Mary Dillon’s role as McDonald’s executive vice president and global chief marketing officer put her at the nexus of the company’s worldwide marketing efforts around the Beijing Games and its global brand strategy in 118 countries. She and Phyllis Cheung, vice president and chief marketing officer for McDonald’s China, took time to talk about the brand’s goals and marketing strategy for the 2008 Olympics with SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Tripp Mickle.

---

When you look at McDonald’s and its worldwide sponsorship of the Olympics, what’s the goal for these Games?
Dillon: We’ve been a TOP sponsor of the Olympics for 30 years. For us, it’s more of a long-term commitment. We’re all about bringing people together through the Olympics all over the world. This year, I’d say one of the real highlights is this program, Champion Kids. We’re bringing together 200 kids from all over the world. For us, it’s an opportunity to really connect children with the Olympic movement.

I’m a little confused on that. Is that a new program?
Dillon: It is. We’re really unveiling it with the Beijing Olympics and doing it in conjunction with the IOC.

Am I correct that the idea for that is kind of a piggyback on FIFA bringing young kids out on the field with McDonald’s?
Dillon: With FIFA and McDonald’s we have a partnership and we call it the player escort program. You’re right. We’ve had such great success with that, we thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to allow children around the world to be part of the Olympics?” And the IOC’s been great with that in creating this program. It’s the only one of its kind.

When you look at your ROI goals for these Games, are they definitive? What would your top objective be?
Dillon: It’s really about customer engagement all over the world. Whether it’s children or a new program called “The Lost Ring,” which is about engaging the youth gaming community in a whole new way. You know there are 4 million people playing that game. For us it’s about engaging people with our brand. You can’t really put a specific price tag on that or ROI target. We know it’s a good investment, though.

Peter Foss at GE tied $700 million in revenue to the Beijing Games. Have you all seen any uptick at all that you can quantify in advance of the Games?
Dillon: We don’t quantify in that way, but I can tell you that most of our markets around the world are tying in promotions to the Olympics. Whether it’s advertising or specific food promotions, we’re sure we’re going to see an uptick around the world. We’re seeing it already.

What are you seeing here in China?
Cheung: Definitely right now we’re activating. “When China wins you win” is an on-packaging promotion that’s truly engaging the customers to the China team’s performance so that even if you’re living outside Beijing you can still participate in the Games. I would say that’s having a positive impact on the brand.

Were you able to get a point-of-sale presence throughout China with Beijing Games marketing material?
Cheung: The “When China wins you win” is throughout China. We actually gave out 56 million of the game pieces. Each has a game piece on it, so if you collect diving, women, and China wins you can win a Big Mac. It’s sharing the winning experience. This is how we engage customers through the Olympics.

I saw that McDonald’s is the only Olympic sponsor with its logo on the signage around the Olympic Green. How did you pull that off?
Dillon: We’re the only Olympic restaurant, so we need to be sure the sponsors and the athletes and the press know where these McDonald’s are. We’ll have two restaurants in the Olympic Village — one for athletes and one for press — and two that have been built for the public, and the signage is to help people know where the restaurants are.