The Golden Zone
McDonald’s · 2026
1 award: Cannes
Strategic insight
Peak attention in sports fandom isn't around the event, it's inside it. By syncing commerce to the split-second moments where fan focus collapses into a single point on track, McDonald's moved from sponsorship visibility to unavoidable participation.
The Format
A mobile-native gamified layer that lives inside the McDonald's app and triggers only during live race moments. The format itself—time-bound offers tied to real-world track events—is inseparable from the strategic idea and generates the participation mechanic.
Business Result
Drove +7% incremental daily sales during race days with 54,450 guest counts, app downloads grew +42% in Brazil, and active users on race days reached 2.3M (+19% growth), while brand health metrics improved including +1.66M awareness and +1.0pp lift on enjoyability attribute to 65.5%.
