Morning with You: McDonald's Breakfast Menu

McDonald’s aimed to reclaim its position as the go-to breakfast destination by first stopping the bleeding across all consumer segments.



Despite its strong legacy, McDonald’s was losing relevance among mobile-first Asian American consumers. With a diverse and fast-growing population, Asian American Gen Z and Millennials have distinct cultural values and digital habits who no longer made breakfast decisions based solely on proximity or promotions.



QSR breakfast market is saturated and competitive, with brands competing for consumer attention during brief, high-stakes decision periods. For McDonald’s, the challenge was to reestablish relevance in the morning segment—moving away from price-based promotions to emotionally impactful and culturally relevant storytelling that connects consumers



To address this, we leveraged cultural insights research with media consumption and QSR behavioral studies, revealing that breakfast decisions clustered around two key dayparts: late-night planning (9 PM–4 AM) and morning commutes (4 AM–11 AM). We also uncovered a strong emotional connection to family rituals and storytelling, particularly within digital comic platforms that young Asian American consumers love, binge on and are addicted to. From Admerasia’s Asian media consumption research data, anime and comics are top-ranking content categories among Asian Americans during the commute and late-night downtime.



To effectively connect with young Asian Americans, a partnership between McDonald’s and Webtoon was born! “Mornings with You,” a branded 3-episode comic series celebrating family, morning rituals, and cultural identity was launched.