McDonald's
We designed and built a gamified experience for McDonald's McValue launch. A personalised card game built around Black Gen-Z lifestyle moments. 703K visitors. 3.6M impressions. Idea to launch in 8 weeks.
McDonald's wanted to reach Black Gen-Z with their McValue menu in a way that drove real engagement. By Default worked with REVOLT as its embedded creative agency partner to develop the concept, creative strategy, art direction, game design, and development, delivering the campaign from idea to launch in 8 weeks.
We designed and built a gamified memory card game that matched users to a personalised McValue combo meal based on their lifestyle and rewarded them with a promo voucher.
Gen-Z consumers don't engage with content that talks at them. They engage with content that reflects how they see themselves. Research consistently shows this generation's purchasing decisions are tied to identity and self-expression. A generic interest quiz wouldn't capture that, and a standard promotional unit wouldn't earn time from an audience that scrolls past most branded content by default.
The campaign needed to feel native to how Black Gen-Z actually live, not broad demographic categories that could apply to anyone.
The original brief suggested matching cards by broad interests like music and food preferences. We pushed the strategy further toward lifestyle moments, specific to how Black Gen-Z audiences actually live.
We designed eight lifestyle moments across four categories. Each one paired with a McValue combo that matched the energy of that moment. The audience picks their lifestyle. The game matches their meal. 44% of Gen-Z are willing to trade personal data for a more tailored experience. We gave them one worth trading for.
The experience launched as an interactive memory card game with personalised combo matching, a promo voucher reward, and a social-ready result screen built for sharing. Menus, sound cues, and scoreboards turned the promotion into a moment of discovery and self-expression rather than a static unit.
The campaign generated 3.6M impressions and 703K unique visitors in four weeks. 46K interaction clicks landed at a 6.5% interaction rate, 442% higher than average. Idea to launch in 8 weeks.
"By Default has been an ongoing creative extension of our department. Their ability to blend art direction with functionality ensures that every project strikes the balance between creativity and audience engagement. They don't just meet creative standards. They set new ones." — REVOLT Media