How 2 Marketing Dynamos Reinvigorated McDonald's for Gen Z

McDonald’s logo is one of the most familiar symbols on earth, recognized by more people around the world than the Christian cross. At 68, the fast-food brand is still one of the most valuable advertisers too, with Kantar putting its worth at $196.5 billion. However, in the years before the Covid-19 pandemic, McDonald’s was facing a major problem: Among young, digitally fluid audiences, the shine had come off those golden arches. A leaked 2016 internal memo suggested just 20% of millennials had tried a Big Mac. Elsewhere, data from financial firm Piper Sandler showed that teens were defecting to rivals Chick-fil-A, Chipotle and Dunkin’. In 2020, then-U.S. CMO Flatley acknowledged that under-34s were becoming harder for brands to reach. So she decided to take a risk and go all-in on celebrity partnerships intended to cement McDonald’s place in culture and rebuild its connection with younger audiences. Enter the Travis Scott Meal: a Quarter Pounder with cheese, french fries and a Sprite that gave the brand a 4.6% quarterly boost and doubled sales of its flagship patty. “What I saw in the U.S., and I can now see globally, is the power of putting McDonald’s side by side with other cultural icons," Flatley—now the company’s global CMO—told Adweek. "It’s helped us reinvent the brand in new, more relevant ways for Gen Z." Scott's combo (the first celebrity item to grace the fast-food chain's menu since Michael Jordan's McJordan in 1992) formed part of McDonald’s nationwide “Famous Orders” campaign devised by Flatley and Wieden+Kennedy in 2020. The work pushed the universal truth that everyone has a go-to McDonald’s order, even customers as iconic as Magic Johnson and Kim Kardashian. Flatley's gamble on celebrity paid off, and the success of the Houston-born rapper's combo started the chain on a path that not only helped it become more relevant, but also negated some of the damage Covid-19 had inflicted on its business. McDonald’s most senior marketer, Flatley, was promoted to global CMO in 2021, before being elevated again in 2023 to evp, global CMO and new business ventures. Tasked with building on the foundations his predecessor had laid, Tariq Hassan took up the U.S. CMO role when Flatley stepped up, with the added responsibility of leading McDonald’s customer experience. Flatley said she learned 'the power of putting McDonald's side by side with other cultural icons.' Both Hassan and Flatley—the company’s dynamic marketing duo—are laser-focused on reasserting McDonald’s status as an iconic brand, one that’s culturally relevant across continents and generations. The recipe they’re cooking up features a sprinkling of star power and insights rooted in fan truths, as well as a more cohesive internal approach to marketing—held together with a smart data and digital strategy. This approach is a "new world recipe for success,” said James Kirkham, CEO and founder of brand consultancy Iconic, who previously worked agency-side on McDonald's digital strategy in the U.K. "Rather than falling into the trap of trying to pastiche classic spots, the brand has instead taken core cultural ingredients and is turning them into a truly exciting body of work. … Cultural chaos is being tamed by the bright minds in Golden Arches HQ right now—and adland feels all the more fresh and fun for it.” Making culture, not burgers When Hassan arrived at McDonald's in August 2021 following a tenure as Petco's CMO, he wanted to keep that momentum going. “‘Famous Orders' woke up the brand and put some swagger back into the way we speak to consumers," he said. His message to his marketing team and agency partners, as per W+K: “McDonald’s isn’t just in the business of making burgers; it’s now in the business of making culture." (see below) Other celebrities began launching their own menu items that year, including rapper Saweetie. With some help from K-pop outfit BTS, Flatley took the campaign global, running it in almost 50 markets including India, Spain and Australia. What followed next was a complete reappraisal of McDonald's place in culture, as Hassan noted the brand's U.S. marketing had become heavily fixed around a busy promotional calendar. This, coupled with McDonald’s sheer size and ubiquity, meant it was too transactional. Its advertising spoke to everyone but said very little about its place in people’s lives: It was well known, but not necessarily well loved. ‘We’ve shifted our logic of being a brand that speaks brand-to-fan to one that speaks fan-to-fan,’ said Hassan. So Hassan has spent the past two years deepening the connection that the Travis Scott meal kickstarted with younger audiences, through what he described as “fan truths”: the moments, memories and real-life experiences that make McDonald’s relevant to individuals. “We’ve shifted our logic of being a brand that speaks brand-to-fan to one that speaks fan-to-fan,” Hassan said. Every single piece of communication McDonald’s puts out in the U.S. is derived from a physical book containing