McDonald’s Earns Title of Most Magnetic Brand Among Gen Z Consumers

From the Grimace shake to celebrity meals, McDonald’s has it down when it comes to attracting 11-to-26-year-old consumers.

By Victoria CampisiStaff Writer

Updated 2:14PM • 12/05/23

McDonald’s claimed the number one spot on this year’s “Most Magnetic Brands” report from research and consulting firm dcdx. And it looks like it has none other than Grimace to thank.

The firm defined brand magnetism as a measure of “the ability of a brand to attract popular and consistent user-generated content” on a zero to 100 scale. The numbers on this scale represented the brand’s “Gen Z score,” which was a measure of how magnetic a brand is with that generation. McDonald’s, the only franchise to make the list, earned a nearly perfect score of 99.3.

This year, the fast-food franchise jumped six spots, largely due to the reintroduction of Grimace, the purple monster that took social media by storm. The Grimace Birthday Meal, which featured a vibrant purple milkshake, led to a significant increase in restaurant traffic and sales. Gen Zers took the campaign and ran with it, spotlighting the shake on TikTok, with the trend garnering 1.4 billion views in a short two weeks.

The report noted that McDonald’s “built a legacy with Gen Z over the past few years on collaborations.” That included a slew of campaigns with celebrity meals featuring Travis Scott and J Balvin. Additionally, the brand introduced the “As Featured In” meals this summer, which featured a collection of menu items that made appearances throughout film, television and music over the years.

Following the success of Grimace, the franchise is banking on the success of another one of its nostalgic mascots: a part-alien, part-robot named CosMc. The brand is launching the new restaurant spinoff CosMc’s, which will be a small format concept with all the DNA of McDonald’s but its own personality, according to CEO Chris Kempczinski.

The success of these campaigns by McDonald’s emphasizes how the franchise industry can utilize social media-friendly tactics to get in Gen Z’s good graces.

Read the full report here.