How the Mets and McDonald's use the “Grimace Effect.”

New York Mets fans taking the 7 train to Citi Field for Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Tuesday may encounter a beloved mascot while riding trains decorated with his image. However, the character is not the big-headed Mr. Met, the loyal representative of the baseball mascot scene who was first created in 1963, but Grimace, the chubby, purple cartoon character that McDonald's brought onto the market in 1971 .

It's the latest development in a surprising, largely unplanned partnership between the Mets and the world's most ubiquitous fast-food chain that has made Grimace a symbol of that Mets team and now envelops New York City's subway system. One train (all 11 cars) will feature a Grimace wrap and will depart Hudson Yards at 1:00 p.m., ahead of the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at 5:08 p.m.

“We've seen so many social conversations where people have Photoshopped Grimace's face sticker on the purple subway line 7,” said Amanda Mulligan, McDonald's head of social media and influencer. “And so it felt perfect that we could bring some of that Grimace flavor to all Mets fans on their way to work, knowing that everyone will be taking the 7 train to Citi Field. It could even be that Grimace himself makes a surprise appearance on the subway.”

The Mets-Grimace connection has its roots in a chance ceremonial first pitch the character threw at Citi Field on June 12th. By most standards the throw wasn't good, although it was commendable for someone in such a bulky outfit. More importantly, it preceded — or some would say sparked — a Mets winning streak.

Social media boomed and the partnership between McDonald's and Mets grew to the point where purple seating was installed at Citi Field in September.

The Grimace seat now takes pride of place at Citi Field. (Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)

“From a brand perspective, I saw that it increased our overall awareness and our overall reputation, not just awareness, but, I would say, a kind of passion and love for the brand,” said Andy Goldberg, the Mets' chief marketing officer . “Because we’re bringing together two things that people really have a lot of love for and also a little bit of whimsy.”

A relationship between the Mets and Mickey D's existed before. According to Brenden Mallette, the team's senior vice president of corporate sponsorship, McDonald's has been a Mets sponsor for at least ten years. And it's certainly trendy to link different brands – an abbreviation has even emerged that uses the name of one company, the letter X, and then the name of the second company, e.g. E.g. Mets X McDonald's. But the strange but fruitful pairing that has emerged over the last four months is ultimately not something either party could fully shape.

“If we could do this more often, we probably would like to do it, but then maybe it wouldn't be as special, right?” Mallette said.

If the Mets hadn't been on a seven-game winning streak the day of Grimace's first pitch, none of this would likely ever happen. But even as that happened, the executives involved emphasized that the “Grimace Effect,” as it’s called, really wasn’t their creation.

The grimace effect 🟣 pic.twitter.com/aRBKkMFEwZ

— x – New York Mets (@Mets) June 18, 2024

As fans filed into the first pitch, the team and the restaurant chain actually decided to take things slower to see which way the social media wind would blow.

“When we first saw the momentum that the fans had behind it, we quickly realized, 'Let the fans take over.' “Let the fans do what they do,” Goldberg said. “As someone on my team said, 'Leave the Internet, Internet,' which I thought was a great way to put it. …It doesn't belong to us. If we force it, it becomes really fake.”

Goldberg followed this advice from Brielle Speranzini, the senior director of the integrated brand marketing team. The team sprinkled in grimaces here and there. For example, when the 2025 schedule was released, Grimace was featured in a promotional video. But the Mets appear to have avoided force-feeding while the players on the field continue to win.

“What was so surprising about this conversation is the continued positivity that we saw throughout the conversation,” Mulligan said. “Our concern all along and during the first winning streak was, 'OK, when this ends, are people going to blame Grimace?' Will they turn against Grimace?' And we didn't see that. We kept seeing so many positive conversations from people wanting to bring Grimace back for first pitch and rekindle that winning streak.”

Cross-promotion of intellectual property has some nuances. When Grimace visits town, McDonald's doesn't just send a giant purple costume to the park. One of the usual actors playing Mr. Met isn't casually dressed in a Mickey D outfit that day.

No, Grimace has to be brought here specially and won't arrive alone.

“I met Grimace,” Goldberg said. “I didn’t meet the person in Grimace. He comes as a costume and the person playing him and a supervisor. And as far as I know, there are only two grimaces in the entire world. It's very difficult to book them but they were very accommodating to us.

“But they don’t send the costume. It's not like, “Hey, do what you do.” Grimace has his own ways, his own way of working, and it's the intellectual property and property of McDonald's, and that's who travels. And it’s a fascinating world, the mascot world.”

McDonald's representatives did not respond to questions about how many Grimaces actually walk the earth or what it takes to book one. Ultimately, however, both the Mets and McDonald's – the latter backed by PR firm Golin and advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy – say the pairing was valuable for their brands, although neither company shared relevant metrics or dollar figures.

“There are ways for us to measure the impact of earned conversations,” Mulligan said. “In this case, we didn't look at it so much from a business perspective, but more like this is a completely unexpected thing that happened in the culture, and we reacted very quickly and just wanted to continue to feel that conversation.” “

Not everything the Mets have tried this year has worked so well. In August, the team invited Haliey Welch, an internet star who went viral for a sexual joke, to an initial pitch and was nominated by some. The team has adopted an aggressive marketing strategy, sometimes believing that an effort misses the mark but produces positive results in the long run.

“That’s exactly it,” said Goldberg, who said the Welch decision “is what it is, and we move on.”

Meanwhile, Grimace continues to generate positive discussions. Karen Tiber Leland, CEO of New York-based Sterling Marketing, said there is “always an element of luck and chance.” And a quirky connection like burgers and baseball can be mutually beneficial, even if at first Seems strange.

“Imagine there are two rooms, and you send a McDonald's representative into a room with 1,000 people, and you send a Mets representative into a McDonald's room with 1,000 people,” said Leland, who was with neither parties work together. “Each of them gets to speak to a new audience that they might not have been able to speak to, and they leverage the credibility of the company that hosts them in that space.”

What will happen to the Grimace Effect for the Mets after this season is unclear. A McDonald's outpost at Citi Field is not currently under discussion, Mallette said. Goldberg pointed out that Shake Shack already has a presence in the park. (“There's no problem with those two, by the way, they supported it, so that was cool,” Goldberg said of Shake Shack.)

One way or another, Mets fans probably got their money's worth from both companies.

“One way to assess the dollar value of this partnership is to look at the media exposure both brands receive,” Leland said. “You get your media exposure for free, right? This article you are about to write is a media exposure for them. They didn’t pay anything for it, so it’s advertising money that no one had to pay for.”

(Top illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The athlete; Photos: Marcus Ingram / Getty Images)