go to McDonaldland.”
The McDonaldland revival is the QSR’s latest attempt to build cultural relevance with both Gen Z and older audiences. The campaign continues a strategy that taps into real customer rituals and experiences, mixing nostalgia with modern marketing techniques.
That strategy is starting to fuel a turnaround. In McDonald’s latest earnings report, CEO Chris Kempczinski credited marketing and menu innovation with helping to reboot sales after a year flat or declining performance.
However, there are some fresh elements to the new McDonaldland initiative. It is more immersive, borrowing tactics from tourism marketing, while turning the spotlight on the brand’s celebrity status, said Jennifer “JJ” Healan, McDonald’s vice president of U.S. marketing, brand, content, and culture.
“It truly is a tourism campaign,” Healan told ADWEEK. “We’ve never leveraged our own celebrity in this way.”
Opening doors for fans
Inspired by Gen Z’s love of travel, the new McDonaldland is “designed for the most participation possible,” Healan said. Every aspect mimics the experiences and rituals of a real vacation, with games for the journey, maps to historic landmarks, introductions to local traditions, and souvenirs to take home.
On Aug. 12, McDonald’s will host its first Instagram Live, where Mayor McCheese will invite everyone to discover McDonaldland.
Then for the next four weeks, every visit to McDonald’s will be a trip to McDonaldland. Restaurants will be taken over with a themed meal and milkshake, packaging covered in games, and collectible souvenir kits, which highlight different characters’ personalities (even their zodiac signs) with postcards, stickers, and passports that can be scanned for a Booking.com discount.
Bridging the physical and digital worlds was crucial, Healan said. The brand partnered with Snap’s augmented reality (AR) studio, Arcadia, to create AR lenses and games, allowing users to brush up on McDonaldland lore and interact with characters like Birdie and the Fry Guys.
McDonaldland will also be in Fortnite, release a weekly YouTube series, and run content across Meta, TikTok, and X. It’s taking over Google Maps, the Lyft app, and the United Airlines app and in-flight screens.
“We wanted all the digital tactics to open as many doors as we could for fans,” said Alysha Kishan, strategy director at Wieden+Kennedy New York. “It would be amazing if they went on their own deep dive into the McDonaldland rabbit hole.”
In the real world, McDonald’s will show up at events including the Daytona 500 race, vintage clothing convention Thriftcon in Denver, and the Breakaway Music Festival in Michigan and Massachusetts.
The company has also forged unexpected collaborations with other brands, including PacSun on a merch line and Away for a luggage collection.
The campaign’s centerpiece is a commercial encapsulating McDonald’s aim to stay true to history while refreshing its past for a new generation. With nods to the original McDonaldland spot, the old song was remade by Toro y Moi, a music artist with Gen Z appeal.
A wild trip through history
Wieden+Kennedy creatives Jennie Ellsworth and Nell Stevens dug deep into McDonald’s archives to discover McDonaldland, unearthing details like a hamburger chorus and sundae mountain.
That rich lore, with its “elements of wackiness and imperfection,” will appeal to Gen Z’s appetite for fantasy and absurdity, Stevens said. Every part of the campaign, from the milkshake flavor to the games, is meant to rekindle childhood joy and project fun.
“[McDonaldland] has this weird whimsy that feels like it’s from the mind of someone on a wild trip. We wanted to incorporate that, so it would feel human and resonate with people,” Stevens said.
McDonaldland also uses handmade craftsmanship that stands out in a flood of digital and AI-generated content, Ellsworth said. In their research, the creatives recalled finding social posts from people expressing a desire to return to a simpler, nostalgic time when advertising was playful and “beautifully made,” Stevens said.
“It’s a world created with props and puppeteers—a whole artist’s vision carried out just because it was fun,” Ellsworth said. “We wanted people to feel it was tactile and handmade.”
McDonald’s North Star
As Gen Z discovers McDonaldland and older fans return to it, the brand wants people “to feel all the things you do when you go on a trip—excitement, fun, a sense of ‘how can I keep coming back?’” said Healan.
With the campaign, McDonald’s continues to lean into its “fan truth” strategy, which Healan called “our North Star, guiding everything we do.”
“It’s about the memories, moments, rituals, and behaviors of our fans,” Healan said. “[For this campaign] the fan truth was, there’s magic in McDonaldland. People were asking us to bring it back.”
The fan truths strategy has led to other popular McDonald’s campaigns like “Famous Orders,” which highlighted that even celebrities like Kim Kardashian have a go-to McDonald’s order.
It also allowed McDonald’s to enter subcultures where it already has a presence, Healan said. Its 2024 anime campaign brought the genre’s fictional chain “WcDonald’s” to life. Earlier this year, its collaboration with Minecraft—the chain’s largest campaign ever—appealed to gamers ahead of the blockbuster “Minecraft Movie.”
In McDonald’s recent earnings call, Kempczinski cited the Minecraft collab as an example of “standout marketing” that’s boosting the business.
After the January appointment of Alyssa Buetikofer as chief marketing officer (CMO), replacing Tariq Hassan, McDonald’s is still facing challenges such as restoring its reputation as a value destination for cost-strapped customers.
But “the time feels right” to bring back McDonaldland, Healan said: “It’s about learning something new, truly tapping into Gen Z culture, and inviting them into an experience and community. And hopefully, building a closer connection to the brand.”
Source: adweek.com