The client
McDonald's needs no introduction. From late 1999 through 2007 we were the sole digital delivery team for McDonald's UK at NetDecisions → Agilisys. That covered the main UK website, every campaign microsite, and the digital infrastructure that carried each monthly Happy Meal partnership online. The Marketing Store led the offline campaign creative and packaging; we owned everything that shipped on the web. Jonathan left Agilisys in 2007 to found New Brand Media.
Jonathan joined NetDecisions in late 1999 under John Stevens as Head of Design. As those blue-chip accounts moved properly online, the design team matured into a full Customer Experience Design department, pioneering some of the earliest web usability labs in their Hammersmith offices. Parents from McDonald's focus groups tested prototypes under eye tracking while analysts watched from behind a one-way mirror: the research kit the stakes now demanded. When John left to pursue a doctorate at Cambridge on design as a strategic tool, Jonathan took over as Head of Customer Experience Design.
The challenge
In 2000 most companies still treated the web as a sideshow. McDonald's needed the opposite. The site had to work as an extension of the marketing armoury, aligned with every offline agency and campaign. It had to build loyalty, refresh often enough to reward return visits, and hold up under very high concurrent traffic. At this scale, one weak page is a brand story, not a bug report.
What we did
We delivered art direction, design, and the technical build for the McDonald's UK website and its campaign programme. Consumer focus groups shaped the strategy from branding through to launch. Families sat at the centre: promotions, Happy Meals, company information, and community.
Almost every month brought a new Happy Meal partnership. The Marketing Store (working from Disney and other licensors) led packaging redesign and in-store creative. We built the digital half that made those promotions run. That meant competition mechanics, technical infrastructure for cup peel-offs and other in-store entry routes, and full campaign microsites where the brief needed a standalone experience.
Named work from the period includes Text-a-Monster for Disney·Pixar's Monsters, Inc., Popstars and POP & TXT, Lilo & Stitch, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, The Muppet Show, Mac Premier, Mr Men, The Beano Online, Hot Wheels, and Barbie. We also delivered the FIFA World Cup 2002 UK microsite, including animation created for the Piccadilly Circus McDonald's screen. Several of those promotions, including POP & TXT and The Incredibles, used cup tear-off mechanics that depended on the web and SMS infrastructure we shipped.
The same account also shipped the Eat Smart information architecture, a nutrition calculator, and the Salads Plus site. That was the first digital presentation of McDonald's healthier brand story.
The delivery detail mattered as much as the design. A content management system let non-technical McDonald's staff update pages themselves. Look-and-feel stayed rigid. Performance testing was rigorous before every go-live.
Our approach
Integrated, not isolated. The site had to carry core brand values across every offline touchpoint, not chase design awards in a vacuum. Kids Zone extended each month's Happy Meal partnership onto the web, because for McDonald's the repeat visit mattered as much as the first one.
Outcome
Nearly eight years of sustained McDonald's UK web work, on an account where the client itself recognised a step change in its digital thinking:
// Client quote
“netdecisions worked well with our existing offline marketing strategy, but brought a level of innovation to our online thinking.”
And from the agency side of the account:
// Account manager quote
“I have worked with Jon over the course of several years and for various clients such as the NSPCC, CACHE and McDonald’s. His ability to deliver outstanding creative concepts has been proven again and again.”
Context & coverage
This was the period when McDonald's was building a serious digital presence. The UK site as it looked in 2000 is preserved in the Web Design Museum. "I'm lovin' it" (2003) became its first global multichannel campaign with coordinated digital rollout. The UK web and microsite work sat at the front of that shift.
NetDecisions named McDonald's among its board-level, blue-chip clients in its July 2000 corporate brochure, alongside Marconi, Thomson Travel Group, and the AA.
- McDonald’s UK history: official timeline for the UK digital relationship (built from 1999, live from 2000).
- McDonald’s in 2000 (Web Design Museum): snapshot of the UK site from the period.
