Ninety percent 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 among the top 10 most magnetic brands for Gen Z — surpassing Sephora, NFL, and Starbucks.  

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 jobs are to make McDonald's cool to Gen Zers. 

Meet the Masters

Nathaniel Gaynor

Brand marketing manager, McDonald's

Anna Engel 
Director of brand, content, and culture, McDonald's

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." 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." For instance, they might create a narrative or an anime poster for a campaign.

They've also created an entirely separate Gen Z marketing team because, as Engel explained, "Gen Z is driving culture. And our ambition is to continue to be a cultural icon."

Connect with your customers in the wild. 

Every year, one of McDonald's agencies takes a road trip. "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 February 2024 WcDonald's campaign — a nod to McDonald's anime and manga fans that 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. As Engel puts it, "We break outside the four walls of McDonald's to connect with our fans in the wild. It's important for us to understand the universe they live in, what their interests are, and who they are outside of McDonald's."

While you might not be able to orchestrate a Fan Truth Road Trip for your brand, the lesson works for all marketers: To fully understand your customers, you need to meet them outside the confines of your marketing efforts. What else do they enjoy, and how can your brand show up there, too? 

Be fan-led.

"Where we haven't hit the right note in the past is when we haven't been fan-led," Gaynor told me. "Now, we let our fans guide the way to our next big idea. It's our job to embrace them and live in their creative universe and speak to them. And when we do that, we succeed."

Engel echoes his point and explains that another past mistake was not being data-driven enough in their campaign approach. "We can build great brand relevance campaigns. But if it doesn't link to something tangible in the restaurant for the fans to purchase, touch, feel, eat, then it's not going to be a business driver."

Because ultimately, Engel and Gaynor's main goal isn't just to seem cool to the 22-year-olds on Fortnite — it's to drive sales. And if that just so happens to entail anime, fashion, or artwork, so be it.

A version of this interview originally ran in February 2025.