After 15 years, the #1 game in the world, Minecraft, was finally getting its own feature-length live-action movie. A game known for its low-fi graphics, blocky characters, and open-world format, Minecrafters were beyond excited to see their world come to life.
As a brand that continually champions creativity and storytelling, McDonald’s saw the movie release as the perfect opportunity to connect with a multi-generational fanbase. Minecrafters have been bringing McDonald’s into their worlds for years, building blocky restaurants and the Golden Arches in their villages. So for this partnership, McDonald’s wanted to create an experience for fans that would unleash their creativity and give them the tools to build with the brand.
At the heart of this effort was a simple idea: McDonald’s and Minecraft are both yours to build.
Our aim for this campaign was to hand over the controller to our fans, so we designed every aspect of the campaign to be playable.
Every piece of the packaging needed to be collectible, blockifying everything from the fry box to the soda cup into the distinct Minecraft look. The meal bundle box was particularly designed with building in mind, a life-size golden McDs block. Each meal came with 1 out of 6 specialty collectibles, based on rare items in the game and at McDonald’s. And each collectible came with a special trading card and code, giving fans access to unlock the corresponding Minecraft skin to wear in the game.
The Happy Meal boxes looked like faces of creatures (or mobs) from Minecraft: a Bee, Pink Sheep, and a Creeper. The boxes included fun elements that popped out of the traditional box shape for a 3D effect, and the Happy Meal toys portrayed scenes and characters from A Minecraft Movie that could be connected together.
Our TVCs brought these meals to life, merging the Minecraft and McDonald’s worlds into one. Jared Hess, the director of A Minecraft Movie, also directed our films, and built on our Minecraft references with his own. The result was the immersive world of A Minecraft Movie brought to life, with McDonald’s at the center of the story.
The Minecraft Movie Meal was received immensely well, selling out in under two weeks in major markets. Globally, Minecraft fans flooded the restaurants with their friends, holding formal unboxing ceremonies and wearing Happy Meal Creeper hats. Online, through TikTok comments and Reddit posts, they created trading communities, swapping Grimace Egg collectibles for Zombie Hamburgulars and Soda Potion Minecraft skins for Cheeseburger Crystal suits. Even Deadline pointed to our campaign as a key contributor to the success of the movie, referencing the multiple memes that our fans created using the McDonald’s meal.
