14 July, London, UK: McDonald’s and Leo UK are launching ‘Here for the Sauce’, a new campaign that invites fans to participate and co-create in their shared love of McDonald’s sauces.
The campaign is built on the fan truth that for many McDonald’s customers, the sauce is not the side, it’s the main event. Launching alongside three new sauces – Korean BBQ, Ranch and Hot Honey – the six-week campaign will run across social, creator content, live activation, TV, OOH, radio and CRM across the UK and Ireland.
From 14th July, sauce will takeover McDonald’s Social channels, spotlighting the real sauce-related behaviours seen across our feeds – from people stockpiling sauce pots to the fans who simply cannot resist licking the lid. The campaign also invites fans to co-create in the campaign via social led moments, including The Sweet Curry Suitcase, based on real fans taking McDonald’s sauce on holiday. The Sweet Curry Suitcase is a limited-edition suitcase shaped like the iconic sauce pot. Content creator and sauce superfan, Luke Hamnett, will co-create content that shows off his very own Sweet Curry Suitcase.
The fan campaign also comes to life in the real world through The Sauce Stop, a live activation built entirely around sauces, giving fans a physical way to participate in their shared love of McDonald’s sauces by building a destination dedicated to their favourite part of the McDonald’s experience.
At the heart of the Here for the Sauce campaign are five TV spots, where Stephen Graham’s voiceover attempts to keep the focus on chicken, but the cameraman is a big fan of sauce. A really big fan of sauce. Directed by Oli Beale, the sauces repeatedly steal the spotlight, with different camera techniques – from pans to focus shifts – pulling attention away from the food and back to the sauces. The result is a playful nod to what McDonald’s fans have always known – the sauce is the real star of the order.
OOH strips the idea back even further, using bold, colourful visuals that hero the sauces in their own right. Rather than showing sauce as an accompaniment, the posters place the dips front and centre, creating a distinctive sauce-led look and feel across nationwide placements. Radio extends the same tension, with 20-second spots that play where Stephen Graham is just your regular sauce-obsessed superfan.
The campaign also heroes McDonald’s limited-time Hot Honey range, the new Hot Honey sauce taking centre stage with the Hot Honey McCrispy, Hot Honey Sausage & Egg McMuffin, Double Hot Honey Sausage & Egg McMuffin and Hot Honey Mini McFlurry.
James Hodson, Creative Director at Leo UK, said: “Whenever I go to McDonald’s, I always think: should I get some food with my sauce? And I am not alone. This campaign is all about letting fans participate in their shared love of sauces, giving them the platform to co-create with the brand. It’s a big idea that’s poured across every possible channel and touchpoint, like sauce over McNuggets.”
Hannah Pain, Marketing Director at McDonald’s UK, said: “McDonald’s fans have always had a special relationship with our sauces – for some, they’re the best part of the order. With Korean BBQ, Ranch and Hot Honey joining the line-up, this felt like the perfect moment to put sauces centre stage and celebrate a part of the McDonald’s experience our customers really love. For fans who can’t get enough of Hot Honey, they’ll find it popping up across a selection of menu favourites for a limited time this summer too.”
The campaign was a collaboration by McDonald’s agency partners: creative was handled by Leo UK. Media planning and buying was managed by OMD. PR, event and influencer management was handled by Red Consultancy. Production was handled by DROOL.
