MACFRIES PEDESTRIAN CROSSING

Advertising Agency: TBWA\Zurich, Switzerland

Creative Directors: Michael Kathe, Martin Friedlin

Art Director: Dominique Magnusson

Copywriter: Michael Kathe

Art Buyer: Christina Hengstmann

Account Manager: Guido Zehnder

McDONALD's LAUNCHES "I'M LOVIN' IT" 2.0 CAMPAIGN

Fast-Feeder Reboots 7-Year-Old Campaign in Wake of Massive Sales and Share Gains...

After more than a year of consumer research and agency brainstorming, McDonald's global chief marketing officer unveiled an updated take on its iconic, 7-year-old "I'm Lovin' It" campaign today before an audience of 15,000 franchisees, marketers and suppliers.

"I'm Lovin' It" is now the company's most successful and longest-running campaign, surpassing the iconic "You deserve a break today," and "Food, Folks and Fun," both in longevity and sales gains. The tagline actually predates CMO Mary Dillon, who took over McDonald's global marketing in 2005. "If you look at the business success, there would have been no reason" for changing the campaign, she said in a subsequent interview, "except for ego."

"All across our system, our marketing leaders and agencies in the U.S., Europe, [Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa], Latin America, and Canada, we're building on our multibillion-dollar asset -- 'I'm Lovin It' -- and making it even better," Ms. Dillon told the audience, according to prepared remarks. "We're bringing it out from behind the arches and into the action to better brand and celebrate those uniquely McDonald's moments." New spots end with the tagline appearing by itself, and the arches appearing later.

"Even more importantly," Ms. Dillon continued, "we're making sure that we build both brand equity and drive sales with every piece of advertising." She described an approach that's more authentic, more saturated in consumer insights and emotion, and within "a framework that gives us a consistent point of view about our brand."

Besides, with different iterations in 117 countries and dozens of languages, wholesale changes are very expensive. "Launching and seeding awareness of a new tagline is a major financial undertaking," Ms. Dillon said. "You'd have to be very sure that you needed to do that" to ensure future success of the business.

Lifting the bar on global creative

While news of the upcoming reboot sparked speculation that McDonald's may be scrapping the campaign and starting fresh, Ms, Dillon said the campaign was still working, and so she charged the chain's biggest agency partners with making it better. Those included in the huddle: Omnicom's DDB Worldwide, TBWA and OMD; Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett Worldwide, Publicis, Brazil's Taterka (in which Publicis owns a 5% stake), and independent Cossette in Canada.

The result is advertising expected to lift the bar on McDonald's creative around the world, said Mark Tutssel, global chief creative officer, Leo Burnett Worldwide. The work also appears to be funnier, more emotional and better grounded in a storyline.

For example, a Leo Burnett spot for the U.S. market sure to garner attention features a father bear treating his cub son to McDonald's after getting all A's on his report card (subjects include fishing and mangling). For them, that means using the cub as a decoy to attract a passing car so the father can then scare the passengers away. The pair eats McDonald's french fries that the tourists had been munching on along their scenic drive. There's even a lesson: Papa bear shakes the car to get a stray fry from the floorboard, and then tosses the vehicle. "There's always an extra fry at the bottom," he said.

And while this is a different take on what's been McDonald's everyday communication, Mr. Tutssel said it communicates key points such as family bonding, and fun with food. It also helps with unenviable task of getting marketing up to speed with the "I'm Lovin' It" promise.

Another U.S. spot, from DDB, depicts a woman returning from a trip, looking for her boyfriend in the airport, but spotting another man with a bag of McDonald's. When her boyfriend arrives, with flowers, she is polishing off her meal with the stranger. She looks at him and shrugs contentedly.

Yesterday, McDonald's reported second-quarter earnings that confounded Wall Street expectations, while same-store grew 3% globally, and surged a stunning 6% in the U.S. Ms. Dillon said she and her team take this as a sign that the advertising is doing what it's supposed to do.

McDONALD'S NAMES FIRST SOCIAL MEDIA CHIEF

Hire of Rick Wion, Founding Member of Digital Task Force, Comes After a Year Spent Devising Strategies...

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- McDonald's is ramping up its social-media efforts in the U.S., naming its first director-social media, Rick Wion.

Mr. Wion, who hails from GolinHarris Chicago, has handled social-media projects for McDonald's since 2006. He was a founding member of the McDonald's Digital Task Force, which established the company's digital strategy.

In an interview, Mr. Wion said his marching orders are three-fold: using social media to build the business, manage customer problems, and beef up outreach to target groups such as mommy bloggers. Mr. Wion will work with the fast feeder's U.S. media relations team, and will soon have support staff. Mr. Wion will report to Heather Oldani, director-external communications and public relations.

Ms. Oldani said that Mr. Wion's hire is the capstone to a full year spent devising a dedicated social-media strategy, assessing opportunities and establishing a method of determining ROI in the space. "Now it's time to have [someone] dedicated 100% of the time, rather than someone who's got a day job on top of a day job."

His first McDonald's social-media project, back in 2006, involved a publicity tour for Sarah Ferguson and Ronald McDonald House Charities for which he and his team developed a travel journal. More recently, Mr. Wion was involved in establishing the McDonald's Twitter handle, @mcdonalds, and establishing the process for responding to consumer complaints, among other things. The team has also put in place regulations for regional markets looking to set up their own feeds, like @mcdonalds_cincy. Regions must, for instance, identify their area in the handle in the event there's a promotion in Cincinnati that isn't going on in Philadelphia.

One of Mr. Wion's first major projects will be stepped-up outreach to mommy bloggers, which the chain has been courting for several years through its Moms Quality Correspondents. McDonald's will be reaching out to the group in a variety of ways this summer, Ms. Oldani said.

At Golin, where Mr. Wion was VP-social media, he developed social-media strategies for other major marketers including Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and BP. He also consulted with clients on alternative uses for social media, including FDA-regulated pharmaceutical marketing. Prior to Golin, Mr. Wion was director-client technology at Smithbucklin Corp., where he advised clients in digital marketing, e-commerce and content development.

The Dean's Notes: I'm glad to see McDonald's lead the way for creating a new module and implement an entire division and appoint a specific individual to oversee how McDonald's interact with it's loyal patrons through social media.