With Ride the Arches, McDonald’s designed an experience with cyclists’ needs (and wants) in mind . We provided not just the convenience, but more importantly, the motivation.

All over the world, McDonald’s is a favorite stopover for many people. Whether they dine-in , drive-thru or take-away, whether they come on foot or in a car, whether in the middle of the day or in the dead of night.

In the Philippines, customers either walk-in or drive-thru. But in the past few years, we observed more and more cyclists stopping over McDonald’s en route to their destinations.

Digging a bit deeper into this behavior, we observed something even more interesting - the most popular cyclist’s stopovers are also the most scenic McDonald’s stores.

This emerging behavior became both our inspiration and motivation - how to leverage this for the brand?

Stop for a bite, stay for the view - this was already the motivation of some cycling enthusiasts who stopover at McDonald’s. This was the mindset we wanted to fuel and the behavior we wanted to scale with Ride the Arches.

Any travel group can organize a cycling tour. Any mayor can promote his city’s scenic sights. But only McDonald’s, with its 700+ stores spread across the country’s 7000+ islands, can get the entire nation riding.

In a world first, we invited cyclists all over the country to keep riding from arch to arch - by turning every McDonald’s store into a cycling destination and refueling station.

Whether for recreation or commuting, cycling’s popularity in the Philippines has been increasing since 2020. In 2023, more Filipinos are already choosing two wheels instead of four (with 4 bicycle owners for every car owner)

Armed with the knowledge of the potential universe of cycling, it was now a matter of finding them and inviting them.

For a brand as universal and ubiquitous as McDonald’s, we deliberately kept it wide - we wanted to appeal to cyclists of all skill levels (and all types of bikes, too). Given the diverse landscapes to be explored, and the spread of McDonald’s that could serve as stopovers, it was but right.

We partnered with multiple cycling communities - from weekend warriors to folding bike aficionados to all-female commuter groups. These partnerships weren’t just for recruiting cyclists, but more importantly, for designing an experience that took into consideration what cyclists needed beyond convenience.

We designed an experience with cyclists’ needs (and wants) in mind.

We re-designed McDonald’s stores to become one-stop shops for cyclists

- In a world first, we created Bike & Dine facilities that integrated bike racks with shaded dining tables that allow cyclists to enjoy their McDonald’s meal conveniently and comfortably near their bikes.

- We installed bike repair stations, fully stocked with tools, and e-bike charging stations

- We offered energizing cyclist meals via outdoor ordering lanes that what we now call Ride-Thru

We rallied the cycling community to discover more of the country

- Partnering with cycling groups, and leveraging data from Google, the Department of Tourism and travel websites, we created 100+ scenic routes on Strava, using McDonald’s stores as start and/or end point, and tagging them #TourDeMcDo.

- Throughout the year, we organized #TourDeMcDo group rides, curating routes for distance, locality and ability.

This pedal-powered movement is surely gaining momentum, passing the country’s most scenic destinations along the way - from a historic walled city to a stunning lakeside vista to lush countryside.

Over 51,000 kilometers have been cycled on McDonald’s routes thus far, fueled by special cyclists meals (1,080+ meals sold per day) . As cyclists continue riding from arch to arch, this helped boost ride-thru sales by 25%

Ride the Arches has also improved Brand Health metrics, specifically “Favorite Brand” by 6.6 percentage points (based on Kantar Nationwide Brand Imagery Tracking)