these vignettes, which is maintained by W+K, before being reflected in McDonald's creative. Giving fans a seat at the table In-store and online surveys, and data gleaned from social listening and McDonald’s official app inform these truths, which could range from people rehearsing their order before they approach the drive-thru speaker to, “I always put my hash brown inside my Sausage and Egg McMuffin.” Softer metrics play a part too, with marketers taking what Hassan dubbed “road trips” across different markets to intersect with the brand’s patrons where they spend their time: shopping, at concerts, and in McDonald’s restaurants. Completing the fan-to-fan cycle, McDonald’s asks fans to relay the message themselves, whether its Saweetie or a Filet-o-Fish-loving mom on TikTok. "When you attach the brand to other fans, whether they're celebrities, cultural figures or designers, they breathe new life into it, yet they still manage to retain much of what is so special about McDonald's," said Flatley. The brand's “Menu Hacks” campaign—in essence, “Famous Orders” for its less-starry customers—has seen unusual McDonald’s food combinations that had risen to fame on TikTok become official menu options. For Hassan, it was a manifestation of this entire approach. “We didn’t invent the menu hack—it was alive and well on TikTok—but we just decided to lean in, in a simple way and create a unique experience for fans,” Hassan said, noting that each food item was packaged separately so people had to “build” their own McDonald’s meal. McDonald’s Global CMO Promoted as Brand Outlines ‘Creative Excellence’ Marketing Growth Plan In another instance, a relatable tweet from a customer declaring how sad it was that “one day you ordered a Happy Meal for the last time, and you didn't even know it" was the genesis for the brand’s unexpected but successful 2021 collaboration with streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market. The imprint’s founder, Cynthia Lu, redesigned the famous little red box for adults. Each one contained a meal and a surprise: one of four collectible figurines based on familiar McDonald’s characters including the Hamburglar and a new limited-edition mascot, Cactus Buddy. Custom Cactus Plant Flea Market x McDonald's items including T-shirts were also listed online. Lu “and the design team delved into their own nostalgia and experiences and brought an idea that was all about friendship to life,” Hassan said. “As a marketer, you must find the insight, find the idea, enter culture and collaborate. To do that, you can’t control it—you’ve got to share the pen." Hassan called the campaign a “home run," and said it led McDonald’s to experience its highest weekly digital figures in history after its launch in September 2022. Flatley praised Lu for helping customers, and McDonald's itself, "see the brand in a new light.” Would You Like a Side of Culture With That? When it comes to marketing, McDonald’s doesn’t just want to sell burgers—it also wants to shape popular culture. Hassan is the first to admit that the word “culture” has become overused by marketers. But for McDonald’s, the term starts with something very simple: the menu. “It’s so central to our business,” said Flatley, noting the menu team sits within the U.S. and global marketing divisions. The brand spends time going on what Hassan described as “food safaris” around different markets to get a feel for trends and what customers want and create new classics. That includes the McCrispy (a crunchy fried chicken sandwich), which was launched into markets including the U.S., U.K. and LATAM to help the brand grow its share of the chicken market. Flatley said her team has been tasked with turning the menu item into a “global icon,” as famous as the Big Mac. “We’re a food company,” said Hassan. “We must think about how we impact culture from a taste perspective. We must find fun and unique ways to reflect the changing dynamic and culture in each market.” It’s not all about food, though, as Hassan made clear to the brand’s U.S. creative agency, W+K, when he joined in 2021. Marques Gartrell and Brandon Henderson, the agency’s global executive creative directors for the McDonald’s account, relayed his original brief: McDonald’s wasn’t just in the business of making burgers; it now had to be in “the business of driving culture.” The pair had already been working on the brand’s fan-led strategy with Flatley, putting “Famous Orders” and the Travis Scott meal out into the world. “For those fan truths, we always say they’re at their best when they’re specific, special and shared,” said Gartrell, adding that the brand decided to stop listening to the “haters” and instead follow fans’ lead. So they also focused on the menu, responding to fan calls for the return of McDonald’s legendary Szechuan sauce (available exclusively via the app), which has only appeared on the menu four times in the past 25 years. Once the sauce’s return was announced in March 2022, W+K knew diners would go crazy to collect the packaging, so it