McDonald’s Asia-wide National Breakfast Day campaign needed a digital component to boost breakfast sales across the region. Driven by the business goal to increase the breakfast business by 1% year-on-year, we tapped into the insight that most people hate mornings, but love them if there is something to look forward to. We created a promotion that was specifically designed to grow brand awareness and boost customer interaction every day.
Alarm clocks are enmeshed in our daily routines, with around 85% of people using one. However, they tend not to be thought of positively. We wanted to find a way for McDonald’s to become part of customers’ morning rituals but in a positive way. The McDonald’s Surprise alarm flips the negative connotations of an alarm clock on its head by giving customers something worth getting up for every day.
tms created McDonald’s Surprise Alarm app, an alarm clock that delivers a fun surprise each morning. Users received McDonald’s food items, partner music tracks, entertainment, and more. From the strategy to the app build and even the language translations, we took the lead on bringing the customer experience to life. Our proprietary technology product iWin integrated with the app, empowering the prize distribution. Like a big roulette wheel in the cloud, it returned a secure, valid, and fair prize result in real time with each and every game play. With over 7.5 million app opens per day, the McDonald’s Surprise Alarm built brand affinity, increased visits, and drove incremental transactions in Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.
McDonald’s sought to overhaul its foam McCafé® coffee cups based on customer insights and a need to align supplier practices with sustainability goals.
McDonald’s tapped tms to initiate, manage, and implement the conversion of their foam cup to a renewable resource with the optimized double-wall fiber hot cup. It had to be cost-effective and easily deployed to more than 14,000 restaurants in the United States. Recognizing the gold-standard of the FSC® certification and influence of the trademark and organizational reach of the label, tms also managed the phase-in of the FSC® certified board and subsequently included the graphic on the hot cup.
The resulting cup aligned with brand demand for sustainable products as well as consumer expectations for quality and corporate responsibility, making it cost-neutral for McDonald’s and its customers. Furthermore, the redesign promoted environmental sustainability and highlighted McDonald’s FSC® certification and sustainable practices. The cup’s increased insulation eliminates the need for a sleeve, leading to a reduction in material use and freight cost.
tms (formerly The Marketing Store) and McDonald’s are giving cold cups a new life by turning them into Happy Meal® books. In February, McDonald’s customers in Germany received one of seven children’s books made up of 40% recycled cold cup materials with stories focused on the environment and nature.
This innovative Happy Meal® is not only the first of its kind but an important means of promoting closed-loop recycling to give used material a unique second life. With this circular innovation, we utilised materials that potentially would have been recycled into producing single use or disposable products, such as paper towels, and transformed them into Happy Meal® books that can be enjoyed time and time again before being passed on, creating a long-lasting product.
How does this work? In the simplest terms, waste generated during cup production, such as a faulty cup, is combined with recycled collected cups from McDonald’s stores and then pressed. Next, the recycled cups are washed, and the pure paper pulp is separated and transformed into larger reams of paper. These are used to create Happy Meal® books, protecting trees and the environment twice over.
“We are so excited to delight our young customers with this innovative sustainable solution,” notes tms’s (formerly The Marketing Store’s) Global Head of Sustainability, Pamela Stathaki. “This is not just a great example of circular economy brought to life but most importantly it shows the younger generation how by recycling in restaurants they can directly have an impact. It gives them the opportunity to make a difference through a simple behaviour.”
There’s no better time than the start of the year to create new stories. That’s why tms (formerly The Marketing Store) London has dreamed up a new program in the McDonald’s App — My Winning Story — that gives customers the opportunity to create their own epic McDonald’s Story, for their chance to win from 4 prize draws.
From now through to the 20th February, in a customizable and personal experience, McDonald’s UK customers will receive a guaranteed food offer and a chance to win a prize of their choice by entering their story in the app. Prompted through a series of drop-down options, each user will craft a story unique to them before receiving their offer and entry into the draw.
Head to the MyMcDonald’s app (Apple, Android) to tell your winning story!
Our branding and packaging design agency Boxer Brand Design and McDonald’s won a gold MUSE Design award for their 2020 McCafé® holiday packaging line.
The MUSE Design Awards competition is a part of the wider MUSE Awards Program created by the International Awards Associate (IAA) in 2015 to encourage creativity. MUSE awards honor professionals in both creative and design spaces, promoting the entrants’ excellent works in spite of the changing times wrought by the pandemic.
“Evidently, the new normal has brought about changes to how people operate in the world” said Kenjo Ong, CEO of IAA. “Despite the challenges, these individuals have shown remarkable tenacity in their continued excellence, wis clearly demonstrated in their works.”
Judged by 46 jurors from 25 countries, the winners are selected by a diverse panel of qualified professionals. You can view the full list of winners here.
McDonald’s existing approach to sourcing operational supplies locally across Europe involved multiple suppliers and dozens of sourcing efforts in various countries. They needed a sourcing partner who could provide a strategic, centralized approach to unlock more value across a broad geography.
tms managed the sourcing of operating supplies across multiple countries, freeing up McDonald’s resources to focus on the core business. We used our broad category experience to drive supplier management activities, including compliance management and establishing a framework for future events, such as contingency sourcing solutions and capacity allocation.
tms was able to provide a cost-saving and more efficient solution with 18% average total savings delivered through RFP negotiations and supplier/specification efficiencies. tms ultimately drove savings and quality control by bundling volumes.
