Admit it. You never heard of Cactus Plant Flea Market before McDonald’s attached it to its “adult Happy Meal” promotion in October. The streetwear brand may have been popular with the celebrity set but it wasn’t exactly a household name when the burger giant made it the centerpiece of one of its most notable promotions.
The Cactus Plant Flea Market Box featured a Big Mac, 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, fries and a drink and one of four, four-eyed figurines, including Grimace and the Hamburglar.
The lack of familiarity didn’t keep the meal from becoming a massive hit. The box tapped into nostalgia for the Happy Meals consumers enjoyed as kids. And it proved just how strong McDonald’s marketing is right now.
Same-store sales, already brimming from a summer buoyed by another marketing promotion, Camp McDonald’s, hit the double digits. And they drove traffic to the chain while helping to lift the entire quick-service restaurant sector.
“We knew we were onto something,” Jennifer Healan, VP of U.S. marketing, brand content and engagement at the Chicago-based burger giant, said in an interview. “But it was wild.”
Cactus Plant followed a succession of marketing wins for McDonald’s dating back to 2020, when the company introduced its Famous Orders platform featuring the musician Travis Scott.
Just about everything the brand has tried since then has worked, pulling sales and distancing the chain from its competitors. McDonald’s has averaged quarterly same-store sales of nearly 9% since the Famous Orders platform was introduced, at least 140 basis points higher than its nearest fast-food burger competitor.
More than anything, in other words, McDonald’s marketing and its relationship with consumers have pulled the company out of the pandemic.
“If you’re having to look with the microscope to see the impact of marketing on your [profit-and-loss statement], then it’s not big enough,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors in October. “And I think what we’re starting to see our marketing programs show up as significant comp drivers for us. That gives us confidence that we’re finding the right engagement with our consumer.”
McDonald’s in 2019 selected Wieden+Kennedy to lead its U.S. creative efforts. The pandemic happened a few months later. And then the company invested $200 million in global marketing, half of which was dedicated to the U.S., believing it could capture market share in a sales recovery.
The burger giant shifted its voice to focus on what Healan calls “fan truths.” The company began using social media to listen to its biggest fans and talk with them in “very authentic and culturally relevant ways.”
“We’re in the business of storytelling,” Healan said. “As we continue to make McDonald’s a cultural icon, marketing has been seen and is a growth driver for the business.”
“We have evolved from short-term promotional LTO windows to a longer form of storytelling through platform ideas that are bigger and bolder,” she added.
The first major campaign to demonstrate this was the Travis Scott meal in 2020, when the company put Scott’s name on its menu, a rare event for one of the company’s sponsorship.
The meal itself was nothing particularly unique—it featured a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, bacon and lettuce, along with a Sprite and fries, all for $6. That was deliberate.
“They’re rooted in things already on the menu,” Healan said. “The Travis Scott meal. You can still get it today. We are able to talk about our core menus, just in a different way.”
That’s key in marketing. Find new ways to talk about things you already do. It certainly helps with operations, because franchisees don’t have to learn how to make something they already do today. But it also helps the company relate with its customers. See? Travis Scott goes to McDonald’s too!
The meal worked, and almost too well. Customers stole posters and sold them on eBay. Some stores sold three times the number of meals they expected. Others ran out of product, such as lettuce, beef and bacon. “Some restaurants had so many fans stop by, they’re temporarily running out of key ingredients,” the company said in a memo at the time.
The success of the promotion helped McDonald’s sales recover from its pandemic weakness.
McDonald’s continued its “Famous Orders” platform over the subsequent months, featuring J Balvin, Saweetie and the Korean boy band BTS. The company also did one with Mariah Carey last Christmas called “12 Days of Deals.”
All these deals have featured a heavy digital presence, but they are increasingly driving customers toward the company’s mobile app and its loyalty program called MyMcDonald’s Rewards.
The burger giant has been working to convince customers to use its mobile app with greater frequency. The “12 Days of Deals” effort included offers that could only be accessed through that app. That has continued with much of the chain’s other marketing since then.
“That’s where Gen Z is,” Healan said. “We need to be where they are. Digital-led is super important to us.”
There is a practical benefit to these programs: Promotions that run through the app can encourage customers to come into the restaurants without giving discounts to people that would come in, otherwise.
And the efforts appear to be working. The company’s “Camp McDonald’s” promotion over the summer was apparently a big hit, lifting the chain’s sales over the summer. Franchisees we had spoken with were surprised by the level of sales and traffic they saw in the third quarter this year.
McDonald’s current promotion has also directed customers to its mobile app. “SZN of Sharing” features deals in the three weeks leading up to Christmas on the mobile app, including 50-cent Double Cheeseburgers, buy-one, get-one Big Macs or chicken sandwiches and free Chicken McNuggets.
Its centerpiece, however, is the legendary “McGold Card.” Customers have a chance to win the card, featuring free McDonald’s for life, which they can share with three friends.
It was a lesson in listening to customers. “That idea bubbled up through fan conversation around the mystery of the McGold card,” Healan said. “It’s something our fans have truly talked about.”
we have a joke about our soft serve machine but we're worried it won't work
— McDonald's (@McDonalds) August 11, 2020
But it’s McDonald’s voice that has truly changed. The above tweet is a perfect example.
Not long ago, the idea of mocking one’s own problems was not in the corporate lexicon. And McDonald’s, a company that has traditionally been cautious in its marketing, certainly didn’t seem like a likely candidate to make fun of its own, controversial history with its ice cream machine. But that tweet perhaps encapsulates the company’s new voice.
While the chain isn’t exactly Wendy’s, it’s much more willing to poke fun at itself. “Our voice has evolved,” Healan said. “We’re like a superfan talking to superfans. There is a sense of wit and fun and a sense of self-deprecation.”
And it was one of these very tweets that led to the adult Happy Meals.
i was not planning to cry today but thank you 🥺
— guillaumehuin (@HuinGuillaume) November 24, 2020
As the reply above indicates, the tweet generated an emotional response among the chain’s customers. That response would eventually lead to the company’s Cactus Plant Flea Market box and that strong run of October sales and traffic.
It also generated the highest number of weekly digital transactions the U.S. business has ever had. The figurines found themselves on eBay for sale for thousands of dollars in some cases.
“The business results were phenomenal,” Healan said. “It just sparked this cultural conversation.” And the customers did a lot of the work for McDonald’s, posting on TikTok and creating fan art. “It wasn’t us doing any of it,” she said.
As for Healan, unlike us she had heard of Cactus Plant Flea Market before, thanks to celebrity culture. But a lot more people have heard of it now, thanks to that Happy Meal.