leaned into the behavior by treating it like an exclusive sneaker drop, with five different collectible designs, said Gartrell. McDonald’s official social media accounts were flooded with promotions, alongside a Times Square billboard. The social-led campaign became the brand’s most cost-efficient app download campaign, reaching 420 million people. Henderson’s favorite work to date for the brand was centered around another cult classic, the McRib, which was brought back in October 2022 for what McDonald’s claimed was a “farewell tour.” Posters displaying the juicy BBQ pork dish’s image appeared nationwide, while an accompanying website told fans where to get it, along with how to access McRib trivia, download T-shirt decals and send messages to fellow McRib lovers. Globally, the same ethos is being driven by agencies including TBWA\Paris, which has been McDonald’s partner in France since 1985. In 2021, post-lockdown, the creative shop unveiled “Guess Who’s Back”: a logo- and product-free pixel campaign that made a visual play on just how embedded McDonald’s is in everyday culture. “That campaign was all about reductionism; it was minimalist and simple,” said Faustin Claverie, executive creative director at TBWA\Paris. “We wanted to have fun with consumers, and the brand is so immediately recognizable that this was easy to do.” —R.S. ‘A marketer’s dream’ In the brand’s U.S. home market, Hassan’s strategic approach is paying off with sales increasing 5.9% in 2022, boosted by increased foot traffic and consumers trading down from full-service restaurants amid an economic squeeze. Globally, same-store sales climbed 10.9% for the year, with strong demand in the U.K., Germany and France. This was despite a financial hit from exiting Russia after 30 years in the market, following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Overseeing marketing for the more than 38,000 locations it operates in across the world, Flatley has been fixed on executing the McDonald’s “Accelerating the Arches” digital growth strategy, which has meant doubling down on what she termed the “four Ds”: delivery, digital, drive-thru and development. Digital sales in its top six global markets topped $7 billion in the final three months of 2022, accounting for 35% of the fast-food behemoth’s revenues. With these numbers still on the rise, a huge focus for the PepsiCo and Saatchi & Saatchi alum Flatley has been onboarding consumers to McDonald’s official app—host to its MyMcDonald’s Rewards program—which CEO Chris Kempczinski recently told investors has more than 50 million “active” users in its top six markets. The initiative offers discounts on everything from fries to McFlurries and allows consumers to earn points on their purchases that can later be redeemed for menu items. “Our app is so important. Getting to know consumers better is the way forward,” Flatley said, adding that the company was already successfully serving personalized offers and messages to customers, leading to “increased visits and frequency of purchase.” Hassan acknowledged the app was “a marketer’s dream” in a world where brands are increasingly leaning on first-party data, and it was one of the things that drew him to McDonald’s just prior to its debut. More tailored advertising and customization is in the pipeline, said Hassan, outlining his ambition that the app would use data exchange to drive cultural moments with digital natives. Hassan already tried his hand at this in 2022 with “Camp McDonald’s,” a “reimagined” digital version of organized summer fun geared toward Gen Z customers. Hosted within the mobile app, the collaboration with musician Kid Cudi was billed as 27 days of daily programs where fans could engage with promotions, merch and more. “It was an acquisition program, and it encouraged 2 million customers onto the app. But if you talk to people who experienced it, they wouldn’t say they were ‘acquired.’ Instead, they engaged with a monthlong experience,” Hassan noted. “When we talk about marketing at McDonald’s, we don’t separate brand or performance—we talk about brand performance. That was a perfect example of this in action.” For Flatley, seeing how customers interact with the app is also helping to bridge the gap between customer experience (CX) and brand—an initiative the company forged an entire division dedicated to achieving in 2020. Led by chief customer officer Manu Steijaert, the CX team combines data analytics, digital engagement, global marketing and operations to improve how guests engage with the brand at each physical and digital touchpoint. “We sit down and talk with them about how the decisions we make as marketers impact everything from back of house to restaurant design,” said Flatley. She highlighted markets such as China, where most customer transactions are digital (whether via the app or in-store screens) and how this evolving behavior will impact every brand interaction. “Marketing needs to have a strong seat at the CX table to talk about the role of the consumer,” she said. “That is what the future is going to look like for McDonald’s.” Inside McDonald’s Global Marketing Consortium World travelers know that McDonald’s tastes a little different around the globe. From its Dosa Masala Burger in India to its Philippines’ exclusive Cheesy Eggdesal breakfast option, the chain caters to individuals across continents and cultures. But when it comes to global marketing, Flatley is encouraging its brand custodians to take lessons from one another, bringing both a culture of collaboration and more cohesion to McDonald’s global marketing proposition. A worldwide consortium of McDonald’s CMOs—from those based in China to the U.S.