McDonald’s Transforms Memories Into Nostalgic Collectibles

McDonald's UK and Leo UK have today launched CARDS, a new promotion inspired by the brand’s long-standing place in collecting culture. From limited-edition merchandise to iconic packaging and memorabilia, McDonald’s has spent decades creating objects that fans keep, trade and remember. CARDS builds on that heritage by reimagining some of the brand’s most recognisable characters, menu moments and rituals as a new collectible card set.

Inspired by the universal fan truth that McDonald’s is more than a meal – it’s a memory – the promotion transforms beloved McDonald’s moments into cards that fans can gather into sets to unlock prizes.

Two years in development, the nationwide promotion celebrates the characters, rituals and cultural legacy that have defined McDonald’s for generations. There are 24 card designs across four categories: Characters, Fans, Retro and Legendary, spanning beloved mascots, cult menu items and nods to the brand’s rich archive.

Every design has been hand illustrated from scratch. Over months, Leo UK refined character poses, line weight, colour palettes and texture to create a distinctive visual language that feels authentic to collector culture while remaining unmistakably McDonald’s.

The physical production involved extensive stock weight and tactility testing to replicate the feel of premium card collections – from standard editions featuring rich matte finishes to Legendary designs using holographic foil detailing to heighten the sense of rarity.

At the centre of the collection is a rare 25th card: a gold Ronald McDonald. Only ten exist nationwide, each worth a £10,000 cash prize, marking the character’s return to the McDonald’s universe for the first time in three decades.

Customers can order a ‘CARDS Meal’ to receive a pack of four cards at no extra cost. Every pack contains guaranteed free food, making this one of the most generous promotions in the brand’s history. Fans will also be able to build a digital collection within the McDonald's app by entering codes on the back of their cards to unlock additional prizes and explore the original lore behind the McDonald's icons.

To ensure the project resonated authentically within collector culture, the inter-agency group immersed itself in the community throughout development – studying everything from rarity systems to grading mechanics.

The campaign was co-created with leading UK collector creators Randolph and PokiChloe. McDonald’s has also partnered with Randolph’s grading company ACE Grading, enabling fans to submit their McDonald’s CARDS to be professionally graded and sealed – bringing the same authentication standards used for premium card collections into the McDonald’s universe.

A selection of cards was previewed at the London Card Show (February 13–15), introducing the collection directly to dedicated fans and positioning McDonald’s within the card collecting community ahead of launch.

To build credibility within collector culture, the communications strategy followed a deliberate phased approach designed to engage collecting communities before expanding to a broader national audience.

The campaign began with a pre-launch “hype” phase focused on spaces where collectors already gather and share their finds. Early activity centred on creator partnerships and community platforms, supported by nostalgic social content exploring McDonald’s long history of fan collectibles.

These posts revisited archive moments such as Speedee, the brand’s first mascot, alongside cult menu items including McPizza and other memorabilia from across the brand’s history, framing CARDS as the latest chapter in McDonald’s longstanding relationship with collecting.

Following this initial phase, the campaign expanded to a fully integrated national rollout across AV, OOH, radio, social and in-restaurant activity. This includes pack-opening creator content, a midnight restaurant event inspired by gaming release culture, a nationwide tour and exclusive crew badge “cards” and t-shirts for employees featuring foil wraps that reveal the cards.

A social content series created in partnership with Hypebeast explores the craft behind the card designs, documenting the illustration process and the cultural references that shaped the set.

The AV campaign anchors the launch with a 30-second hero film introducing the origin of the game within the McDonald’s universe. Shot by Dan French through Stink Films, the film moves through a series of McDonald’s memories across generations to reveal the inspiration behind each card.

The hero film is supported by a suite of 10-second and 6-second cutdowns designed to highlight different elements of the promotion, including qualifying meals, free food rewards, in-app set completion and the ultra-rare Golden Ronald card.

Hannah Pain, marketing director, McDonald’s UK, said: “McDonald’s has a rich history of collecting and the more we dug into this, the more we found – from Coke glasses to character memorabilia. Fast forward to 2026, and our McDonald’s CARDS promotion is a total celebration of that. We’ve turned memories and iconic features of the brand into something really tangible – 24 unique cards that earn fans free food items, merch and cash.”

