McDonald's Adds Digital Marketing, Asian-Inspired Food For Games

McDonald's Ups Digital Marketing Ahead Of Beijing Olympics

McDonald's is "arming restaurant workers at the Beijing Olympics with video cameras and creating Asian-inspired versions of its food around the world as part of a media blitz for the Games," according to Janet Adamy of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The QSR said that the Games "demonstrate its growing commitment to digital advertising." McDonald's now "devotes between [8-10%] of its marketing spending to digital, up from 2% four years ago." McDonald's has chosen nearly 1,400 employees from 36 countries to "staff the four restaurants it will operate at the Olympics," and 126 crew members "coming from outside China will get video cameras to record their experiences leading up to and at the Games." McDonald's then will "post the videos online and let consumers vote for their favorite one, awarding the maker of the top-rated pick $2,500." Meanwhile, McDonald's restaurants in Latin America have created a "special menu that includes a Beijing Burger with chop suey and breaded sticks of rice to promote the Games," and in Denmark, the QSR has "created a 310-calorie chicken Olympic burger with the help of dietitians from the Danish Olympic team." Adamy notes in Japan, almost all of McDonald's marketing around the Olympics "will take place through consumers' mobile phones." Additionally, the QSR in March launched a "cryptic online game called the Lost Ring," and McDonald’s Exec VP & Global CMO Mary Dillon said that there are "1.8 million people playing" the game. Adamy notes McDonald's TV ads during the Games will "stick to now-familiar feel-good themes such as athletic success and unity" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/1).