McDonald’s

MyMcDonald’s Rewards

In the fiercely competitive digital marketplace, McDonald's faced a critical challenge: despite global brand recognition, it lacked the personalized customer relationships needed for sustainable growth. As Creative Director, I led the Experience Design team in the creation of MyMcDonald's Rewards—not merely as a points program, but as a comprehensive platform for building lasting, data-driven customer relationships at unprecedented scale. This initiative would become the cornerstone of McDonald's digital transformation, designed to convert occasional visitors into loyal brand advocates while accelerating adoption across its massive global footprint.

175M

Grew to 175M active members globally in 2024.

30%

Increase in revenue YOY (2023 — 2024.

#1

Created world's fastest-growing loyalty program in food service.

400%

Increased average orders among loyalty users to 4x normal rate.

21M

Enrolled 21M customers in first six months (Jul-Dec 2021).

$30B

Generated $30B in systemwide sales to loyalty members in 2024.

Role

As Creative Director, I directed many aspects of the loyalty program design, providing Visual and UX direction, content strategy, and technical leadership while ensuring the program could scale globally with market-specific customizations.

Task

I was challenged to lead the Experience Design teams to design and launch McDonald's first global loyalty program that would increase digital adoption and drive customer retention.

Action

Co-leading the creative strategy, the team conceptualized a rewards program balancing simplicity with value, designed user-friendly interfaces showing points accumulation, created streamlined onboarding experiences, and integrated loyalty seamlessly within the checkout process.

Result

The program enrolled 21M customers in just six months, grew to 150M active members globally by 2023, generated $20B in systemwide sales, and increased average orders among loyalty users to 4x the normal rate.

Strategic Approach: Agency-Client Partnership

Working in close collaboration with McDonald's Global Product teams, our approach balanced ambition with pragmatism. Together, we mapped customer journeys to identify key moments that could be enhanced through loyalty recognition. Through extensive workshops with McDonald's stakeholders, we aligned on a simple yet powerful value proposition: every dollar spent equals 100 points, creating an intuitive mental model that worked across global markets.

The multi-year partnership thrived through iterative design sprints and user-testing with global markets, where Huge's Experience Design team worked directly with McDonald's marketing, operations, and technology leads. This collaborative process yielded a flexible rewards framework designed to:

  • Accelerate digital adoption by making loyalty a core driver of the mobile experience

  • Create meaningful personalization that improved with each customer interaction

  • Balance immediate rewards with aspirational goals to drive repeat visits

  • Establish a strong first-party data foundation for McDonald's future marketing initiatives

  • Scale across diverse global markets while maintaining operational simplicity for McDonald's franchise system

UX Innovations & User-Centered Solutions

The program's success hinged on seamless integration into existing customer behaviors. We reimagined key touchpoints to showcase loyalty while maintaining the streamlined ordering experience:

  • Designed an intuitive onboarding flow that explained program benefits in under 30 seconds

  • Created a dynamic points dashboard showing real-time earnings and progress toward rewards

  • Developed animated micro-interactions that celebrated point accumulation and redemption moments

  • Integrated loyalty status into the ordering flow, allowing one-tap redemption during checkout

  • Implemented a "points history" feature providing transparency into earning and spending patterns

  • Designed cross-channel recognition systems enabling loyalty identification across ordering methods

Each element was rigorously tested with users across demographics to ensure the program felt valuable and accessible regardless of digital fluency.

Global Implementation & Localization

While the core program architecture remained consistent, we created a flexible design system that allowed for market-specific customizations. Working with global markets, we:

  • Created a customizable marketing component library for localized needs

  • Created design patterns and solutions for in-store Kiosk experiences

  • Established governance frameworks allowing markets to customize offerings while maintaining brand consistency

  • Created implementation playbooks for efficient rollout across McDonald's diverse franchise system

This balanced approach to global standardization with local relevance was crucial to achieving rapid adoption across McDonald's worldwide footprint of 38,000+ restaurants.

McDonald’s Case Studies
(2017 — 2022)

  • Digital Transformation

    Revolutionizing how millions experience the world's largest restaurant brand.

    View Case Study

  • Mobile App Transformation

     Reimagining mobile ordering through frictionless digital experiences.

    View Case Study

  • Global Design System

     Unifying McDonald's global digital presence through systematic design.

    View Case Study