This article has been provided by Portada’s sister publication Adtech.com
McDonald’s is already testing third-party ads across 450 restaurants. But the real play isn’t about screens: it’s about combining millions of loyalty users, transactional data, and physical footprints to build a new media platform. This strategic pivot signals a major evolution in McDonald’s advertising, shifting the focus from promoting food to monetizing audience reach.
McDonald’s has spent decades selling burgers. Now it wants to sell something else: access to its audience.
The company confirmed on September 23 that it has begun testing the McDonald’s Media Network across 450 company-operated restaurants in the United States. The goal is to display third-party advertisements while consumers interact with its app, self-ordering kiosks, digital menu boards, and physical dining rooms.
The ambition is far from small: McDonald’s expects to turn the platform into a $1 billion ad business, according to figures presented by executives during its Investor Day.
Morgan Flatley, EVP and Global Chief Marketing Officer at McDonald’s, described Commerce Media as one of the fastest-growing areas in advertising, framing the project as an opportunity to unlock new revenue streams using assets the company already owns.
However, assuming McDonald’s is simply placing ads on digital screens misses the most compelling part of the story.
McDonald’s has spent decades selling burgers. Now it wants to sell something else: access to its audience.
McDonald’s Isn’t Selling Screens: It’s Monetizing Consumer Relationships
The core asset driving the McDonald’s Media Network lies in its data.
At the end of the second quarter of 2026, the company boasted nearly 220 million 90-day active loyalty users across 70 markets. Furthermore, systemwide sales to loyalty members reached $40 billion over the prior 12 months—a year-over-year increase of more than 20%—according to official filings submitted to the SEC.
Added to this are more than 70 million daily customers and a physical infrastructure spanning over 46,000 restaurants worldwide. McDonald’s emphasizes that over recent years, it has also developed unified tech platforms and a single enterprise data foundation.
That is where the value of a digital screen fundamentally shifts.
A digital menu board can operate simply as Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH). But when the entity controlling that physical footprint also manages the mobile app, loyalty program, transaction, and a vast portion of the customer journey, it creates the capability to bridge advertising with high-intent purchase signals.
McDonald’s has not yet publicly detailed its targeting capabilities, attribution models, media buying mechanics, or the specific AdTech stack supporting this pilot. Nor has it disclosed what precise data points will be accessible to advertisers.
This Is No Longer Just Retail Media
McDonald’s does not fit neatly into the traditional definition of Retail Media.
It is not a conventional retailer, and the brands that eventually purchase ad inventory within McDonald’s advertising ecosystem will not necessarily sell products inside its restaurants.
Commerce Media offers a far more accurate framework for what is unfolding.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) defines this market as an ecosystem that transforms proprietary assets—such as websites, apps, and first-party data—into revenue-generating advertising channels, leveraging commercial insights to enhance targeting and measurement.
Moreover, the category is rapidly expanding beyond traditional retail. The IAB has documented models emerging across financial services, B2B, and travel, including initiatives from United Airlines, Intuit, and Chase.
McDonald’s is taking that logic into entirely new territory: the restaurant floor.
It possesses an immense audience, valuable first-party data, direct transactions, digital surfaces, and, above all, physical proximity to real moments of consumption.
McDonald’s is taking Commerce Media logic into entirely new territory: the restaurant floor.
The Next AdTech Frontier May Be Inside the Restaurant
For the MadTech industry, this move reshapes who can operate as a publisher.
McDonald’s can simultaneously act as a brand, data owner, physical store operator, and media inventory seller.
This convergence is becoming increasingly relevant to the broader market.
U.S. Commerce Media revenues reached $63.4 billion in 2025, reflecting an 18% annual growth rate, according to the 2026 IAB/PwC Ad Revenue Report. The study highlights that the market is evolving from concentrated sponsored search listings within retail sites toward a broader monetization layer driven by transactions, influence, and deep customer journey insights.
This creates significant momentum for DSPs, SSPs, identity resolution providers, data clean rooms, measurement, and attribution technologies. However, it also introduces a challenge: every new company building its own media network adds another platform to an already fragmented ecosystem.
The IAB warned this year that hundreds of Commerce Media Networks are competing for finite budgets, noting that future growth will depend less on launching new networks and more on proving performance, differentiation, and sustainable business models.
In short: mounting screens on walls is no longer enough.
The central challenge for MadTech isn’t just launching new networks—it’s proving performance, differentiation, and sustainable business models.
The True Product Might Be Closing the Loop
The most compelling opportunity in Commerce Media is not displaying an ad, but closing the gap between exposure and transaction.
Data streams from loyalty programs, CRM systems, and store purchases allow marketers to better understand what happens after a consumer receives an ad impression.
While McDonald’s has not yet clarified how measurement will function for third-party brands, the infrastructure it is assembling points toward deep integration.
During its Investor Day, the company detailed Global Mobile App One (GMA One), a platform built to unify ordering, marketing, loyalty, and data within a single global architecture. The pilot will launch in France before expanding progressively across global markets through late 2028.
The most compelling opportunity in Commerce Media is not displaying an ad, but closing the gap between exposure and transaction.
When a Restaurant Chain Becomes a Media Powerhouse
The McDonald’s initiative sends a signal that extends far beyond its initial 450 pilot locations.
Commerce Media is widening the definition of who can sell advertising.
Having a digital marketplace or operating as a traditional retailer is no longer a prerequisite. The essential criteria now center on maintaining a direct, recurring relationship with consumers, owning robust first-party data, capturing purchase intent, and controlling physical or digital touchpoints where ads can be activated.
McDonald’s checks all four boxes.
That is why the true value of McDonald’s advertising isn’t necessarily on the menu. It lies in proving that data, transaction history, and customer touchpoints built around millions of consumers can be engineered into a standalone media enterprise.
It lies in proving that data, transaction history, and customer touchpoints built around millions of consumers can be engineered into a standalone media enterprise.
And if the model succeeds, the central question for MadTech will no longer be which companies can become media networks—but how many will choose to do so.
This article has been provided by Portada’s sister publication Adtech.com
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