McDonald’s is a culturally relevant icon brand known the world over for its delicious food and friendly restaurants. However, through extensive audience research we discovered a key insight. An invitation to McDonald’s is so universal it doesn’t require words, food or restaurants. In fact, all it takes is a knowing look. We took ownership of that knowing look with a 360 integrated brand experience, activated across every channel to embed our idea in culture. Creating an unspoken language around the McDonald’s brand, that any fan could participate in.

Over the past three years, McDonald's has been building the brand platform "Fancy a McDonald's?" in the UK. This platform was created based on the insight that being invited to McDonald's is a moment to relieve life's pressures and feel good.

Our challenge was to reimagine this platform by finding new meaning and emotions associated with the McDonald's brand. To achieve this, we conducted extensive ethnographic research with McDonald's brand enthusiasts. This research led us to a creative insight that an invitation to McDonald's is so common that it can often be communicated without any words.

With this insight in mind, our goal was to bring it to life in the most creatively impactful way possible, through branded experiences activated across every channel to create an unmissable moment that would drive brand affinity in a bold, new way.

In the UK and many other places around the world, people commonly use a double eyebrow raise as a physical expression to convey a sense of playful conspiracy and mischief.

We noticed that the visual of two raised eyebrows bore an immediate and unmistakable resemblance to the iconic Golden Arches of McDonald's. By linking these two elements together in such a visceral way, we established ownership of that expression. As a result, every time someone raises their eyebrows, they associate it with McDonald's.

Everybody knows, an invitation to McDonald’s represents a moment to take a break from life’s pressures and just feel good.

But we noticed something. An invitation to McDonald’s is so universal, it can be communicated without words, food or restaurants. All it takes, is a knowing look.

We took ownership of that knowing look by turning it into a physical action inherently linked with the McDonald’s brand. A double eyebrow raise has always been a gesture that people use to communicate playful mischief, but we created an unmistakable link between the visual of raised eyebrows and the iconic arches of McDonald’s.

By adopting an unmissable 360 media approach we were able to then embed that action firmly into culture.

Now anytime, anyone raises their eyebrows, it can mean only one thing.

Fancy a McDonald’s?

To people of all ages, from all parts of the world, an invitation to McDonald’s represents a moment to feel good.

As such, we had the opportunity to assert ourselves in a way no other restaurant could.

We uncovered the insight that an invitation to McDonald’s is so universal, it can be communicated with just a knowing look. This unspoken association became the jumping off point for our campaign, as we aimed to embed it in culture with an unmissable brand experience that would impact as many McDonald’s fans as possible.

McDonald’s claimed ownership of the unspoken invitation to McDonald’s, by turning it into an ownable action that quickly became a cultural trend and spread across 35 countries, via a fully integrated media plan that launched on Blue Monday at the beginning of January, with the goal of spreading joy at a time when the nation needs it most.

We began with a bold ambient stunt that saw McDonald’s change their logo for the first time in history across physical signage, as well as social profiles. Then followed that up with television and cinema spots, contextual outdoor messaging, a mobile sales promotion, and in-restaurant experiences.

We then tapped into social. By working with key influencers targeting different audiences, we were able to instigate a viral trend that saw millions of people creating eyebrow raising content.

Did it work? Oh Yeah!

In just over one month, "Raise Your Arches" became a cultural trend that had the world talking about it, with YouGov Buzz Scores double any other McDonald’s UK campaign. It also took our advertising to new emotional heights, with an ‘emotional intensity’ score of 1.65 vs a norm of 1.26 (System 1). And having previously stagnated, ‘Brand Love’ scores are now back in growth because of the ‘Raise Your Arches’ campaign.

Beyond the frenzied industry conversation, the buzz also extended into culture. The film instantly went viral with over 162 million views. "Raise Your Arches" content frequently trended on TikTok, inspiring well over 2.5 million pieces of user-generated content. In total, the campaign generated over 1.1 billion impressions with over 35 countries taking part.

The campaign was also a huge commercial success, contributing to a sales increase of 7.1% and over £45million incremental revenue.