After 15 years, the #1 game in the world, Minecraft, was finally getting its own feature-length live-action movie. As a brand that continually champions creativity and storytelling, McDonald’s saw the movie release as the perfect opportunity to connect with a multi-generational fanbase.

 

Minecrafters have been bringing McDonald’s into their game worlds for years, building blocky restaurants and the Golden Arches in their villages. So McDonald’s wanted to create an experience for fans that would unleash their creativity and give them the tools to build with the brand.

 

At the heart of this effort was a simple idea: McDonald’s and Minecraft are both yours to build.

With movie partnerships, many brands take a standard route combining logos and IP together. But our aim was to go deeper, handing over the controller to our fans and creating an interactive experience. We equipped fans with the tools to build; through bespoke packaging, collectibles that gave you in-game skins, content that unlocked creativity and offered McDonald’s IP as a canvas.

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Every piece of the packaging was blockified–everything from a life-sized golden bundle box to the fries and soda cup made over in the distinct Minecraft look. Each meal came with 1 out of 6 specialty collectibles, based on rare items in the game and at McDonald’s. Each collectible came with a special trading card and code, giving fans access to unlock the corresponding Minecraft skin to wear in the game.

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Our TVCs brought these meals to life, merging the Minecraft and McDonald’s worlds into one. Jared Hess, the director of A Minecraft Movie, also directed our films, and built on our Minecraft references with his own. The result was the immersive world of A Minecraft Movie brought to life, with McDonald’s at the center of the story.

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​​​Results:

Most successful campaign in McDonald’s history, selling out collectibles within 10 days and lifting visits 3% from Gen Z & Gen A.

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A Minecraft Movie Meal delivered $128MM in sales, setting the record for McDonald’s campaigns to date. 

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                              On social media, our assets generated 36.4M Social Impressions, with 155.5K Social Mentions of fans creating their own                                     content reacting and creating with our campaign.

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                                                          Deadline pointed to our campaign as a key contributor to the success of the movie, referencing the multiple                                 memes that our fans created using the McDonald’s meal.

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Fans created trading communities on Reddit and TikTok to trade their collectibles and Minecraft skins.