So, in October of 2014, the McDonald’s Brand Newsroom was launched. A team of creatives, social strategists and community managers to conduct daily real-time outreach to influencers, celebrities, media and more.
On a daily basis, we enhance McDonald’s reputation and relevance by positively inserting the brand into cultural moments and conversations.
Brand Newsroom main roles are: earning media placements, generating real-time online engagement, creating custom celebrity and influencer gifts, and organizing proactive outreach.
As part of the Brand Newsroom, my role as designer is to ideate and create gifts, cards, stickers, gifs, apparel, coupons, dog collars, and much more for celebrities and influencers who mention McDonald’s online.
Creative Director/Copywriter: Jamon Deaver
Creative Director/Copywriter: Ryan Biek
In 2018, McDonald’s found that there gaining many brand fans from the tv show RuPaul’s Drag Race. So, for Season 10 finale, McDonald’s decided to jump on the opportunity to make a Drag Finale Kit for all the drag queens and fans of the show. The kit came with everything a queen could desire on her reigning night: a crown, sash, McSlay fan, sunglasses for throwing shade, a McSnatch Card game to play with friends, and coupons for sweet tea. The kits were shared on Instagram and Twitter by various fans and notable drag queens like Manila Luzon, Shangela, and Kim Chi.
PROGRAMS USED:
PHOTOSHOP
ILLUSTRATOR
INDESIGN
Desus loves the Filet-O-Fish, Mero… not so much. The two stars of the TV show Desus & Mero love arguing about the Filet-O-Fish and how edible (or not edible) it is. After months of mentioning of the sandwich, McDonald’s decided to engage with Desus and gift him with a flat bill hat,, which he promptly wore on an episode of Desus & Mero.
PROGRAMS USED:
PHOTOSHOP
ILLUSTRATOR
INDESIGN
Do you even skate? It was the ice cream cone flip heard around the world. Teagan did a perfect 360 flip with his McDonalds vanilla cone and became the next viral sensation. Children all over twitter were flipping McDonald’s cones left and right, dropping ice cream all over the floor and laughing while repeating the infamous lines ‘do you even skate?’ McDonalds kickflipped right into the conversation, gifting Teagan with a year supply of ice cream and cone flip inspired skateboard.
PROGRAMS USED:
ILLUSTRATOR
RuPaul's Drag Race legend and rapper Aja love her nuggets. On the podcast Whimsically Volatile, Aja discussed bad touring and venue experiences and how some venues don't respect or take drag performers as seriously as other performers, resulting in them being treated badly at the venues they performs at. They then mentioned that if they requests a 10-piece chicken nuggets from the venue then they should get it since she is providing a service to the venue. That's where McDonald's jumped in to show them that we care about their art, respect their profession, and want them to be well fed and taken care of during their performances. We organized a food drop for them when they were performing in Chicago and gave her a custom boombox that she could use as a prop in their performances. (I also got to meet Aja at the meet and greet that night and I literally died and went to heaven).
PROGRAMS USED:
PHOTOSHOP
Jan has a real, emotional connection to McDonald’s, having heard she got on the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race while in front of one of our restaurants and celebrated with a Big Mac. To show Jan the brand is rooting for her, we created a custom microphone designed to mimic the layered ingredients of the Big Mac.This way, wherever she goes making feel-good memories onstage, she'll know her favorite brand is supporting her every step of the way.
PROGRAMS USED:
ILLUSTRATOR
2020 has pushed us all to find new ways to connect.
And Animal Crossing, Nintendo Switch's fastest-ever sold out game, took the world by storm as the pioneer of "outdoor" hangouts in the isolation-age. Spotting a trend between the people taking to the virtual world to customize their online avatars and our own fans, the Brand Newsroom discovered a white space rooted in fan truths:
McDonald's lovers love Animal Crossing.
McDonald's lovers love McDonald's merch.
And McDonald's lovers would love custom McDonald's merch on Animal Crossing.
By creating custom clothing within the AC kingdom, the Brand Newsroom was able to use fan truths to directly engage our brand fans playing the game and increased the brand's cultural relevance by building a presence in a space outside our typical engagement platforms.
The designs were shared with gamer brand fans on Twitter and media. In total, our Animal Crossing merch earned 12 media placements and 32 total wins, and 100% favorable earned media sentiment.
PROGRAMS USED:
ACPATTERNS
PHOTOSHOP
AFTEREFFECTS
It's that time of the year again – Filet-O-Fish Season. 26% of all Filet-O-Fish social conversation takes place during Lent, making it a natural touchpoint for McDonald's to engage and re-engage several of the Filet-O-Fish's biggest fans. To help our Filet-O-Fish fans prepare for the upcoming Filet-O-Fish Season, we created Filet-O-Fish branded bucket hats and custom enamel pins.
PROGRAMS USED:
ILLUSTRATOR
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