Side Missions: Behind Leo's Campaign To Showcase McDonald's As An Everyday Escape

McDonald’s entered the summer season with yet another fan truth: that it’s a brand that is one of life’s side missions. Whether than means having to visit when passing a service station, facing temptation while stuck in morning traffic, or simply making it part of a weekend routine, McDonald’s is a part of everyone’s lives - even if they don’t want to admit it.

‘Side Missions’ puts a twist on past brand experiences; bringing the world of gaming to the world of fast food in a bid to encourage the momentary life detours.

Bringing this insight to life saw McDonald’s and Leo UK partner and create unique experiences for consumers that love McDonald’s to take part in playable side missions to complete to earn badges and legendary prizes from the ‘Big Mac of Destiny’ that invites fans to claim a £1.99 Big Mac to the ‘Fries Speedrun’ that rewards fans for laying out their fries in size order in record time.

The initial launch collaborated with TikToker Angry Ginge, in an attempt to see fans eat on ‘Hard Mode’ by posting a video of themselves eating a McDonald’s under the toughest of conditions to win a prize. 

Creative Salon spoke with Andrew Long and James Millers, Executive Creative Directors at Leo UK, about the making of the work, tapping into the gaming audience, and rolling out a multi-layered campaign.

How did the work come about? 

Every McDonald’s campaign starts with a ‘fan truth’, a unique insight rooted in the real relationship people have with the brand. For this campaign, that truth was that “McDonald’s is life’s side mission”, drawing on the fact that everyone has taken an unexpected detour to Maccies that ended up being way more fun than whatever it was we were supposed to be doing.

What inspired tapping into gaming culture for this work?

When we explored “side missions,” we quickly arrived at its gaming origin -  the optional quests that gamers choose to do alongside the main storyline. The connection to our fan truth was obvious: McDonald’s is an everyday escape, just like gaming.

We used gaming as a lens to create a fun, playable brand experience. That meant using gaming language, referencing iconic moments, and hiding easter eggs for superfans. From the choice of voiceover to a cameo from AngryGinge - one of the UK’s biggest gaming influencers - everything was designed to resonate with gaming audiences.

How did you decide which games to tap into, given how vast gaming audiences are?

We focused on where “side mission” comes from: role-playing and adventure games. The aim was to reimagine the McDonald’s experience as a mission you’d find in a video game, complete with a name, an objective, and different ways to access it.

What was the biggest challenge when putting this campaign together?

Scale. Our goal is to create big brand moments that make a visit to McDonald’s feel like a real event, which means our idea needs to stretch across the full brand experience, from a delicious Side Mission menu through to a daily Side Mission app promo, and everything in between. All of that means the deliverable list gets very long, and we’re managing hundreds of assets. But the reward when the campaign is out there and you see it across every brand touchpoint, makes it all worthwhile.

How important was tapping into the creator economy with collaboration from popular gamers, such as Angry Ginge, with the campaign? Something that was planned from the start?

Sharing the pen with our audience is one of the key tactics we use to drive participation. In this case, we partnered with some of the UK’s biggest gamers for the first time and designed the missions around their own playstyles and what their audiences love. When you’re co-creating with the audience like this, you have to be open to the unexpected but that’s often where the best stuff comes from. One mission even challenges fans to eat McDonald’s on “Hard Mode.” We’re excited to see where they take it.

 The campaign obviously isn’t just a hero film - comes with OOH, its own unique games and the chances to win prizes. Why branch out with such a multi-layered campaign?

Fandom sits at the heart of our strategy for McDonald’s, and like any fandom, it has layers: the core audience, a group of more engaged fans, and the top five percent of hardcore superfans. We design for all three so there’s something for everyone but also depth that rewards those who go looking. For example, we teased the campaign with a sly nod to a 1990s McDonald’s cartridge game. Most people will miss it, but those who spot it will get a real kick out of it.

We wanted each mission to feel authentic to the gaming world, which meant a mix of lengths, difficulties, and formats from quick, offer-based challenges to more immersive quests. The sweet spot was where the McDonald’s experience met a credible gaming experience. That’s where Leo UK’s social and design capabilities really came into play - we’ve got one of the strongest creative offerings in the industry right now, and this campaign shows just how far we can push it across every channel.

Does this mark Leo’s debut working with McDonald’s’ new CMO, Ben Fox? If so, what was the working experience like?

We’re at a really exciting moment in the evolution of our marketing for McDonald’s in the UK&I. We’ve always had an incredibly collaborative and fun working relationship with McDonald’s, and that’s a mainstay under Ben’s leadership. Together with our local and global partners, we’re pushing what it means to be a culturally relevant icon today. That means moving from traditional ads that talk at people, to immersive brand experiences that invite participation. Side Missions is exactly that -  fan-driven, social-first, and packed with ways for people to get involved.