—meet monthly to share ideas and progress. The group was formed at the height of Covid-19, when the brand’s global marketers were feeling “unsure” about their next step, Flatley said. Meetings were initially set to develop a “support network” that would help steer the brand through a tumultuous period. Since then, though, the concept has evolved into a space where CMOs can share creative ideas, working as a collective toward McDonald’s goal of cementing its place in culture. The ultimate example of this forum in action, said Flatley, was McDonald’s “Raise Your Arches” work (above) developed by Leo Burnett London under the watch of Michelle Graham-Clare, the brand’s U.K. CMO. Graham-Clare shared the work—which celebrated the iconic golden arches without mentioning the brand name—with her peers ahead of launch. “It was so special that we were able to scale the work worldwide,” said Flatley, who extended the campaign into 35 additional markets. —R.S. Bringing cohesion to creativity As well as preparing the brand for its digital future, Flatley is steering a culture of creative excellence internally and with agency partners—including Leo Burnett, DDB, TBWA, W+K, Starcom and OMD—to cement the brand’s cultural status beyond the U.S. and deliver results for the Happy Meal maker across borders. To meet these goals, Flatley has started to bake “more structure” into its creative processes to ensure campaigns are “much more consistent” between markets, she said. This has included giving CMOs standardized briefing guidelines and building propriety measurement tools to assess how a campaign will land and whether it has delivered its intended results. McDonald's global roster of CMOs also meet regularly to share ideas and knowledge. (see below) Currently, McDonald's is piloting a test in the U.S. and U.K. and using its own first-party data to inform marketing decisions early in the creative process, according to Flatley. This will be rolled out across the globe later this year. "The data piece is something we're getting really smart on," said Flatley. "We've been piloting this for the last nine months, and it has given us a great understanding of how it will work. It's helped us work with CMOs and their teams and agencies on how to build data into their processes without disrupting creativity.” This shift comes as marketers are facing more pressure than ever to deliver results to the C-suite, with a recent survey from marketing intelligence firm WARC saying two-thirds of all brand bosses expect a recession to have a significant impact on their strategy. And even McDonald’s isn’t immune to the challenging economic environment: At press time, it was prepared to follow fellow giants like Amazon, Facebook and Disney in making layoffs to brace the business for a downturn. However, the company declined to comment on how those cutbacks could affect Flatley and Hassan's marketing strategy. As Hassan and Flatley look to what might help McDonald’s operate in a leaner fashion in the future, they’re buoyed by the creative promise held by generative AI tech such as ChatGPT and OpenAi’s DALL-E. “We’re starting to think about the role it’s going to play for us, how it will help us triangulate third- and first-party data to give us a predictive understanding of our fans and what they want,” Hassan said. Pilots are planned for the U.S. later this year. Flatley stressed that rather than replacing humans, AI would help McDonald’s deliver more relevant creativity at scale—helping supercharge the brand's already ambitious marketing strategy. “You can’t build the great relationship our brand hinges on without great creativity. I haven’t been able to figure out how to do that at scale. [These technologies], combined with all our agencies and the creative brains inside them, [will serve up] hundreds of thousands of personalized creative campaigns,” she said. “It’s going to be a game-changer for us.” This story is part of Adweek’s Finding the Customer digital package, which spotlights marketers’ efforts to accurately measure and track evolving consumer behaviors and engagement. Fast Food’s Next Battleground: In-House Delivery

Finding the Customer

Golden Arch-itects: How 2 Marketing Dynamos Reinvigorated McDonald's for Gen Z

Old McDonald's? Not anymore, thanks to CMOs Morgan Flatley and Tariq Hassan

Rebecca Stewart

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Rebecca Stewart