Ep 32: Marketing internationally: mcdonald’s case study
Shownotes
In this mini-episode, we break down the ‘Raise your Arches’ Campaign from McDonald’s. The campaign had two versions, one aired in the UK and the other in the Middle East.
Join Joyann and Jade as they compare the two and discuss marketing inclusively internationally.
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Transcript
00:00:02:22 - 00:00:22:13
Joyann Boyce
Welcome and welcome back to the Marketing Made Inclusive Podcast. I don't know why I feel like I was rapping that, but this week we have a mini-sode for you and it's going to be at Jade and a Joyann reacts. JJ reacts.
00:00:22:24 - 00:00:26:05
Jade Pett
Yes.
00:00:26:07 - 00:00:54:03
Joyann Boyce
We've got a, got a new segment name, so we’re going to be reacting to a McDonald's ad. There are two versions of it for our podcast listeners. Make sure you hop on over to YouTube to see the videos that we're reacting to. But I'll briefly describe each one. So first let's dive into, it's called race. You can see the Title of it, it’s called ‘Fancy
00:00:54:03 - 00:01:20:09
Joyann Boyce
a McDonald’s? Raise your Arches.’ okay. And let us make sure that I am sharing sounds. So we're going to have a watch. It's only 30 seconds, guys. We love a, we love a quick ad.
00:01:20:11 - 00:01:43:15
Unknown
00:01:43:17 - 00:02:16:21
Joyann Boyce
Okay. Raise Your Arches. This is labelled as the Western version. So it's very interesting to think about how Western quote unquote that was. But for those who didn’t see it, essentially a woman is walking through the office and is raising her eyebrows and they're making the shape of the McDonald’s Ms to her co-workers. And then they all leave the office on a mission to get McDonald's.
00:02:16:23 - 00:02:22:10
Joyann Boyce
What are your thoughts of the ad Jade? Are you raising arches?
00:02:22:12 - 00:02:43:21
Jade Pett
I like how cheesy is. I like that they embrace the cheesiness. I don't know if McDonald's. Well, actually, maybe that is a fair description that McDonald's can bring that much joy into people's lives. It's like the little pick me up, you know, it's like afternoon treat. It's like a bit cheeky. You're being a bit, not necessarily naughty, but everyone's tone of the office definitely isn't being the norm.
00:02:43:23 - 00:02:49:00
Jade Pett
I like that they kind of, they really go with the cheesy factor and they embrace it.
00:02:49:02 - 00:03:15:03
Joyann Boyce
And I think you picked up on the emotion that they're going for. Is that a little bit of cheeky McDonald’s. Especially, let's minimise it from western in a wide range, but the British aspect of it, I saw it and I'm just like oh this is the British not like in terms of who they represented, the vibe, their whole kind of ,because in England, not in all offices, we have a whole do you want a cup of tea? And everyone's going to go for a cup.
00:03:15:03 - 00:03:37:00
Joyann Boyce
Then half the office is in the kitchen making a cup of tea. So it kind of pulled from that for me and it had a real cultural connection, I remember British culture, I remember the first time I saw it. I was just like, because in the work that we do, we can’t not spot inclusion anymore.
00:03:37:02 - 00:03:38:03
Jade Pett
Yeah.
00:03:38:05 - 00:04:09:20
Joyann Boyce
But I was just like, oh, they have a woman meeting. They have almost every intersection of representation I could think of. And I felt that it was a very diverse office, not super believable, but a very diverse office and diverse example of people one, who are into McDonald’s because McDonald’s is one of those brands where they could say majority of people are their target audience.
00:04:09:22 - 00:04:10:24
Jade Pett
Yeah, yeah. I agree.
00:04:11:01 - 00:04:14:02
Joyann Boyce
What are your thoughts on the representation?
00:04:14:04 - 00:04:29:14
Jade Pett
I liked it. I do think there's like a longer version of it where they really like, they like pull out even more. I think they do even more. I think, I could be making that up, in my brain. It was longer.
00:04:29:16 - 00:05:12:05
Joyann Boyce
Yeah, 30 seconds is not long, but we're going to do a direct kind of comparison after seeing that one fresh to the Middle Eastern version, which is why Jade and I thought to have this conversation and I was just realised that Middle Eastern one is one minute. So maybe that is a longer version of the Western one. But let’s dive in.
00:05:12:07 - 00:05:59:03
Unknown
00:05:59:05 - 00:06:29:12
Joyann Boyce
I love it. I do like the longer one. So for those that have not seen it, the Middle Eastern version is more so. I think cultural changes. It’s still the same storyline. A woman in an office wants to get McDonald’s, starts gathering people with her and they head down, the only thing, cause it’s a longer one, there’s a last scene of the woman coming back to the office and everyone being gone and.
00:06:29:16 - 00:06:30:04
Jade Pett
Yeah.
00:06:30:06 - 00:06:34:21
Joyann Boyce
I didn’t notice before, that she's wearing the McDonald’s colours.
