We used the popularity of trend accessories and clothing from Millenials or GenZ to generate engagement from our followers and anchor McDonald’s as a trending brand on social media.

McDonald’s is a very special brand. It’s true everywhere in the world, but maybe even more in France: we’re talking about the country of the baguette and other strong culinary traditions. And yet, McDonald’s managed to become one of the 10 favorite brands of French people, serving 2 million meals each day (not bad, considering there are 67 million French people) and being chosen by 9 families out of 10.

But meanwhile, as we became the favorite brands of parents, we began to struggle with young people between 20 and 30, young Gen Y and old Gen Z. That was partly because of our numerous competitors, and partly because we invested a lot in RSE communications and less in pure fun campaigns.

We needed to take back the hearts of young consumers. It was key to sustain our short and long-term growth but also our unique place in pop culture.

We had a natural playground: social media, where we already have one of the most loved and shared brands (671M impressions, 4M interactions, 425K mentions). Of course likes and shares are good, but we needed to go beyond and find a way to generate true brand love.

It all began with a new editorial line on Instagram, where we started to play with the brand's emblematic references (products & logo). One day, we published a photomontage of an accessory related to a current fashion trend, branded McDonald's. And then, our account exploded. A mountain of comments that kept asking "where can I buy it?" accompanied by an avalanche of likes. And we thought, this is the way to do it.

From desire to reality : we decided to turn our Instagram account into a test lab to create exclusive merch. We would use likes and comments to identify our fan’s favorite merch ideas and make them real.

For all McDrops, we decided to go with 100% social media campaigns, to maximise brand love and to boost recruitment.

There are several stages in the operation of a McDrop.

Step 1: we post several visuals of McDonald's branded products/accessories over several months on Instagram

Step 2: we identify the visual(s) that have received the most likes and generated the most engagement from our fans.

Step 3: we turn it into a McDrops, a real product, developed in a limited edition

Step 4: Through a 100% social contest, we make our fans win the McDrop

Step 5: we repeat the same process by publishing new visuals.

We also support these McDrops with a phase of influence to give more visibility to the campaign and reach more precisely certain targets with influencers that match the tone and objectives of our activations.

We had three KPIs:

- Volumes of conversations likes, comments, shares

- Volumes of subscriptions: new followers on McDo social media platforms

- Impact on our brand love indicator: what’s the point of likes if it doesn’t come with brand affinity?

In 2022, McDrops generated a total of 308,955 interactions (likes, comments, saves and shares) which represents 32% of total interactions for the year.

The McDrops recruited 45,336k followers over the year 2022. So we went from 333,000 followers at the beginning of 2022 to 378,000 at the end of the year, which is quite impressive.

Between Q1 and Q4, the brand love indicator of those who follow the McDonald's France account is clearly on the rise in 2022, with an increase of +24 points, with each time increases during the year corresponding to the release of a new McDrop.