I love crowded sourced content. The power of people cannot be underestimated. When curating popular content, one must anticipate spontaneous reaction from their fans. Take McDonald’s, Australia for example, their newly released social film was directed using script provided from over 3 million fans. They helped gave creative ideas, copy and direction for this movie. The film, “Loaded”, was created in slightly over two weeks with an episode being launched almost every 3 days in tandem to its gathering of ideas from their fan base. It helped mould the final movie which lasted almost 8 minutes. Not only is it humorous, its also very creative. Be sure to watched till the end credits! Well, its basically french fries doing most of the talking!
Giant lunchbox
One of the commonly used creative approach for outdoor advertising. The ‘bigger-than-life’ approach to create attention. McDonald’s restaurant in Sydney, Australia has executed a large scale stunt where they erect a giant size kid’s lunch box done up with vivid colours and an amazing facade! DDB Sydney headed the project and has implemented this outdoor activation to move around Australia. Major cities like Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne will see this big lovely lunch box hitting their streets! This surprise is actually another exciting pop-up restaurant to give McDonalds fans another interesting dinning experience.
Gourmet burger kiosks
A rather interesting way to sell their burgers. McDonald’s have just came out with a rather innovative way to get their customers to order their signature burgers their own way. McDonald’s new create your own gourmet burger iniative in Australia is pretty interesting. It allows their customers to customise their very own burger. How cool is that? Check this guy’s burger at the end of the video!
Save the Sundae!
For a start, this might seem lame to certain people. However, the idea of interactivity and engaging consumers is clear in this execution. Mc Donald’s ‘Save the Sundae’ campaign came as a brilliant idea that addresses to the brand’s eagerness to engage their followers. Good job from the boys from Leo Burnett.
KFC China
This is definitely one of the most insightful article with regards to China, a fast and growing market.AdAge reports the recent campaign by KFC in China on how they are adopting the cliche but sure-win approach of celebrity endorsements. This campaign by Ogilvy, takes celebrity endorsements onto another level. What interests me is how receptive the market in China is from their reaction to many stale marketing tactics. Using a group of five influential celebrities, the campaign aims to go for the kill through not only a collective celebrity power, but also tapping on the celebrities’ social fan base. Taking into consideration that one of the actors has a staggering 72 million followers on Weibo, it is potentially a lethal marketing cannon.
As much I believe, China is quickly becoming a very digitally savvy nation. Ogilvy Shanghai, fully aware of this rising trend, leverages on it with their digital campaign for KFC. They immediately focus on using these celebrities to advertise on engaging social media activities. One for instance, aims to motivate fans to compete against one another over the amount of “likes” for their favorite celebrities. Another very fruitful insight from AdAge talks about the fact that KFC has been one of the biggest and most successful food chain with the longest history in China, since its penetration 27 years ago. A whopping 2,600 outlets in China alone is seriously no joke. A bigger market equity than McDonalds by itself is an amazing feat.
However, as the the brand suffers a decline in operations, branding and sales due to the avian flu outbreak and health inspections, it was devoid of a good strategy to fight back. Now with more marketing campaigns and excellent strategic brand initiatives, the brand is taking back its helm.
What I believe to be extremely essential is an extract from Adage‘s article:
“Celebrities are often used as a quick and easy way to sell products in China,” acknowledged Graham Fink, Ogilvy & Mather‘s chief creative officer for greater China. He pointed out that the same celebrities are often tapped by many brands.
“I think that more and more people are beginning to see through this ‘cheap’ tactic, and the brand will ultimately suffer as a result,” he said. But if the celeb seems “genuinely involved in the message they become more believable, and this is what we are trying to do with KFC.”
Another one:
A top national executive for KFC’s parent company, Yum!, noted that China is the world’s biggest digital society (with 618 million people online) and that Chinese consumers are “moving at the speed of a bullet train.”
The brand is seeking to revamp its menu and offerings every 12 months and I believe this would constantly refresh their image and presence in the eyes of the consumer. When done effectively, shall be a very deciding factor when it comes to triumphing strict competition between competitors on an industry level.
More:
Milind Pant, president and chief operating officer for Yum! China, wrote in an email that “urban Chinese are becoming the most digital savvy group in the world, offering opportunities for brands to innovate and communicate.”
The menu revamp is part of what KFC has labeled its “restage,” which includes new product packaging, uniforms, store designs, a mobile app, an e-menu and a prepay takeout offering.
And of course, not forgetting that bigger companies comes with a heavier inertia and requires longer time to maneuver effectively.
“I think it’s very difficult to steer such a big chain in a new direction,” he said. “And it took this situation with the antibiotics to really force them into making some fairly dramatic changes … A complete revamp of the brand is a good idea.”
More with less
A good way to show that we can do the environment more good by helping to cut down on reusable materials to certain degree. Industrial design student Robert Bye had an idea on how the packaging for McDonald’s should be made. He create the concept by replacing the way we serve the meals. It can save up a lot on the materials and cost. He takes 3 main points into consideration: Renewable, Simple and Specific. What he derived from was a container made from cardboard that could take on your entire meal! Talking about being handy and cheap! In the long run, more and more paper can be save and the production of plastic trays would lesser and this, when done in volume, has a big effect on saving the environment. I liked how it took a simple idea and make it work. It always gives us that “why didnt i think about this” question.
Making mealtime a happier time
I have people telling me that the digital frontier is so near yet so far. With people having doubts in technology and their resistance to changes, it takes a lot more convincing to get them moving. However, the good news is, whether one likes it or not, technology is here to stay and is going to change everything you once think you grasped into something completely unimaginable. That’s the beauty of technology. And, we see that McDonald’s is taking this to their benefit by coming out with the NFC Concept Table. It is the first of it’s kind, launched in Yishun, Singapore. Awesome work from the conservative island of Singapore. It is on it’s experimental stage and would rollout through the entire Asia with families who owns NFC enabled smartphones as their main target audience. The work is aimed at providing kids with a unique yet interactive experience while dining at McDonald’s.
The technology is created by hiding NFC tags under the table which forms up to an entire experience. It allows for kids to have a ‘drive’ around on the table. The best and fun part of the game is the different challenges they face and stories that comes along. It also gives them something to look forward to as they learn to unlock the next part of the game through each of the individual tags. Very interesting and innovative work from Singapore. Thumbs up.
Zack Chia 