90% of the U.S. population has eaten at a McDonald’s over the past year.

Whether a Big Mac is your drunk go-to, or you like to bribe your kids with Happy Meals on long car rides, the point holds: McDonald‘s is one of the most popular and long-lasting brands we’ve got.

We all take it for granted. Except maybe we shouldn’t.

There‘s a reason McDonald’s ranks belgium telegram data among the top 10 most magnetic brands for Gen Z — surpassing Sephora, NFL, and Starbucks.

And it’s not the nostalgia factor… At least, not entirely.

To get to the bottom of this, I sat down with two experts — Anna Engel, Director of brand, content, and culture at McDonald‘s, and Nathaniel Gaynor, Brand marketing manager at McDonald’s — whose full-time job is to make McDonald’s cool to Gen Zers.

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Lesson 1: Marketing should be symbiotic.

Engel thinks of campaign elements — whether it’s a new food item, a digital campaign element, or a social media post — as “ingredients.”

Of course she does.

And what she loves about Gen Z is how  they‘ve created a symbiotic relationship with McDonald’s campaign “ingredients”. Engel‘s team doesn’t just create content for Gen Z. Gen Z creates content for them, too.

As Engel told me, Gen Zers often take brand ingredients and “create something new with them — that’s what excites us and motivates us,” she says. “For instance, they might create a narrative or an anime poster for a campaign… Things like that.”

Let’s also address the elephant in the room — why have they created an entirely separate Gen Z marketing team?

Because “Gen Z is driving culture,“ Engel explained to me. ”And our ambition is to continue to be a cultural icon.”

Lesson 2: Connect with your customers in the wild.

Every year, one of McDonald’s agencies what is a mastermind group? guide for entrepreneurs takes a road trip. (Wholesome, I know.)

“The Fan Truth Road Trip helps us understand who our fans are and why they connect with our brand,” Gaynor says. “We see our fans pulling our brand into many different parts of culture — whether that’s anime, fashion, art, or gaming.”

Engel and Gaynor’s team then takes these learnings to create authentic experiences for their Gen Z fans.

Consider the Feb 2024 “WcDonald’s united kingdom cell number campaign.” The campaign was a nod to McDonald’s anime and manga fans, and included a limited-edition menu, Japanese manga-themed packaging, a four-episode anime series, and an interactive experience in L.A.

Along with McDonald’s restaurants, the agency visits college campuses, malls, movie theaters, and parks, too.

As Engel puts it, “We break outside the four walls of McDonald’s to connect with our fans in the wild.”