McDonald’s on Monday unveiled McDonald’s > NEXT, a new strategic plan built to push growth and productivity at the fast-food chain while it leans harder into menu innovation, restaurant changes and marketing built around fans. The move comes as the company keeps posting growth but is still fighting tougher competition and persistent economic pressure.
The timing matters because McDonald’s has now logged four straight quarters of same-store sales growth, giving it room to press ahead even as rivals crowd the field. The company is not treating that momentum as a reason to coast. Instead, it is trying to turn its brand into something customers feel they belong to, not just something they buy from.
That push runs through the way McDonald’s talks about its customers now. Morgan Flatley said customers today do not just want to see the brand, they want to feel part of it, and said the chain is creating brand-led content and co-creating with fans to reach people in relevant and personalized ways. In practice, that has meant social campaigns that travel far beyond the restaurant counter, from billions of views on TikTok tied to a birthday promotion for Grimace to consumer posts that helped hype the return of the Snack Wrap and a reality TV-inspired campaign celebrating employees.
The company’s marketing team says it wants to keep doubling down on what it sees as pockets of culture, including fandoms around The Minecraft Movie, BTS, the Grinch, gaming, anime and sneakers. Amanda Mulligan said McDonald’s does not just insert itself for clout and does not simply bolt on a celebrity partnership for the sake of it. The goal, she said, is to build ideas around a fan truth, a shared ritual, behavior or memory that already binds customers together.
That mindset also shaped a recent collaboration with Nike and NBA star Devin Booker on the Nike Book 2 McDonald’s sneaker. Booker reached out last year about the partnership, which drew on his time as a McDonald’s All American in high school and his affection for the chain’s Sedona, Arizona, location with turquoise arches. McDonald’s called the tie-up an obvious yes and backed it with a scavenger hunt that placed real-world clues across social media.
The friction for McDonald’s is that all of this expansion is happening while it is still working through economic pressure and a more crowded market. The company says it is innovating its menu, reimagining restaurants and redefining hospitality, but it has not yet spelled out which new items will appear under McDonald’s > NEXT. For now, the clearest promise is not a single product but a strategy: keep the brand close to culture, keep the menu moving and keep customers coming back for the next thing.
