McDonald's Gamifies Its Brand History with Collectible Cards: A New Marketing Masterpiece?

McDonald's Gamifies Its Brand History with Collectible Cards

McDonald's portfolio of distinctive brand assets and promotional levers is something many marketers may envy. Whether it's the iconic Golden Arches, or McDonald's Monopoly, which has run for 20 years in the UK, the fast-food chain has plenty in its wheelhouse to lean on.

It is now hoping to add another iconic fixture to its promotional toolbox with the launch of Cards, a collectible card promotion, designed to tap into the brand's "tapestry of history", as it looks to drive relevance and hit commercial objectives.

Cards launches today (17 March) and gives consumers the chance to collect up to 24 cards across four categories: characters, fans, retro and legendary. These categories span different McDonald's assets, some from the past, some still very much present.

As part of the promotion, McDonald's is resurrecting Ronald McDonald (a brand character it hasn't used for more than two decades) as part of a 25th golden card. There will be 10 golden Ronald cards up for grabs, with the lucky recipients winning £10,000.

I have long-term ambitions of bringing this platform for many, many more years. Hannah Pain, McDonald's UK

Like McDonald's Monopoly, free menu items will also be up for grabs. With each qualifying meal, consumers will get four Cards, one of which contains an instant win, redeemable for a food item.

This new initiative has been two years in the making, with the brand and agency partner Leo UK working to get the proposition right. The brand hopes this will be the first of many "seasons" for Cards, with the promotion cemented among fans of McDonald's.

"I have long-term ambitions of bringing this platform for many, many more years," McDonald's marketing director Hannah Pain tells Marketing Week.

Monopoly has been around for two decades and does an excellent job for the brand, she says, suggesting McDonald's is confident Cards can live alongside it in the same "ecosphere" and deliver more for consumers who love the brand.

McDonald's also wanted to create a promotional activation that leverages its own IP, says Leo UK executive creative director Andrew Long.

"There's such a rich history within the brand. What we tried to do with this game promo versus Monopoly, for example, is really leverage and harness people's relationship with McDonald's," Long notes.

A 'treasure' of distinctive brand assets

From the brief era of McPizza (when McDonald's served pizza), to the brand's first mascot, Speedee, the cards spotlight what McDonald's Pain calls its "treasure trove" of brand assets.

"When you look at the distinctive assets that our brand has, I think sometimes, and probably in the years gone by, we probably haven't maximised that as much as we could have done," she says. "Really cranking that open and looking at the real depths of our brand history has been so much fun."

The ability to create 24 collectible cards with meaningful bits of brand history and present is testament to that "treasure trove", with Leo UK's Long adding that the team actually had to narrow it down from around 50 ideas for cards in the beginning.

A key part of McDonald's strategy as a brand is tapping into consumer memories and associations beyond just its menu, he says.

"When you think about McDonald's, ultimately, it's so much more than a meal, so much more than the food that you eat, it's the memory itself and its experience. It's all the things that you know and love the brand for," Long says.

As one would expect, McDonald's has clear commercial objectives in place for the Cards campaign, Pain notes, but it also aims to build "brand affinity" and continued relevance, as well as "furthering that tapestry of history with a younger audience".

Entering a space with authenticity

Another objective that was top of mind for the team at McDonald's and Leo UK when developing this initiative was to ensure the cards had a level of credibility in the space.

Card collecting is a growing area of interest, with collectibles like Pokémon cards becoming increasingly sought after. This was exemplified last month when YouTuber Logan Paul sold an ultra-rare Pokémon card for a record-breaking $16.5m (£12m).

The collecting culture is becoming stronger, and this was an area McDonald's wanted to enter with credibility.

Even if you haven't been a card collector before, we actually really think that you're probably going to get into it by the time you see these beautiful cards. Hannah Pain, McDonald's UK

"We felt really passionate about entering this world with as much care and consideration and attention to detail as what they expect," Pain says.

The brand collaborated with leading UK collectors Randolph and PokiChloe who helped shape the cards themselves. Collectors of McDonald's cards will also be able to have the collectibles professionally graded and sealed by Randolph's grading company Ace Grading. This means McDonald's cards will be authenticated using the same standards as premium playing cards.

It has also had a long run-up to the launch of the campaign to spend time "bedding it in" with the card community, says Pain.

Mass appeal

For a brand of McDonald's size and scale, engaging with cultural moments coming into the mainstream is important, Pain says. Card collecting is increasingly moving into the mainstream, particularly with Gen Z audiences.

Collector culture won't be a sub-culture that all of McDonald's consumers are aware of, as a large-scale, mass appeal brand, it is obviously a "broad church" in terms of who it appeals to.

While card collecting might not appeal to everyone, free food and £4m worth of cash prizes certainly will, says Pain.

"Even if you haven't been a card collector before, we actually really think that you're probably going to get into it by the time you see these beautiful cards," she adds.

McDonald's is a brand that runs many different promotions, whether long-term platforms or short-term offers.

"The way that this is shaped is very different from a typical food short-term promotion that we're used to running," Pain says.

The brand is going big with this campaign, she says, aiming to make it "unmissable" when it launches. It has already been teasing the launch, and it will be magnifying the campaign across many different channels to drive awareness of the initiative on launch.

The aim is that, in years to come, McDonald's fans remember when they started collecting Cards, Long says.

There has been a lot of work leading up to Cards, and the intention is that today's launch is "very much not a one and done" situation, says Pain.