The commercials’ cameraman can’t keep his focus off McDonald’s sauces. That campaign idea by Leo UK comes from real life – for many McDonald’s fans the sauces are the main event, not the thing on the side.

The full Here for the Sauce campaign invites fans to participate and co-create in their shared love of McDonald’s sauces and launches new sauces, Korean BBQ, Ranch and Hot Honey.

At the heart of the campaign are five TV spots directed by Oli Beale, where Stephen Graham’s voiceover attempts to keep the focus on chicken, but the cameraman is a big fan of sauce. A really big fan of sauce. The sauces repeatedly steal the spotlight, with different camera techniques – from pans to focus shifts – pulling attention away from the food and back to the sauces. The result is a playful nod to what McDonald’s fans have always known – the sauce is the real star of the order.

From July 14, sauce has also taken over McDonald’s social channels, spotlighting the real sauce-related behaviours seen across the brand’s feeds – from people stockpiling sauce pots to the fans who simply cannot resist licking the lid. The campaign also invites fans to co-create in the campaign via social led moments, including The Sweet Curry Suitcase, based on real fans taking McDonald’s sauce on holiday. The Sweet Curry Suitcase is a limited-edition suitcase shaped like the McDonald’s sauce pot. Content creator and sauce superfan, Luke Hamnett, will co-create content that shows off his very own Sweet Curry Suitcase.

The fan campaign also comes to life in the real world through The Sauce Stop, a live activation built entirely around sauces, giving fans a physical way to participate in their shared love of McDonald’s sauces by building a destination dedicated to their favourite part of the McDonald’s experience.

OOH strips the idea back even further, using bold, colourful visuals that hero the sauces in their own right. Rather than showing sauce as an accompaniment, the posters place the dips front and centre, creating a distinctive sauce-led look and feel across nationwide placements. Radio extends the same tension, with 20-second spots that play where Stephen Graham is just your regular sauce-obsessed superfan.

James Hodson, creative director at Leo UK, stated, “Whenever I go to McDonald’s, I always think, ‘Should I get some food with my sauce?’ And I am not alone. This campaign is all about letting fans participate in their shared love of sauces, giving them the platform to co-create with the brand. It’s a big idea that’s poured across every possible channel and touchpoint, like sauce over McNuggets.”

The campaign was a collaboration by McDonald’s agency partners. reative was handled by Leo UK. Media planning and buying was managed by OMD. PR, event and influencer management was handled by Red Consultancy. Production was handled by DROOL.

The six-week campaign covers social, creator content, live activation, TV, OOH, radio and CRM across the UK and Ireland.

Credits:

Client: McDonald’s UK 
CMO:  Tim Kenward
Marketing Director: Hannah Pain
Head of Marketing: Liz Whitbread
Marketing Managers: Emma O’neill, Ana Saffer
Senior Brand Manager: Amber Myers
Marketing Consultant: Elizabeth Culverhouse
Campaign Assistant: Amelia Haywood

Advertising Agency: Leo UK
(Outgoing) Chief Creative Officer: Mark Elwood  
(Incoming) Chief Creative Officer: Andrew Long  
Creative Directors: James Hodson, Jason Keet  
Creative: Zoe Davies  
Designer: Harry Ingrams
Planners: Annie Lim, Joe Beveridge  
Business Lead: Bella Bertolotti  
Account Team: Tobias Dahlhaus, Chloe Veal, Mariam Yusuf
Agency Producer: Persephone Withnell, Lauren Stubbs

Media Buying Agency: OMD  
Media Planner: Joshua Deane

Production Company: Drool  
Director: Oli Beale
Photographer: Frankie Turner