Tail-spend is one of the biggest sources of incremental savings available. It requires leveraging spend volumes to unlock savings but also demands process discipline to define a structured approach and accelerate decision-making, which most companies don’t have the time or resources to do. tms identified an opportunity to help McDonald’s save big.
A centralized tail-spend program reviewing non-core categories gives markets access to savings from leveraged spend on products, such as condiments, across markets that aren’t currently benefiting from buying together. tms managed the tail-spend across non-core food items in various markets, using analytical tools and proven methodologies to deliver savings fast. The funding for our services was derived from savings generated from Year 1 based on agreed estimated annual volume, which meant there was no risk to McDonald’s.
tms’s approach to tail-spend management drove real value through savings and efficiencies — we uncovered additional opportunities to save even more.
McDonald’s wanted to introduce rice-based entrees in Northern Asia to grow the dinner day part and find a way to bring families together. They needed a short-term packaging solution that allowed for effective containment in less than three months. They were also looking for a longer-term solution that offered a more consumer-centric approach.
tms took a two-step functional packaging approach for both short and long-term gains. The first batch of packaging was delivered in less than three months, allowing the restaurant to quickly launch rice entrees. For the longer-term solution, tms analyzed main consumer preferences for a dinner experience. We harnessed these insights to create new packaging that encouraged meal sharing while maintaining product integrity and quality.
Leveraging tms’s award-winning design teams and extensive supplier network, we delivered new packaging in record time, then adapted the next round of designs using our findings with limited investment on the front end. Our modular packaging enhances the customer experience, allowing them to share food in a way that feels comfortable and familiar.
For years The Marketing Store has helped our client McDonald’s innovate and deliver unique Happy Meal experiences for billions of kids and families across the world. Today, we have reached another milestone in this journey together.
McDonald’s mission to “feed and foster communities” continues with its first global environmental milestone. Read more here about their ambition to move to a more sustainable Happy Meal toy by the end of 2025.
tms (formerly The Marketing Store) is proud to be one of the suppliers taking part in McDonald’s “Mutual Commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion,” or MCDEI. This is one piece of our larger diversity, equity and inclusion journey involving education, representation, transparency and more. Learn more about “McDonald’s Plans to Boost Spending with Diverse-owned Suppliers” below (originally published by Restaurant Business here).
The Company won commitments from suppliers on diversity while vowing to devote a quarter of its supply chain spending to diverse-owned companies by 2025.
– by Jonathan Maze on Jul. 22, 2021
McDonald’s on Thursday said that it will increase spending with diverse-owned suppliers by nearly 10% between now and 2025 and that it has received commitments on diversity from 20 of its largest suppliers.
The effort is an outgrowth of a commitment to diversity the Chicago-based burger giant made last year, and is meant to use its $14 billion supply chain as a force for encouraging improved diversity among a broader set of companies.
McDonald’s said it would spend $3.5 billion with diverse-owned suppliers by 2025, nearly a quarter of its annual supply chain spending and up from 23% now. The company said it currently works with more than 385 diverse-owned suppliers in the U.S.
“McDonald’s partnership with our vast network of suppliers is not only fundamental to delivering on our purpose to feed and foster communities, it’s also key to realizing our diversity, equity and inclusion ambition,” Marion Gross, McDonald’s chief North America supply chain officer, said in a statement.
The commitment comes two months after the company said it planned to increase spending with diverse-owned media by 2024. That commitment came in the face of a lawsuit from The Weather Channel owner Byron Allen saying that McDonald’s only spent a fraction of its ad budget on Black-owned media companies.
It also comes as McDonald’s faces challenges from a number of angles on its treatment of Black Americans in particular—the company is fending off lawsuits from current and former franchisees as well as from former executives. One of the franchisees’ lawsuits was recently dismissed.
McDonald’s a year ago promised to bolster diversity within its system and in February said it would tie executive bonuses to diversity goals. It also hired a new global chief diversity and inclusion officer in Reginald Miller.
Much of the effort is aimed at the supply chain and pushing the companies with which it works to improve their diversity hiring.
The company and 20 of its largest suppliers joined the “Mutual Commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion,” or MCDEI. The companies making this commitment promise to improve their own cultures of inclusion and belonging and dismantling barriers to economic opportunity. McDonald’s is starting the pledge in the U.S.
The company said the effort to spend more of its advertising with Black-owned media was part of that commitment to boost spending with diverse-owned suppliers.
In making the commitment, the suppliers who made the MCDEI pledge agree to implement an overall diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy, including annual training. They also vow to increase representation in leadership and staffing and accelerate their use of diverse suppliers.
They also commit to invest in programs designed to make a “measurable difference in talent pipelines, succession planning and in communities” where the suppliers operate. And they commit to create a process to track progress, share regular updates and best practices.
McDonald’s is working with Supply Hive, a Chicago-based technology firm that will help track suppliers’ progress toward the effort.
Among the suppliers that have made the commitment: Accenture, Alma, Baker McKenzie, Burrell Communications, Cargill, CPH Inc., Ecolab, Elkay Interior Systems, Everbrite, Fair Oak Foods, Flavor Reddy Foods, FordHarrison, Greenberg Traurig, HAVI/tms (formerly The Marketing Store), IW Group, New Horizons Baking Company, Omnicom Group, Perrino & Associates, Schreiber Foods, Tyson Foods and Wieden+Kennedy.
“These commitments allow us to dismantle barriers to economic opportunity in far-reaching ways,” Miller said in a statement. “As a values-based organization, we are compelled to do our part to make the world more equitable, and the absolute best way is to leverage our size and scale through our value chain.”
