Modern Marketing Awards Case Studies Brand Strategy

Inside McDonald’s recreation of its famous jingle for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

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By Awards Analyst | writer

December 9, 2022 | 5 min read

The Ready 10 agency won at The Drum Awards for Content 2022 in the Best Integrated Campaign and Most Innovative or Creative Use of Content, categories for its McDonalds ‘One's Lovin’ It’ campaign. Below we outline how this celebratory campaign was brought to life.

McDonald's "One Lovin' It" campaign

McDonald's "One Lovin' It" campaign

In conjunction with the Queen’s 70th Platinum Jubilee celebrations, McDonald’s and the 10 Group merged the British icon with the fast-food icon to repurpose their catchy “I’m lovin’ it” jingle into a majestic ditty that highlighted the royal celebration as well as the fast-food giant.

The brief

McDonald’s wanted to support their official partnership of Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant with a campaign that would unite audiences during the iconic cultural event, as well as pay homage to the ultimate British icon, The Queen. They also needed to increase conversation and engagement to their app, as well as their restaurants through owned and earned channels. To accomplish this they needed a playful, engaging campaign that would not only address paid media, but sweep across social channels.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The idea

McDonald’s official partnership with the Platinum Jubilee allowed them to play an important role in such a memorable event in British history. Their goal was to ensure themselves a spot in the center of the Jubilee action with a sequence of unforgettable activations to celebrate the iconic Queen’s 70 years of service.

With the insight that their tagline “I’m lovin’ it” was also extremely iconic, they decided to go bold and create a royal makeover of their musical theme for the entirety of the Jubilee marketing campaign, with the spotlight centered on their temporary tagline switch. The enlisted the help of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to lead the melodic theme to grandiose heights and teased the upcoming content with cryptic social posts of the sheet music.

To make the campaign even more memorable, they temporarily renamed the 'Quarter Pounder with Cheese' to the 'Royale with Cheese' and sold the menu item for only 99p. Memorabilia also became part of the campaign initiative with 70 limited-edition commemorative sets of the brand’s packaging available as a competition on the McDonald’s App, as well as McDonald’s packaging recreated in bone china with Platinum Pageant details.

The results

The regal jingle enveloped the country and quickly became a building story with coverage sweeping across social media and other earned channels. After gaining even more social media coverage by delivering food and merchandise to royal ‘super fans’ camped outside of Buckingham Palace, they gifted King Charles former butler with a bone china gift set, with both gestures earning them tens of thousands more social shares.

A national journalist accurately commented that “McDonald’s has won the Jubilee with this campaign”. It was deemed a monumental success with over 1.63 million total impressions across owned social channels.

This campaign was a winner at The Drum Awards for Content 2022. You can see all the winners here. The Drum Awards for Marketing are currently open for entry. Find out how you can enter now.

Modern Marketing Awards Case Studies Brand Strategy

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