McDonald's Japan's 'Fandom Feast' streams a shared meal so fans eat live with XG

In 2024 Japan's fandom market reached about 3.5 trillion yen, yet McDonald's Japan's Mobile Order & Pay still handled only about 20% of transactions. The brand wanted its first big Gen Z push to make ordering feel like joining a fan moment rather than a convenience.

Make ordering the fan ritual: every XG member curates a Galaxy Set, and fans order their favourite's meal and eat it in real time with her on a livestream.

McDonald's Japan partnered with XG, the all-Japanese girl group, and gave them the brand: seven Galaxy Sets were curated and named by individual members for the app, and a livestream let fans eat the same meal as XG in real time, with lucky fans watching from the studio floor. The launch ran as TVCs and a web movie from 10 February 2025, then expanded to a Harajuku Galaxy Exhibit, nationwide tray liners and in-store radio, collectible stickers, exclusive app wallpapers, a first smartphone widget, and XG taking over McDonald's social channels.

On the second livestream day, Galaxy Set purchases via Mobile Order & Pay rose 53% against the previous day, and the McFry coupon recorded its second-highest redemptions in campaign history. Fans collected all seven sets and made grabbing McDonald's around XG concerts a new ritual.

In 2024 Japan's fandom market was worth around 3.5 trillion yen, yet McDonald's Japan's Mobile Order & Pay still represented only about 20% of transactions. The brand set out to give Gen Z a reason to order that felt like culture, not convenience: sharing a meal with the artists they admire.

With TBWA\Hakuhodo, McDonald's Japan created 'Fandom Feast: McDonald's Live Party' around XG, the internationally known all-Japanese girl group. XG took over the brand's official social channels, and seven 'Galaxy Sets' — each curated and named by one member — let fans order their favourite's meal through the app.

The livestream made it a shared meal: fans ate the same sets in real time as XG, and twenty lucky fans joined from the front row of the recording studio. Around the stream sat a full fan world — TVCs and a web movie from 10 February 2025, a Harajuku Galaxy Exhibit, tray liners, in-store radio, wallpapers, stickers, a first smartphone widget, and a green alien mascot fans adopted.

Choosing your member's set turned a food order into an act of fandom, so commerce and identity pointed the same way.

Eating at the same moment as XG made the experience genuinely shared — fans were dining with the artist, not buying from a brand.

Fans extended the story themselves with viewing parties, fan art and profile-picture mascots, so reach grew beyond the brand's own channels.

An order can carry a ritual's emotional weight: when fans buy the exact meal their idol curated and eat it with her on a stream, the transaction itself becomes the shared experience.

Fandom Feast became a platform McDonald's Japan and TBWA\Hakuhodo describe as designed to scale with different artists. On the second livestream day, Galaxy Set purchases through Mobile Order & Pay rose 53% versus the previous day, and the McFry coupon hit its second-highest redemption count in the campaign's history. Fans began treating McDonald's around XG concerts as part of fan life, and the agency archives the work as a continuing fan-culture movement.