McDonald’s is changing how it approaches marketing and turning its customer ecosystem into a potential advertising business.
At its September 2026 Investor Day, McDonald’s announced that it is piloting the McDonald’s Media Network across 450 company-owned U.S. restaurants. The network will allow brands to advertise through McDonald’s owned channels, including its app, kiosks, digital menu boards and restaurants. The company says it aims to eventually build the network into a $1 billion business.
What’s changing?
McDonald’s new model combines three major areas:
Retail/commerce media: Monetizing its owned digital and physical customer touchpoints.
First-party data: Connecting ordering, marketing, loyalty and customer data through a unified digital foundation.
Fan-led marketing: Creating larger campaigns that can be amplified organically by customers and creators.
The company is also moving toward fewer, larger campaigns, while increasing investment in longer-running brand programs around taste, quality and value.
Why marketers should pay attention
McDonald’s move reflects a broader shift toward owned-media ecosystems. Brands with large customer bases, apps, loyalty programs and digital touchpoints can increasingly use those assets not only for marketing their own products, but also as advertising platforms.
McDonald’s says its digital infrastructure now brings together ordering, marketing, loyalty and data, creating a foundation designed to support personalization and emerging channels such as conversational commerce.
The bigger takeaway: The boundary between a brand, a retailer and a media company is becoming increasingly blurred. McDonald’s is now testing whether its direct customer relationships and first-party data can become a new source of advertising revenue.