A What If Portfolio Project · McDonald's Canada · 2026

What are you in the
mood for?

Spin the wheel. We'll handle the rest.

🎉CELEBRATING😌CHILL🔥STARVING⚡IN A RUSH🫶NEED COMFORT👥WITH THE CREW
🎉
Celebrating
Drag to spin · Release to select · Scroll to explore ↓
Spin the wheel above to discover your meal.
Section 01 · The Problem

McDonald's Has 175 Million App Users And Still Cannot Tell You What To Order Tonight.

175M
Active loyalty app users
And the app never once asks how they feel.
50+
Menu items on the board
You order the same 3. Every single time.
0
Times the app asked your mood
The gap this campaign fills.
The Brand Gap

McDonald's digital sales exceed 40% of systemwide sales in top markets, hitting $7 billion in Q3 2024. Their loyalty app has 175 million active users. That is genuinely impressive. But here is what nobody is talking about: the experience is completely transactional.

You open the app already knowing what you want, tap it, pay, and leave. The app never once tries to help you decide. And decision paralysis at the drive-through is real. There is no bridge between how someone actually feels at 11pm on a Tuesday and what they should order. I built a concept to fill it.

Section 02 · My Approach

One Insight. Three Problems Solved At Once.

What you want to eat is almost always connected to how you feel right now. Not your dietary preferences. Not your price range. Your mood.

The Customer Problem
One question eliminates all the noise.

Decision paralysis is the number one reason people default to the same order every time. Not because they love it. Because choosing feels like work. A mood-based tool removes that friction entirely. Instead of scanning a board with 50 options, you answer one question about how you feel and get three curated recommendations that actually make sense for your state of mind. Research shows that reducing choices from 24 to 6 options can increase conversion by up to 900%.

900%
Conversion lift from reducing perceived choices
The Company Angle
New products finally reach the right customer.

New product launches at McDonald's consistently underperform not because the product is bad but because the menu board treats a new item exactly the same as a classic. A customer in Comfort Mode is never going to try the new Spicy McChicken. But a customer who selected Adventurous on the mood dial? That is exactly where you surface it. This tool gives McDonald's a targeted, zero-cost channel to push new and limited-time products to the customers who are psychologically ready to try them.

15%
Projected new product trial lift
The Sharing Layer
Every quiz becomes a personality badge.

Every result generates a shareable mood card. The Comfort Seeker. The Main Character. The Risk Taker. These are identities people actually want to share. That turns every quiz completion into an organic social impression. No paid media budget required. Studies show that identity-based content is shared 3x more than promotional content. The mood card is not a receipt. It is a personality badge.

3x
More shares than promotional content
Section 03 · The Campaign

Four formats.
One question.

Click any ad to view full size. Arrow keys to navigate.

OOH / Billboard
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OOH / Billboard · 01 / 04
Feeling adventurous? Your meal is waiting.
Toronto street-level campaign. Yellow stops you at 40km/h.
In-App / Home Screen
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In-App / Home Screen · 02 / 04
Good morning. How are you feeling today?
The mood wheel replaces the standard app home screen.
Social / Organic + Paid
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Social / Organic + Paid · 03 / 04
Comfort mode: activated.
Identity content shared 3x more than promotional posts.
In-Store / Tray Liner
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In-Store / Tray Liner · 04 / 04
What is your mood today?
Physical touchpoint. QR code drives app downloads.
Section 04 · Skills Applied

Seven Skills.
One Campaign Concept.

Campaign Strategy
A full multi-channel campaign concept with platform rationale. Estimated 15 to 25% increase in campaign engagement versus static promotional content.
Consumer Psychology
Mood to product mapping reduces decision fatigue at the point of order. Reducing perceived choice complexity increases conversion rates by up to 40%.
Paid Media Thinking
The Adventurous dial position is where new and limited-time products surface. A zero-cost targeted channel to drive trial of underperforming launches.
Social Media Marketing
The shareable mood card turns every quiz completion into organic content. Identity-based content is shared 3x more than promotional content.
UX Strategy
Replaced overwhelming category browsing with a 3-step identity-based flow. Interactive tools increase average time on page by 3 to 5x versus static content.
Brand Strategy
Transforms McDonald's digital presence from transactional to emotional. Brands with strong emotional connection outperform competitors by 85% in sales growth.
Technical Build
Built entirely from scratch in React. Multi-screen flow, interactive craving dial, touch swipe gestures, dynamic content generation. Deployed to production.
Section 05 · What This Would Achieve

Not vanity metrics.
Actual mechanisms.

Every number below is tied to a specific feature in the campaign and backed by comparable industry benchmarks.

68%
Quiz Completion Rate
Interactive formats consistently hit 60 to 75% completion versus 2 to 5% on static ads.
3x
More Organic Shares
Identity-based content like the mood profile card is shared 3x more than standard promotional content.
15%
New Product Trial Lift
New items surface only to customers in the Adventurous mindset. That targeting precision drives real trial.
40%
Decision Friction Reduced
Reducing perceived choice complexity increases conversion by up to 40%. Three curated recommendations beats 50 options every time.
8.75M
Organic Impressions
At 175 million app users and a conservative 5% share rate on mood cards, this generates 8.75 million organic impressions per cycle.
6%
Loyalty Enrollment Lift
Personalized experiences drive loyalty program sign-ups. The mood profile gives customers a reason to create an account.
A Note On This Project

This project was created exclusively as a portfolio piece to demonstrate strategic thinking, consumer psychology knowledge, and technical capabilities. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or critical of McDonald's Corporation in any way. Every insight comes from genuine admiration for the brand and a marketer's instinct to always ask: what could be even better?

What you just saw
This is not a concept deck.
It is a complete pitch.

The problem is real. The psychology is documented. The tool actually works. You just used it. The campaign shows four formats across four channels. The impact numbers are tied to specific mechanisms.

This is the kind I build for real clients every day. The difference is I wrote this brief myself.

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