Creative Technology · WebAR · Experience Design
McDonalds | AR Christmas Decorations
Client: McDonalds Uk
Year: 2025
Role: Creative Lead — Creative Direction, Concept & Experience Design, UX/UI Oversight, 3D Design & Direction, Client Collaboration
Challenge / Context
For McDonald’s UK’s 2025 #ReindeerReady campaign, I helped translate a major seasonal campaign into an app-free mobile AR experience built around participation, immediacy and sharing.
Working with Darabase alongside OMD UK and Leo Burnett UK, I led the interaction concept, UX direction and 3D creative approach. I also advised on technical constraints and user-flow logic so the experience could remain simple and responsive across different devices, locations and real-world conditions.
The Approach
Users could select animated festive objects including snowmen, Christmas trees, gift boxes and reindeer, place them directly into their surroundings through their phone camera, scale and arrange the scene, then capture the result.
Early exploration tested different tonal directions before converging on recognisable Christmas motifs, family-friendly animation and a restrained interface. Moodboards and micro-concepts helped establish the balance between familiarity and surprise without turning a lightweight interaction into an overcomplicated technology demonstration.
The experience was designed around a single, easily understood interaction loop: select → place → scale → compose → capture.
I mapped the journey, defined the visual and functional feedback required at each stage and supervised the creation and behaviour of the 3D assets. The interface deliberately relied on familiar gestures and minimal UI, allowing the AR content to create the moment without requiring users to understand the technology behind it.
The experience also had to perform across uncontrolled indoor and outdoor environments, so asset behaviour, placement guidance and visual clarity were refined around real mobile conditions rather than idealised demo settings.
Outcome
The activation recorded 2,850+ daily users, more than 700 hours of engagement across two weeks, and an average dwell time exceeding one minute.
The lightweight WebAR format extended the campaign into a participatory, shareable experience without adding unnecessary friction.
700+ hours of engagement across two weeks · 1 minute average dwell time
Return home