The relationship between food and gamers has been around long before the gaming industry boom.

McDonald’s attempts to infiltrate the gaming space have been limited to standard buys – easily overshadowed by Wendy’s and Burger King’s global deals with giant titles like Fortnite and Call of Duty.

Given the growth trajectory for this audience, McDonald’s knew we could do better. We remained at one-off efforts while our competitors invested in full-blown immersive experiences. Suffice to say (with a bit of chagrin), that when it comes to gaming, McDonald’s had not been behaving like the big global brand that it is.

Okay, so where do we even begin? Which game do we start with? What’s massive enough for a brand like McDonald’s (that other global brands haven’t already tapped)? And as important as the WHERE was the HOW - how do we engage an audience notorious for rejecting marketing efforts?

Undeniable fact : burgers, fries and sundaes in video games, despite being logo-free, look just like McDonald’s.

Why try and integrate McDonald’s into just one game when McDonald’s food has been in who-knows-how-many video games all along - HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT!

To stake our claim on this unbranded menu, McDonald’s collaborated with the country’s biggest gaming influencers to rally the gaming community to screengrab virtual grub from ANY GAME, brand them McDonald’s and redeem corresponding McDelivery coupons IRL.

With this idea, we effectively branded ALL GAMING FOOD in the entire gaming universe.

We based our approach on what was already existing in a gamer’s universe.

* Food shows up in almost every game in almost countless ways. We looked no further than FOOD ALREADY EXISTING IN-GAME. Any gamer will agree : there are a ton of food in video games, despite being unbranded, that look just like McDonald’s.

* We doubled down on EXISTING GAMING BEHAVIOR - Whether done for the sake of posterity or for bragging rights, screengrabbing is as natural to a gamer as chopping is to a chef! A behavior so well-grained it needs no explanation and works across all types of games!

The best way to engage with them? EXISTING ENTERTAINMENT - livestreams of gamers just like them

These insights dictated WHO kicked off the idea (influencers tiered by reach and platform played), WHERE the engagement unfolded (100% on influencers’ socials) and HOW gamers could participate (screengrabbing and sharing)

While other brands are spending billions to be integrated into gaming titles, one brand is so iconic that its menu has been mimicked in hundreds of video games.

Any gamer will agree : food in video games look utterly familiar. Fries in red boxes, double-decked burgers, golden nuggets, and so on. All unbranded, but all waiting to be claimed.

To stake our claim on this unbranded menu, McDonald’s collaborated with the country’s biggest gaming influencers to rally the gaming community to screengrab virtual grub from ANY GAME, brand them McDonald’s and redeem corresponding McDelivery coupons IRL.

We enlisted the Philippines’ top gamers to initiate the hunt for the McDonald’s food-alikes –– screengrabbing and branding them #ThisIsMcDonalds on their social pages. Knowing that McDonald’s look-alikes were present in ALL kinds of games, we carefully selected and distributed our co-collaborators to reach as many gaming multiverses as there are - PC, mobile, and all kinds of console games.

Before long, top gamers and their legions of hungry fans were sharing screengrabs of virtual food that – despite being logo-free – were essentially unofficial replicas of McDonald’s menu items. With each screen grab shared, gamers made the look-alikes officially McDonald’s.

McDonald’s kept close watch, intercepting the screengrabs on influencers’ socials and engaging with bespoke responses in real time. Gamers received coupons equivalent to

their “screengrub” so they could have food delivered IRL for free.

While other brands negotiated with one publisher at a time, this cross-gaming hunt effectively tagged McDonald’s grub in over 350 different gaming titles, boosting not only brand engagement but also McDelivery sales.

While brands were negotiating to be integrated into billion-dollar titles, not only did McDonald’s NOT need to pay any publisher (or invest in any tech or development), McDonald’s also wasn’t limited to any one game. Thus far, this epic cross-gaming hunt has surfaced McDonald’s grub in over 350 DIFFERENT GAMING TITLES – from The Sims to Roblox to Final Fantasy to Grand Theft Auto.

In a single move, McDonald’s asserted its iconicity and ubiquity and got gamers to think of McDonald’s every time they see fast food inside ANY video game.

Even tastier than this unprecedented spread of games? Our brand and business results!

· Reached 27 million gaming fans (that’s ⅔ of Philippines’ gaming population!)

· +108% brand mentions

· +140% brand engagement

· +35% McDelivery sales (thanks to hungry gamers ordering on top of their coupons, and showing off on their feed, triggering even more cravings, and orders!)