Mary Vrancic
Senior Director, Marketing
McDonald's Australia
Mary’s career with McDonald’s began as a college student at Northern Illinois University, where an Experiential Learning Center project sparked a passion that would launch her into a groundbreaking international internship. She supported the 2008 Olympics, McHappy Day, and the launch of free restaurant WiFi—early signs of her talent for blending technology and marketing.
She joined Global Technology after graduation, quickly standing out by earning the Circle of Excellence Award for her leadership on an enterprise-wide tech project with Microsoft. Her success propelled her into strategy, where she drove global technology portfolio alignment and helped integrate Ronald McDonald House Charities into the brand experience—an achievement that earned her the President’s Award, given to the top 1% of McDonald’s employees worldwide.
In 2016, Mary pivoted to Digital Marketing, leading McDonald’s first U.S. customer segmentation strategy and redesigning campaign planning to be more customer-centric including the first digital test and learn center of excellence. She later spearheaded the MyMcDonald’s Rewards loyalty program—one of the most successful launches in QSR history—doubling app usage and setting a new gold standard for digital engagement. This work earned the team a Circle of Excellence Award and Mary was honored by her peers with the prestigious Living the McDonald’s Values Award.
Mary continued shaping the brand through bold, innovative campaigns like Camp McDonald’s, a first-of-its-kind digital event that boosted multicultural engagement and digital acquisition. It was a campaign of firsts – across celebrity talent, unique experiences, exclusive merch partnerships – yielding the highest performance for digital acquisition to date. In 2023, Mary launched a new master brand story focused on brand membership and the digital experience. As well as developing a family-focused strategy building on 2022 momentum, global Family positioning and a digital-first mindset to future proof the next generation of McDonald’s fans. She then took on a new role leading Rest of Day strategy, delivering strong marketing ROI and refocusing U.S. planning around growth opportunities in lunch and dinner. Mary oversaw ~20-22 rest of day 360 marketing campaigns and targeted always on media efforts to ensure business objectives were achieved which resulted in an average $4.08 return on marketing investment.
She joined Global Technology after graduation, quickly standing out by earning the Circle of Excellence Award for her leadership on an enterprise-wide tech project with Microsoft. Her success propelled her into strategy, where she drove global technology portfolio alignment and helped integrate Ronald McDonald House Charities into the brand experience—an achievement that earned her the President’s Award, given to the top 1% of McDonald’s employees worldwide.
In 2016, Mary pivoted to Digital Marketing, leading McDonald’s first U.S. customer segmentation strategy and redesigning campaign planning to be more customer-centric including the first digital test and learn center of excellence. She later spearheaded the MyMcDonald’s Rewards loyalty program—one of the most successful launches in QSR history—doubling app usage and setting a new gold standard for digital engagement. This work earned the team a Circle of Excellence Award and Mary was honored by her peers with the prestigious Living the McDonald’s Values Award.
Mary continued shaping the brand through bold, innovative campaigns like Camp McDonald’s, a first-of-its-kind digital event that boosted multicultural engagement and digital acquisition. It was a campaign of firsts – across celebrity talent, unique experiences, exclusive merch partnerships – yielding the highest performance for digital acquisition to date. In 2023, Mary launched a new master brand story focused on brand membership and the digital experience. As well as developing a family-focused strategy building on 2022 momentum, global Family positioning and a digital-first mindset to future proof the next generation of McDonald’s fans. She then took on a new role leading Rest of Day strategy, delivering strong marketing ROI and refocusing U.S. planning around growth opportunities in lunch and dinner. Mary oversaw ~20-22 rest of day 360 marketing campaigns and targeted always on media efforts to ensure business objectives were achieved which resulted in an average $4.08 return on marketing investment.