Restaurant · Guide Updated July 2026

How Celebrity Collaborations Save Struggling Restaurant Brands (And What Small Operators Can Steal)

What McDonald’s Actually Faced in 2020

McDonald’s was in genuine trouble. In July 2020, the chain recorded its first lowest profit result in 13 years. Net income fell by more than 68 percent to $483 million, according to the Financial Times. More than 200 U.S. locations closed for good. McDonald’s was not alone: one of the largest Pizza Hut franchisees in the United States filed for bankruptcy the same year.

The root problem was not just the pandemic. McDonald’s had become irrelevant to a growing slice of its potential customer base. That is a slow-moving crisis that hits every restaurant eventually, and it is the real reason the collaboration mattered.

What the Travis Scott Collaboration Actually Was

In September 2020, McDonald’s partnered with rapper Travis Scott to feature his “favorite meal”: a Quarter Pounder with bacon, fries, barbecue sauce, and a Sprite, priced at $6. The campaign ran from September through October 4, 2020.

The meal was just the anchor. The collaboration expanded into merchandise: three-foot-long Chicken McNugget-themed pillows priced at $290, denim shorts, and other items. Those nugget pillows later resold for more than $450.

The business result was immediate. Wall Street analysts revised their same-store sales forecast for McDonald’s third quarter from 1.4 percent up to 3 percent, with the Travis Scott collaboration credited as a major driver.

One more number worth noting: this was the first celebrity collaboration McDonald’s had run in more than 30 years. The last time was Michael Jordan.

Lesson 1: Collaborations Revive Lapsed Customers and Pull in New Ones

Here is my own experience. I grew up eating McDonald’s in high school because it fit my budget. As I got older and started caring more about eating well, McDonald’s quietly faded out of my life. I had not eaten there in years.

Then I saw the Travis Scott collaboration. It piqued my interest enough to go in and order a Quarter Pounder. After that visit, I went back three or four more times, because the experience reminded me of what I used to enjoy about the place. One collaboration revived me as a customer.

That is not a coincidence. It is a repeatable mechanic.

On the new-customer side, Travis Scott had reached more than three billion streams. He is a cultural icon for a younger demographic. When that audience sees their icon tied to a brand, a portion of them try that brand for the first time. Some of those people will not like the Quarter Pounder. Some of them will discover the Big Mac, the McNuggets, the cheeseburger. The collaboration becomes a door, not just a transaction.

For your restaurant, the principle is the same. Find a brand, creator, or local business whose audience shares your values. Cross-pollination only works when the values align. A high-end natural wine bar collaborating with a fast-food delivery app will confuse both audiences. A neighborhood bakery collaborating with a local running club makes immediate sense, because the values of quality and community overlap.

This is the ACE framework I use: Align your own values with your brand’s values and your customer’s values. Connect with your audience from that place of alignment. Then campaigns, collaborations, and marketing produce real growth. Running ads before that alignment is in place burns money without building loyalty.

Lesson 2: The Right Campaign Generates User-Generated Content You Cannot Buy

User-generated content (UGC) is what your customers create about your brand without being paid to do so. It is the most credible marketing that exists, because what you say about yourself carries far less weight than what other people say about you.

The Travis Scott campaign produced UGC on a scale that would have cost millions to replicate with paid advertising. People were driving through the McDonald’s drive-through playing Travis Scott’s music while ordering, filming it, and posting it on TikTok. One video alone racked up more than 4 million views.

That is free reach, with zero production budget, created by fans who were genuinely excited.

The question you need to answer for your own campaign is: what novel experience would make my customer want to film it and share it? It might be a contest. It might be an unusual product. It might be a creative pairing with a collaborating brand. The answer is different for every restaurant, but the question is always the same.

Spend time on the social platforms where your customers actually are. Watch what they consume and how they interact with brands they love. That observation will tell you more about what your next campaign should look like than any marketing textbook.

Lesson 3: FOMO is a Real Force, and Most Restaurants Waste It

Fear of missing out is not a gimmick. It is a documented human behavior, and it drives purchasing decisions every day.

The Travis Scott campaign was executed with a hard end date: September launch, gone on October 4, 2020. That short window created a surge. Everyone who wanted the meal had to act now. The urgency made people talk about it, because the conversation had stakes. “Have you tried it yet? You need to go before it’s gone.”

That is the environment you want around any campaign you run.

Most restaurant operators either extend campaigns for too long or never put an end date on them at all. Both mistakes kill the urgency that drives action.

At 720 Sweets, I ran every campaign with a two-to-three week window, and I will tell you exactly why that timeline works. The first week is about getting the word out. People hear about it, they mentally note it, they tell friends. The second week is when the foot traffic arrives. Customers who heard about it in week one finally come in. The last few days of that second or third week create the final push, because the deadline is now real and close. That is the golden window.

Minimum two weeks. Maximum three weeks. That is the rule.

The Travis Scott Lesson Scales Down to Any Restaurant

Working with Travis Scott or J Balvin (McDonald’s next collaboration partner, a reggaeton artist) is not on the table for a small operator. That is fine. The mechanics do not require a celebrity.

What you need is a local brand or creator whose audience overlaps with yours, a product or experience that is novel enough to be worth talking about, and a hard end date that gives people a reason to act now rather than later.

McDonald’s spent more than 30 years without running a single celebrity collaboration. When they finally did it right, they moved Wall Street forecasts and rebuilt relevance with a generation that had written them off. You do not have 30 years to wait. But you also do not need a global pop star to get started.

Find the local equivalent. Act on a timeline. Let your customers do the talking.

The Bottom Line

A collaboration works when values align, timing is tight, and the experience is novel enough to be worth sharing. Run every campaign with a two-to-three week window, build in a reason for customers to create content, and focus first on people who already know you but stopped coming in. The best new customer is often an old one you reminded why they loved you.

Watch the full video

Source — YouTube · the full breakdown, free

Keep going: restaurant guides