Big Tasty and Co. in the Content of New Media

I´m lovin´ it!

It seems like the international branding campaign hit the mark as a lot of people do love McDonalds. After all, it is for a reason that McDonalds is the top-selling fast-food chain operating over 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries and territories around the world. Nearly 47 million costumers are served per day and in order to enthuse those even more and to cast a spell over not McDonalds lovers, the global market leader comes always up with new promoting strategies.

McDonalds serves as a model in the way that people in charge as for example Heather Oldani, U.S. Communications Director at McDonald’s, are aware of the big potential that is hiding in Social Media Marketing. But what makes the difference to other concerns which can see the benefits of using this Marketing strategy as well? The answer is that the idea of a Social Media Strategy is realized in an optimal manner by McDonalds and this is a big step forward in view of the declared aim to become the market leader in this area as well.

The communication strategy has been revised with the result being geared to the latest trends concerning social networks as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or YouToube. In the process, McDonalds places emphasis on an improved brand engagement and closeness to the concern on the part of the costumer. In order to achieve this goal, a transparent presence on several social platforms ought to encourage the engagement of the costumers getting into contact with the concern and the other way round, the concern gets the chance to get to know the consumer with their needs and wishes which is important in the way that McDonalds can adapt for example the products it serves.

The micro blogging service of Twitter takes an important position within the communication strategy. Requests on the part of the costumer often get lost in the net and remain unanswered. Thanks to the transparency, the speed and the enormous information content, Twitter conveys the message to the costumers that McDonalds takes its consumers seriously by responding to feedback and critique http://twitter.com/McDonalds. By giving suggestions and representations, the consumer is not just in the position to receive information by McDonalds for example in advertising spots, he is rather a producer himself meaning that his feedback is a form of content production.

Facebook as a second core factor in the social media marketing strategy, teams and links McDonalds Fans. It serves as a platform that provides the opportunity for members of a community to share informational content and by doing so a collective intelligence is created. The Facebook Fan website (http://www.facebook.com/McDonalds) serves as a central intersection of several activities referring to the brand on Facebook and it has so far about 1,5 million fans.

Using the example of McDonalds, one gets an impression how the potential of Social Media Marketing can be utilized. That’s the way a good Social Media Marketing is supposed to look like!

A totally different strategy in the matter of promoting its brand is the transmedia storytelling project “Dreaming in Mono” a 60 minute satire for television broadcast over seven episodes which was launched on the occasion of the Olympicgames in Vancouver. Having in mind how sponsers had been advertising just a few years ago, McDonalds has chosen a different strategy remembering that there should be a relation in some way between sport-advertisement and media storytelling. Bringing to life the rivalries and stereotypes of the Danes, Finns, Norwegians and Swedes, an unlikely group of Nordic people is trying to beat an old ski record, only on one ski: a monoski.

The brand and the product have been taken a back seat in favour of the dreams and the stories of the consumer or the McDonalds´ guests. The promotion of Dreaming in Mono is focused on both releasing some Tv-Spots and the url Dreaming in Mono hub.

The offer of The Dreaming in Mono hub is multifarious: music, videos, polls, iPhone apps, a contest, monoski tech tips as well as other applications. In order to connect people around the story, these services are combined with opportunities to start discussions. The content of each episode is unique serving on the one hand the episode story and on the other hand McDonald’s core values

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Dreaming In Mono - About Dreaming In Mono from Dreaming In Mono on Vimeo.

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