Goals

McDonald’s has been a major player in India’s quick-service restaurant landscape since entering the market in 1996. With more than 500 outlets, McDonald’s has driven growth through localized menu innovations, quality supply chain investments, and technology-enhanced customer experiences. McDonald’s India’s success stems from adapting their global brand to Indian tastes—with a strong vegetarian focus, regional flavors, and culturally relevant marketing while delivering consistent quality, service, and value. These efforts have helped the brand maintain strong consumer loyalty and scale in a competitive market.

While Indians love McDonald’s classics, they are increasingly drawn to global trends. With increasing popularity of Korean culture in India, from BTS to K-dramas and now food, McDonald’s saw an opportunity to bring Korean flavors into their familiar favorites. The “Make Your Favorites Korean” campaign reimagined iconic burgers like McAloo Tikki and McSpicy with a Korean twist, while introducing new sides like Korean Shake Shake Fries and Korean Yuzu Pop, creating a full Korean-inspired menu that was both exciting and accessible.

Approach

To bring this idea to life, McDonald's collaborated with Amazon MX Player, India’s leading free ad-supported video streaming service. The collaboration leveraged Amazon MX Player’s extensive library of international content under the “Vdesi” banner. With 200+ Korean and international titles dubbed or subtitled in Indian languages, Amazon MX Player offered the perfect cultural backdrop for products inspired by Korean flavors. The campaign strategy focused on reaching active viewers of Korean content, tapping into the growing popularity of K-dramas and K-pop in India and creating a seamless bridge between the Korean content audiences were watching and the Korean-inspired menu they could now try.

McDonald's utilized a diverse mix of ad formats and placements on Amazon MX Player to maximize awareness and engagement. This included a branded carousel on the Amazon MX Player homepage for top-of-mind recall, a hero banner on the Vdesi content homepage to reach users actively browsing international content, and an IPL cricket matches live ticker on the hero banner to capture user attention during peak cricket watching moments. The campaign also incorporated pre- and mid-roll video ads, as well as interstitial (full-screen) display ads placed seamlessly between streaming sessions to strengthen consideration.

Pre-roll and mid-roll video ads embedded in Vdesi content titles

Results

Across the 7-week campaign, McDonald’s achieved over 200 million ad impressions and reached over 48 million users.¹ The campaign strategically deployed multiple ad formats across Amazon MX Player to maximize both awareness and performance outcomes. Integrated ads proved highly effective, generating 27 million impressions with a 1.66% CTR that outperformed industry benchmarks by 1.7x—a clear indicator of strong message resonance with relevant audiences.² Interstitial placements contributed 4.8 million impressions at a 1.3% CTR, representing a notable 30% performance uplift compared to industry benchmarks.³ Meanwhile, masthead placements delivered 10.4 million impressions with a 0.32% CTR, exceeding industry benchmark expectations by 7%.⁴ The campaign's centerpiece was the Branded Carousel format, which achieved exceptional scale with over 163 million impressions, reaching 38 million users.⁵ This innovative placement—specifically developed to drive mass awareness for the national launch—secured a premium 4-week fixed position on the homepage, ensuring immediate visibility within the first 1–2 scrolls and maximizing discoverability as users explored content.

Sources

^1–5 Amazon Internal Data, India, 2025.