The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024
McDonald's Japan turns a cult radio show into in-store nights — ACC 2024 Media Grand Prix
For its after-5pm Yoru Mac menu, McDonald's Japan had comedy duo Audrey record an ad-lib 'All Night Mac' radio show aired only in stores — dinner visits rose.
McDonald's Japan (日本マクドナルド)
What it had to solve
McDonald's Japan's Yoru Mac menu — double-patty burgers and potato-nugget combos sold daily from 5pm since 2018 — wanted to make the restaurant itself a nighttime destination. Nippon Broadcasting's 'Audrey's All Night Nippon', whose devoted listeners call themselves Little Tooths, had just announced its first Tokyo Dome event, and the show's fandom was famous for its warmth and loyalty.
How it works
McDonald's Japan's Yoru Mac menu — double-patty burgers and potato-nugget sets sold daily from 5pm since 2018 — had a presence on paper but not in people's evening plans: the restaurant was not yet a place chosen for the night. The brief was to drive visits after dark.
The idea was not a normal ad but a spinoff of the cult late-night radio show 'Audrey's All Night Nippon'. Comedy duo Wakabayashi and Kasuga talked completely ad-lib about useless nights and McDonald's memories — 'A meaningless night is a luxury' — first as the TVCM 'The Teriyaki Shock', shot in one hour-long continuous take, and then as an exclusive in-store radio broadcast.
From January 9 to February 18, 2024 the 'All Night Mac' broadcast played every day from 17:00 to closing in McDonald's Japan restaurants across the country, in four volumes; the same audio could be unlocked in AR by scanning double-burger or nugget packaging, and a reply campaign on X gave away Mac Cards. Teasers used the show's own colors, and the radio staff appeared as extras.
The result: dinner-time footfall rose year on year, the campaign trended repeatedly, fans framed the tray mats, and the ACC jury singled out listeners who visited stores to hear the talk as driving significant sales. It won the 2024 ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS Grand Prix in the Media Creative category.
Why it lands
- The media plan made context the message: a late-night menu borrowed late-night radio's most devoted audience.
- Fans got something the show itself could not offer — an exclusive extra episode that required being physically inside a McDonald's at night.
- The work was built by and for the fandom, with show colors, staff cameos and in-jokes, so it felt like the community rather than an intrusion.
- 'A meaningless night is a luxury' converted radio's aimless charm into a reason to order the menu.
What it did
Dinner-time customer numbers grew year on year after the campaign, it repeatedly trended on social media, and fans framed the special tray mats; the ACC jury wrote that Little Tooths who visited stores to hear the talk drove significant sales results. It won the Grand Prix (Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award) in the Media Creative category at the 2024 ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS.
What you can take
Borrow a community's ritual instead of interrupting it: when the campaign is an extra episode of a show fans already love, the store becomes content and the visit sells itself.
Since then
The campaign ran alongside Audrey's All Night Nippon's first Tokyo Dome event on February 18, 2024, and its agency TBWA\Hakuhodo credits it with an ACC Grand Prix and a Galaxy Award. Japanese marketing media now cite it as the reference case for turning radio fandom and audio content into physical store traffic.
Sources
- Yoru Mac collaborates with the hugely popular radio show 'Audrey's All Night Nippon' — official release
- 2024 64th ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS winners: Media Creative category
- ACC Awards 2024: Audrey's All Night Mac wins Media Creative Grand Prix
- Turning a fan community's energy into advertising: interview with the creative director of Audrey's All Night Mac
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