In 2018, McDonald’s Canada entered into a multi-year partnership with the Toronto Raptors (Toronto’s NBA team). The main objective of the partnership was to attract young adults who rank highest on both visits and average cheque across all QSR and also form the foundation of the Raptors fan-base.

Our challenge was to create an identity of the partnership that could be used in marketing communications. We wanted to communicate the McDonald’s sponsorship of the Toronto Raptors with something much more ownable (and fun) than just “Proud sponsor of the Toronto Raptors.” The studio production budget was $1000.

From a design standpoint, few logos in the world are as iconic and recognizable as McDonald’s Golden Arches. McDonald’s is also unique in being open to different treatments of the arches in design (they let us mess with their logo!).

Somewhat ironically, our final design solution was inspired by doing exactly what we were trying to avoid, putting the Golden Arches and the Raptors logo side-by-side, but with a perfect twist. We extended the Arches to graphically mimic the effect of following a bouncing ball – in this case the Raptors logo. This smart, simple solution created a scalable design system rooted in the truth of both brands.

Our solution was simple/scalable enough to handle the full range of integrated consumer touch-points across the sponsorship. In-stadium signage was a key component, including both large-scale posters for fans attending the games “live” and court-side rink-boards designed to be legible and unique for fans watching the fast-moving broadcasts on TV. Outside the stadium, the graphic treatment was integrated into everything from in-restaurant point-of-sale, to tiny mobile ad units, to packaging and merch.

The graphic treatment also had the benefit of communicating this new partnership without using any words. Toronto is often referred to as the “world’s most multicultural city” boasting 200 different ethnic groups and over 140 languages spoken. Our simple, smart twist to the Golden Arches and Raptors Logos said everything we needed to say, regardless of what language you spoke.

2018 marks the first year of the partnership and reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

· Record high 92% positive “Brand Love” reaction across social channels (especially

impressive for a brand where social sentiment is often negative).

· Universal approval and enthusiastic support from McDonald’s owner/operators.

o An incredibly important metric as it is literally their money being invested in the

partnership.

· The Raptors ownership group (MLSE) are now using this as a case-study with other

partners as an example of best-in-class sponsorship integration.