The partnership between McDonald’s and Giallozafferano, Italy’s most popular food media brand, goes into its fourth year after burger sales topping 21 million: the original McChicken recipe is joined by Il Gustoso and L’Affumicato, two new Chicken Creations for exciting new taste experiences.

Available in all 640 McDonald’s restaurants in Italy until 30 August, the Chicken Creations are made with special top-quality ingredients sourced from our local supply chain, as well as 100% Italian chicken breast supplied by Amadori and bread produced in Italy by Bimbo. The flavourful Il Gustoso dresses the chicken with Italian red cabbage, Pecorino Romano DOP cheese & pepper sauce and Italian bacon; meanwhile L’Affumicato comes with smoked scamorza cheese made from Italian milk and grilled pepper sauce and will be available in a bun or as a McWrap.

The new recipes reaffirm and strengthen McDonald’s relations with and commitment to the Italian agri-food chain, from which every year it purchases more than 100,000 tonnes of raw materials worth almost 240 million euro. For the 2022 Chicken Creations alone, the company will use around 6 tonnes of Pecorino Romano DOP cheese, 630 tonnes of chicken, 74 tonnes of smoked scamorza and 61 tonnes of red cabbage.

The Chicken Creations were developed jointly by chefs from McDonald’s and the Giallozafferano brand, once again the prestigious partner on the initiative thanks to the strength of its community and ability to involve some of the most popular food creators on an innovative project that is spreading from social media to McDonald’s restaurants across Italy.

“We are excited to renew our collaboration with Giallozafferano, which this year once again has produced original new recipes to satisfy Italians’ love of tasty original food. We are very proud of this project because it reiterates the quality and flavours of our country’s ingredients,” said McDonald’s Italia CEO Dario Baroni. “Chicken is increasingly popular among our consumers, who recognise the quality and origin of the ingredients they find in our restaurants: this, in addition to the tasty recipes, is the reason for the success of a project where we tell everyone about the unique quality of ingredients Made in Italy.”

“Innovation, constant attention to the passions of our community and use of fine Italian ingredients: these are the values underpinning our four-year relationship with McDonald’s, a partner of excellence,” observed Mondadori Media General Manager Andrea Santagata. “We are delighted to continue a collaboration that combines one of McDonald’s most popular burgers with our brand’s creativity and experience. The project is even more innovative this year thanks to the involvement of our creators on the social channels, especially TikTok, where Giallozafferano can try out styles that appeal to young users, and so become a reference in the kitchen for them too,” added Santagata.

The protagonists of the project, starting with the campaign teasers, are the two brands’ web communities, who were invited to guess the ingredients and the names of the burgers.

The Foodqood creators, Daniele Rossi, Fernanda Nicotra, Chef Nerone and Rafael Nistor, each with their own style and communication approach, will deliver a series of exclusive social media content, replicating in their videos the recipes of the iconic McChicken and the new Chicken Creations — presented today during a special event hosted by Willwoosh, youtuber Guglielmo Scilla.

The Chicken Creations campaign and visibility plan were developed together with Brand On Solutions, the Mediamond project area, coordinated by OMD, and will be rolled out on all Giallozafferano digital channels, from the website, all social profiles – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok e YouTube – and the app, with McDonald’s drive-to-store and drive-to-app push notification.