McDonald's | Why you should love a long & flexible approach to brand

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INTRODUCTION
Some readers may think McDonald’s is not relevant for their smaller startup or scaleup. Think again. Over the last three years McDonald’s has offered us a masterclass in how to turn a brand around, realign with culture and reverse years of decline. Sound interesting? Ok let’s break it down…

#1 A HOT MESS
This past week everyone seems to be talking about (and loving) the new McDonald’s ‘As Seen In’ campaign. Yet whilst most have been praising the exceptional creative work few have taken the time to really step back & understand the strategy behind it. And where does all great strategy begin?…better problems.

In previous weeks we have talked about the importance of defining better problems. Ones that go beyond the obvious and in turn unlock more powerful paths to growth. If you want to know more about this I highly recommend you read this post where we unpack the strategy behind Oatly. Anyway, when it came to McDonald’s they didn’t just have one problem, they had three big ones. They were, in truth, a bit of a hot mess. So what were these three problems? Well, first whilst most Americans had grown up loving McDonald’s many had now fallen out of love with the brand. Documentaries such as ‘Super Size Me’ and a general desire to eat better had seen the McDonald’s brand fall out of favour.

Second, the fast food category had radically changed over the last ten years. Increasingly a number of smaller challenger brands, many of whom claimed to offer healthier alternatives, were beginning to snap at the heels of McDonald's.

Third, the brand had fallen into the trap of obsessing over short-term tactical promotion instead of long-term brand building.

So clearly McDonald’s had many issues to deal with. However, as long-time members of this community will know the best problems are sharper, simpler and more interesting. What might be a sharper, simpler & more interesting problem for McDonald’s? One that can rekindle love for the brand, fend off challenger brands and help them pivot away from promotions? Well boiling it down we can see they needed to ‘remind everybody why they were once the most loved fast food restaurant in America’.

#2 PUT THE SPREADSHEETS DOWN
When it comes to strategy there are (broadly) two types of people. Some swear by data and believe numbers are the only way. Others are open to a more intuitive and human-first approach. Now don’t get me wrong the former is great for rigour and stakeholder alignment. However the latter offers something richer. Something that can often lead to a far more unique and nuanced understanding about consumer behaviour. And when it came to this approach McDonald’s took things to the next level.

They realised that if they wanted to ‘remind everybody why they were once the most loved fast food restaurant in America’ data wouldn’t cut it. They realised they had to uncover and play back those better moments people had with the brand in the past. Moments with the brand that every American could relate to. And that is why the brand spent many months travelling across America to uncover, what they came to call “fan truths”.

Over a period of months, McDonald's spoke to hundreds of people across America. They tasked themselves with finding ‘fan truths’. Stories about the brand through the eyes of the consumers. And when looking for these stories they had to have three important characteristics. First, they had to be specific (i.e. they had to be narrow & interesting rather than too generic or broad). Second, they had to be shared (ie people could relate to them). Third, they had to be special (ie made people feel warmly toward the brand).

Want to know what some of these fan truths looked like? I have placed some examples below…

• “The stepfather and daughter whose weekly bonding time happens in a McDonalds.”

• “Even pickle lovers or hates can still be friends”

• “You're on the road and miss the McDonald’s turn off…but you know there will be another soon”

• “Some people go beyond the menu and combine items to create their own secret menu”

This consumer-first approach to strategy was incredibly smart for three reasons. First, retelling fan truths would remind people how much they loved the brand. Second, the creative strategy of ‘Tell fan truths’ built on the brand’s purpose ‘to make delicious feel-good moments easy for one’ but offered up a richer & and more interesting approach. Third, it led to a creative platform that was both long & flexible. Let me explain that in more detail in the next section.

#3 LONG & FLEXIBLE
Many clients of Defiant have asked me what makes a great creative platform? What separates ‘Just Do It’ & ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ from others? Well, whilst there are many reasons - culturally relevant, creatively impactful, distinctive…there is one aspect that is often overlooked. The best platforms are both long and flexible. They are long (lasting for years ideally decades) and they are flexible (they can be expressed in many ways). McDonald’s creative platform is a brilliant example of this.

Their creative platform is not only long (currently at four years) it is also one that flexes incredibly well. Every creative brief that McDonald’s writes starts with a fan truth. This liberates the brand away from having to talk about generic product features or promotions. Instead, it creates a fantastic formula where even the most boring of briefs can tell a more interesting story. For example instead of just doing a generic range campaign showing all the products on offer, they leveraged the truth that “Some people go beyond the menu and combine items to create their own secret menu” to create the ‘Menu Hacks’ campaign.

Beyond product campaigns, this fan truths approach also flexes incredibly well into bigger brand campaigns. A great example of this is their 2020 Superbowl spot which tells fan truths from the perspective of some of the famous people in the world. A campaign that conveys the truth “Everyone has their McDonald’s order no matter how famous you are”.

#4 ALONGSIDE RATHER THAN TOP-DOWN

Too many brands today operate from a ‘top-down’ perspective. They take a fairly old-school approach to brand building. They turn up in the world and say ‘This is us’ and ‘We stand for this’. However at a time when people are beginning to call into question authority figures. A time when they are calling into question industry leaders & politicians. This approach feels not only outdated but increasingly fails to land.

What is so smart about McDonald’s ‘Fan truths’ approach is that it allows the brand to speak alongside consumers, rather than down to them. An approach that sees the brand go beyond traditional advertising. An approach that sees the brand behave like a fan and gives the community what fans really want. For example, whilst a top-down brand might have stopped at the big Super Bowl commercial, McDonald’s didn't. Instead, they gave consumers the opportunity to actually buy the famous meals featured in the film. Perhaps one of the most popular examples of this being the Travis Scott meal. This approach is genius for two reasons. First, a big issue for McDonald’s is that most people tend to order the same items over & over again. The ‘famous meals’ approach gets customers to reevaluate their choices and discover new items on the menu. Second, it’s a great way for the brand to tap into other fan communities. Travis Scott, for example, tends to have a far younger fan base which hadn’t tried McDonalds before. This approach is a great way to both reach and entice them into McDonald’s for the first time. And did it work? Fantastically. The Travis Scott range sold out in a matter of hours with people queuing around the block to get their hands on the release.

Btw want to know the best thing about true fans? They share your newsletter 😉 Thanks to Evis, Lucy, Tom, Francessca, Clara & Anthony who referred new members last week. Would love it if all of you did it this week 💪.

Simply click this link and then when on Linkedin hit the repost button.

Anyway, this fan approach is what also led the brand to create the ‘As Seen In’ campaign. The very campaign that has been setting social media alight over the last couple of weeks. An approach that sees the brand act alongside fans but also extend reach by tapping into the other fan communities (ie of all the other films, shown in the ad). An approach that is also born out of that same fan truth “Everyone has their McDonald’s order no matter how famous you are”.

CONCLUSION
Can I just say if you got to the end of this article, thanks so much for taking the time to read. I spend my Sundays writing each one by hand (no AI I promise). So it gives me hope, that I am not totally wasting my time 😂. It’s also why sharing and referring to this newsletter means so much. If you do like this week’s edition simply click the Linkedin link below and hit repost.

Simply click this link and then when on Linkedin hit the repost button.

Anyway, let’s wrap up this week’s edition by summarising what any brand can learn from McDonald’s.

First, your strategy will always only be as good as the problems you define. Second, don’t always rely on numbers. Embrace the power and possibilities of going out into the real world and actually speaking to people. Third, try to build consistent and flexible creative platforms. Fourth, explore how your brand might act alongside instead of from above.

As always, thanks for reading.

Will Poskett,
Founder of Defiant