McDonald's Netherlands Activates Family Mode in Joyful Campaign

On April 4th, the commercial for the new McDonald’s Family campaign in The Netherlands went live. The campaign touches on a familiar topic: with the everyday hustle and bustle of work, school, sports classes and hobbies, true quality time with family can sometimes get lost. The family restaurant chain is providing more time together by putting both the Restaurants and McDonald's App in 'Family Mode'. The campaign was developed in collaboration with creative agencies TBWA\NEBOKO and TBWA\X and is live until June 4th.

The campaign kicks off with a TVC that follows Cas, a cool 17-year-old who loves to hang out with his friends and go to McDonald's. He orders a Happy Meal and is teased by his friends, but he cherishes the storybook and shares it with his sister before she falls asleep.

Erik Falke, executive creative director TBWA\NEBOKO, "Getting a Happy Meal as a child is an experience that stays with you. With this film, we chose to tell this story through an adolescent who has long outgrown the Happy Meal. However, its effect has not been forgotten." 

The commercial is directed by Ismael ten Heuvel from production company Pink Rabbit.

Where the TVC is all about a teenager ordering a Happy Meal for his little sister, the iconic Happy Meal smile has taken up his role as a connecter in outdoor as well. Showing how a Happy Meal brings families together by literally connecting them.

With this campaign, McDonald's is responding to an increasingly busy society in which quality time with family is becoming scarcer. McDonald’s wants to play a connecting and facilitating role, which is both done in the Restaurants and the McDonald's App, with Family Mode. This part in the McDonald's App is especially built for families and designed for more quality time. Here families can create personal Family Avatars, listen to Happy Meals read-aloud booklets, and play 'Play Mat': a McDonald’s placemat that you can turn into an interactive and educational boardgame by laying your phone on top of it. Roll the dice with your phone and move the pawn around the board.

Karin van Prooijen, marketing manager media and campaigns, McDonald's Netherlands, "Eating is, of course, the moment when you come together as a family, which is such a great opportunity to make that moment even more fun. We do that in the first place with our menus, but with Family Mode in the App we take it one step further."

The campaign runs from April 4th to June 4th and will run through outdoor and radio, in addition to the TV commercial.