Browsing: McDonald’s

Movings & Shakings
McDonald’s announces trio of executive changes
By

McDonald’s has revamped its executive team through a trio of recent appointments. David Howse has stepped in as managing director, Jo Mitchell has been promoted to director of marketing and Brid Drohan-Stewart has joined the organisation as head of marketing. PLUS: former director of marketing Chris Brown and former managing director Patrick Wilson depart.

News
Too cool for burger school
By

McDonald’s is having a reasonably rough time of it at the moment, with falling sales in some of its bigger markets and more trouble brewing with those pesky, transparency-seeking, provenance-loving, fast-casual fans known as millennials not really lovin’ it as much as they once did. But it’s trying to change and, as a recent campaign in Australia shows, it’s trying to be ‘very unMcDonald’s’, whether it’s through the launch of premium burgers, new branding, clever packaging or global days of creativity. It’s also looking to recruit digitally savvy staff as it aims to bring “a start-up mindset to one of the world’s largest and most iconic brands” and, in an ad on LinkedIn, it seems to have attempted to illustrate what it thinks those staff might look like.

News
McDonald’s pushes on with provenance, gets its pound of flesh from ‘patty investigator guy’ Guy Montgomery
By

McDonald’s may be struggling globally as fast casual chains and the popularity of premium burgers eat into its share, but the Kiwi arm managed to lift sales by two percent last year. And, as part of its mission to be more transparent with the Our Food, Your Questions campaign, it’s got comedian Guy Montgomery to take punters through the patty manufacturing process.

News
McDonald’s flips Hamburglar, embraces kale
By

McDonald’s is working to bring the lovin’ back into its brand after its sales dropped seven percent in 2014. CEO Steve Easterbrook said this week he plans to completely overhaul the company, cutting costs, sprucing up its menu and restructuring its empire. But to remain relevant, McDonald’s is going down some wacky avenues, pursuing a revamp of its Hamburglar character and adding kale to breakfast meals.

News
Big Mac boxes sing to Auckland customers as part of global McDonald’s initiative
By

For its latest campaign, McDonald’s seems to have taken inspiration from the the nursery rhyme ‘Sing a song of six pence’. But rather than having “four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” singing to a king, it has instead added a touch of music to its Big Mac boxes. Yesterday, as selected McDonald’s customers in Auckland opened their Big Mac boxes, they were blasted by song straight from the burger’s container. The singing boxes were part of McDonald’s global ‘imlovinit24’ initiative, which sought to share 24 moments of joy to millions in 24 hours.

News
Restaurant dining, gourmet burgers and touchscreen ordering: McDonald’s aims to give consumers what they want
By

McDonald’s Balmoral franchise along Auckland’s Dominion Road is currently piloting a new initiative that brings a slightly more gourmet twist to its menu in an attempt to tap into the lucrative market currently occupied by the likes of Burger Fuel and Burger Wisconsin. The introduction of ‘Create your taste’ allows customers to customise their burgers via an digital touchscreen kiosk that offers a list of 20 ingredients.

News
Signs of our times
By

McDonald’s, fresh from launching a new brand that ups the love and aims to halt sliding sales, launched a new ad during the Golden Globes that showed how the signs outside its restaurants in the US “have been used to spread messages of love, hope and respect”. Of course, whenever there is a sign, there will be those who manipulate them for comedic effect. And College Humour has put together a different, more puerile version.

News
A serving of reality
By

McDonald’s has been fighting back against some of the more pervasive myths and legends about its business in recent years. One of the first things the Canadians explained as part of the first Our Food, Your Questions campaign is why the food never looks as good in real life as it does in the ads—and they did a good job of it. But the local outfit appears to be favouring the advertising vérité approach, because some of the pics it’s been posting recently on its Facebook page are much closer to the real thing than they are to over-stylised glamour shots.

News
Kiwi brands experiment in six seconds of fun on Vine
By

Since Vine launched in January 2013 it’s fair to say the six-second video app has taken off. According to Vine, every month now more than 100 million people watch Vines across the web. Owned by Twitter, the social media platform boasts 1 billion views or ‘loops’ of videos every day, with the majority of users being teens. The largest age group on Vine is 18 – 20 year olds. But are Kiwi brands slower on the uptake than our global counterparts?

News
McDonald’s makes online push to raise awareness of McHappy Day, continues efforts to be seen as a ‘good neighbour’
By

In the lead up to this year’s edition of McHappy Day—the signature fundraising event for the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC)—McDonald’s has launched a YouTube video that draws attention to the charitable work the organisation does to assist families who have children suffering from illnesses. The video features compilation of clips heart-wrenching clips of families living in on the Kiwi-based Ronald McDonald Houses.

1 2