All too often, children are pigeonholed into either being sporty or academic – a view supported by research from McDonald’s partners at the National Literacy Trust. This found that 92% of UK parents believe reading and sport are both vital to their child’s happiness and development, but 54% struggle to afford both for their children outside the school term.

So we united McDonald’s Fun Football programme (which delivers free coaching sessions for kids across the country) and Happy Readers (which provides free books with Happy Meals) so parents didn’t have to choose, and to also highlight how keeping bodies AND minds active are key to every child’s development and happiness.

We created an exclusive pop up ‘pitch and library’ and took it on tour across the UK over the busy Easter holidays, kicking off on World Book Day for a topical hook.  By positioning the Fun Football pitch and Happy Readers library in parallel, we placed equal weight and importance on both activities, and parents were able to encourage their children to enjoy a kick-about as well as a read-along on their Easter days out.

Local and national footballing heroes – including England Lioness Beth Mead, Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins – dropped in for skills and drills sessions and a book read-along of the Little People Big Dreams book ‘I Can Be A Sports Champion’.

Through the campaign, over 42,000 hours of free coaching were delivered and 32,200 books and balls given out at events.