Andrew Long, executive creative director, Leo UK added: “Nostalgia has become real cultural currency, and McDonald’s has always been a part of that story. With McDonald’s CARDS, we wanted to take that nostalgia and give fans something fresh and new in the form of iconic Cards. Bringing the joy of card culture into an accessible format, we’re opening it up to everyone, which feels perfectly suited to a democratic brand like McDonald’s. It’s been a real labour of love for us at Leo UK. We’ve immersed ourselves in card culture and we couldn’t be more excited for the McDonald’s fans to do the same!”

CARDS was a cross-agency collaboration: Creative was handled by Leo UK. Media planning and buying was managed by OMD. PR, event and influencer management was handled by Red Consultancy. CRM was handled by TMW, tms created the game play mechanic, card production, prizepool curation and merch production, in-restaurant and POP Communications were handled by Linney.

Credits:  

CREATIVE AGENCY: Leo UK 

CCO: Mark Elwood 

Executive Creative Director: Andrew Long 

Lead creatives: Jed Small & Ev Bryant 

Creative Director of Design: David Allen 

Senior Designer: Danny Flint 

Senior Motion Designer: Jacson Mitchell 

Retouching Project Director: Lisa Petchey 

Retoucher: Gareth Ling 

Studio Director: Ricky Pettiford 

Managing Director: Sam Houlston 

Managing Partner: Layla Potter 

Business Director: Bella Bertolotti 

Account Director: Nicola Kuan 

Senior Account Manager: Tash Meisel 

Account Manager: Cat Fernandes Poon 

Account Executive: Elizabeth Makinde 

Head of Project Management: Siobhan Mulcahy 

Project Director: Josh Burley 

Head of Strategy: Joe Beveridge 

Senior Digital Planner: Scott McKinnon 

Project Manager: Asher Guerrier-Halil 

Project Director: Simon Jerome 

Client: McDonald’s UK 

Chief Marketing Officer: Ben Fox 

Director of Marketing: Matt Reischauer & Hannah Pain 

Marketing Manager: Lucy Holt & Alice Pavey 

Brand Manager: Joe Light 

Campaign Assistant: Victory Goodness & Owen Rumsey 

The Diversity Standards Collective 

Head of Community Research & Creative Advisor: Alexander Gabbutt 

Global Street Art 

CEO & Creative Advisor: Lee Bofkin 

Media Agency: OMD 

Client Leadership, Business Director: Elise Grimstone 

Strategy Partner – Chris Mitchwell 

Media Planning, Business Director: Jess Bates 

PR & Creator Agency: Red Consultancy 

POP Agency: Linney 

POP Account Lead: Juliet Leah 

POP Creative Leads: James Reeves & Hayley Hatfield 

POP Design Leads: Sarah Twelves & Liberty Twidale 

POP Project Lead: Samantha Peck 

POP Animation Leads: Ryan Onions & Ali Severn 

CRM Agency: TMW 

Client Services Leads: Felicity Clack, Ruby Harrison 

Strategy; Ollie Mustill, Frith Wood 

Creative: Phil Rhodes, William Baxter, Carl Winterbourne, Joseph Cottam  

Digital Delivery; Chris Lloyd 

Digital Experience Agency: The Marketing Store 

Client Service leads: Kristen Lane, Alex Hitchen, Yagna Beltran 

Games Operations leads: Chloe Gatrell, Matthew Page 

Creative, motion, UI & UX leads: Chris Noone, Alex Hall, Phillipa Knight, Alessandra Maccario 

Digital Delivery & Dev leads: Frankie Hitch, Dimith De Alwis, Rowan McMahon, Mark Wong, Eoghan Moran, Sabrina Lamont  

Game AV Production 

Director: Dan French 

Production Company: Stink

Producer: Andrew Rawson 

Executive Producer: Kate Sharpe 

Editor: Jack Singer – Stitch 

Post: Black Kite 

Post Producer: Hannah Jarold 

Colourist: Tom Mangham 

Sound: James Benn @ Harbor 

Food AV Production 

Director: Joy Kilpatrick 

Production Company: Prettybird 

Manager Director/EP: Emily Rudge 

Director of Production: Fiona Bamford-Phillips 

Producer: Jessica Ensor 

Production Manager: Clara Bennett 

Editor: Becca Spaven @ Marshall Street 

Post: Black Kite 

Post Producer: Hannah Jarold 

Colourist: Tom Mangham 

Sound: James Benn @ Harbor 

Stills Production 

Photographer: Robert Billington 

Executive Art Producer: Rachel Wickham 

Photographer Producer: Frede Spencer 

Photographer Agency: Twenty Twenty 

Set Designer: Elena Horn