Oakbrook, IL
McDonald's "i'm lovin' it"
2002 was rough for McDonald's. The brand was in decline, the stock price was dropping, employee morale was low, and consumer trust in the company was non-existent. Marketing alone wouldn't turn all this around, but it played a lead role in updating the brand's expression with the launch of "i'm lovin' it" in 2003. Over 20 years later, it is the longest running brand campaign in McDonald's history.
The company's new CEO wanted to reinvent their marketing communications with a multidimensional brand story with an approach he (then we) called Brand Journalism. This approach made room for brand positioning that made room for different features and benefits, relevant to different consumer segments, that all held a distinctive, consistent brand character.
I was a lead writer and creative director with a journalism background, working at Tribal DDB on then cutting-edge digital and interactive marketing for McDonald's in the US. It took a couple years to fullyu activate "i'm lovin' it" around the globe. The performance of our work during this time made me the "token digital guy" among the global team of DDB agency network leads and McDonald's marketing clients. As part of this team, I attended five international summits to help refine the new brand positioning. We spent much time discussing what the "it" in "i'm lovin' it" is, and how to articulate it for different cultures.
McDonald's was my client for a little over a decade, across two agency networks, ranging from global to national and local owner-operator campaigns. Because McDonald's was embarking on a digital transformation at the time, my strategic expertise was increasingly in demand and got me into conversations further upstream from the typical "digital creative vendor" ever got at the time.
The term storytelling wasn't nearly so overused in 2003, but Brand Journalism was very much a combination of brand management and journalistic storytelling. The "journalistic" aspect is significant for the objectivity and integrity that were necessary to rebuild trust in the brand, and later, in the quality of the food and the in-store experience.
My team created thousands of assets in Flash, now a distant memory of mid-00s Internet. Below is a modest collection of screenshots that show some of the range we covered in products, messages, target audiences (we worked on every consumer segment and ethnic group in the US).
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Creative Direction (Interactive & Digital)
- Campaign Experience Mapping
- Connections Planning (In-Game Integration w/ XBox)
- Global Digital Creative & Strategy
In-Game Integration
I was fortunate to be invited early to meetings with media buyers and partners. Within the same Dollar Menu media buy, we had a chance to unlock IGN's Game Guides (usually behind a paywall at the time) and integrate messaging into real-time networked gameplay on Xbox. My push was to connect these efforts and make a unique, ahead-of-its-time brand experience for gamers. In-game messaging focused on what the player desired at the moment: cheat codes and how-tos.
When gamers visited the IGN Game Guides, they would encounter more product-focused messaging from McDonald's Dollar Menu. But we kept the in-game experience focused on the thing gamers love — getting further immersed in their favorite Xbox titles.
Diversity
My creative team tackled every consumer segment and demographic for the brand. We applied the Brand Journalism approach to everything from Ronald McDonald House Charities (left) to McGriddles (right). We worked on all of the brand's consumer segments at the time: moms, kids, and young adult males across General, Hispanic, African-American, and Asian consumer markets.
Brand Milestones
Occasionally we would have a brand milestone to celebrate. Our campaign for the 40th anniversary of the Big Mac heralded a new era of product photography and adoption of the "simple bold" visual style developed for packaging and POS. I wrote and designed this landing page for McDonalds.com in the car, en route to a short-notice meeting with the marketing clients. They loved it.