McDonald's After Covid: Breaking Rules And Stealing Hearts

IPA Effectiveness Awards Case Study 2024

This case covers the period from July 2021 to December 2023 in which McDonald’s set out to increase brand love and restore its revenue growth to pre-COVID levels, despite cost-of-living pressures on consumers. It describes how the brand developed its award-winning ‘Raise Your Arches’ advertising and evolved its media strategy to include longer spot lengths, more flexible optimisation between TV and VOD, and new partnerships with influencers and celebrities. Evidence the strategy worked includes brand and business results that surpassed targets and an estimated return of 90p profit for every £1 invested in marketing.

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Client Statement

Hannah Pain, Head of Marketing, McDonald's UK

Businesses looking to grow in today’s turbulent world, need to have measures in place that allow them to thrive despite whatever might happen next. For McDonald’s UK, that has meant bravely doing whatever it takes to grow Brand Love. Our past two and a half years of growth would not have happened without it. Since Covid, our industry has faced a series of serious headwinds. Not only has the cost-of-living-crisis ushered in the longest slump in retailer sales since lockdown, but incoming regulatory changes now look likely to make matters worse. In these circumstances, there is always the temptation to just focus on short-term promotions and discounting. However, whilst these are fundamental tactics, they would have far from guaranteed our long-term growth during this period. Instead, we needed love and we needed lots of it - defying any convention or inherited wisdom that held us back from generating it for our brand. And it was this approach that took sales to record highs, generated over £1.2bn in incremental revenue, and opened a whole new chapter for McDonald’s UK. We hope this provides encouragement for all brands faced with the same uncertain future. But, most of all, we hope this inspires you to challenge some frontiers and raise some eyebrows of your own.