00:06:34:23 - 00:06:40:20
Jade Pett
The McDonald's colours. The colours in this ad are so brilliant.
00:06:40:22 - 00:06:50:23
Joyann Boyce
What are your thoughts on the second one? Because it is the same ad, they just put a middle Eastern spin on it, which sounds weird to state. But yeah.
00:06:51:00 - 00:07:09:23
Jade Pett
Yeah. I mean, I like it almost just as much for me, because like you said, it's like practically identical, almost scene for scene. I love the humour and I think it's like brilliant. The fact that they've more or less copied and pasted the exact same ad and it's like ever so slightly tweaked it.
00:07:10:00 - 00:07:38:11
Joyann Boyce
Made it that little bit of relevance. What I liked about it, because we could probably break it down frame by frame, but they kept because again, I have not been to any countries within the Middle East. So all these are cultural stereotypes and I made the statement from that perspective. But the assumption you would make as a marketer from the West, quote unquote, is that they would change the lead character from a woman to a man.
00:07:38:13 - 00:07:39:04
Jade Pett
Yeah.
00:07:39:06 - 00:08:20:13
Joyann Boyce
And they did not do that. And I appreciate that. And then when you look at it side by side, you can even see how they kept the cultural, the, the colours and adapt to the colours, to the cultural clothing. Because that's, where we came across this. I think we came across it on the Marketing Meetup Instagram actually. So shout out to the Marketing Meetup, but there was a direct side by side theme and you can see that the Western version is a yellow shirt, red skirt, but the Middle Eastern version is a yellow hijab, red
00:08:20:13 - 00:08:41:01
Joyann Boyce
I want to say Afghan, but that may not be the correct term. So you still have that initial McDonald's colours, brand colours snap in your brain. Was there anything else you noticed as well in terms of the how they kept the theme going?
00:08:41:03 - 00:09:04:21
Jade Pett
I don't think so. I think the way that the humour is almost exactly, like it's almost like the exact same character just in a different place in the world. Like they have the exact same almost facial expressions, the exact same kind of responses. I loved it like the humour is like the exact same on both they didn't like, fell the need to change it for either of them.
00:09:04:23 - 00:09:15:03
Joyann Boyce
That's interesting. I do wonder is that because office culture is somewhat a universal feeling?
00:09:15:05 - 00:09:15:22
Jade Pett
Yeah. Maybe.
00:09:15:24 - 00:09:38:08
Joyann Boyce
Because there are very few things that are exactly the same vibe around the world. Like if going back to, you know, I related this, the British culture around everyone go into the office and getting a cup of tea. You couldn't do that everywhere. Like stopping work to get a cup of tea is not a thing that's common everywhere.
00:09:38:10 - 00:09:49:06
Joyann Boyce
But you mentioned on the colours, every scene, I just the colour match from the western to the Middle Eastern version is amazing.
00:09:49:08 - 00:09:51:01
Jade Pett
Yeah.
00:09:51:03 - 00:10:14:07
Joyann Boyce
And the cultural relevance, that's a tiny little thing. The Western one didn't have Excel, but a middle Eastern one did. So it's so fast paced. I do wonder the processes the agency went through. Oh, there was a slight gender swap.
00:10:14:09 - 00:10:16:17
Jade Pett
Yeah.
00:10:16:19 - 00:10:28:09
Joyann Boyce
I really recommend watching this because the stuff that they swap even though they swap the gender of one of the background characters, they kept the age range I think the same
00:10:28:09 - 00:10:32:24
Jade Pett
The SAS. Yeah.
00:10:33:01 - 00:10:45:09
Joyann Boyce
So the brief for that positioning of that character probably meant that age is the thing that cannot be changed. Everything else can be localised.
00:10:45:11 - 00:10:49:12
Jade Pett
Right. Yeah.
00:10:49:14 - 00:11:03:22
Joyann Boyce
And then that is very interesting. So in both the western and the Middle Eastern, one there’s a Black woman represented. They have. Yeah, you have to state these things. It doesn't happen.
00:11:03:24 - 00:11:06:07
Jade Pett
No.
00:11:06:09 - 00:11:15:18
Joyann Boyce
Accidentally as well. I do feel, though, that there's a sense of more people in the Middle Eastern one.
00:11:15:20 - 00:11:22:05
Jade Pett
Okay. Yeah, I can see that.
00:11:22:07 - 00:11:31:16
Joyann Boyce
And the people playing different roles as well. The colours feel brighter or flipped.
00:11:31:18 - 00:11:52:00
Jade Pett
I was going to say the colour at the McDonald's colours in the Middle Eastern one is more obvious. Whereas the Western version, they're, they're, they're little subtle and you'd have to kind of look to see that that's actually a McDonald’s brand, branding, whereas the Middle East, a version like this, clearly the McDonald's colour.
00:11:52:02 - 00:12:00:06
Joyann Boyce
You know of top. I wonder if that's also thinking about the brand's influence within that region.
00:12:00:08 - 00:12:02:06
Jade Pett
Mm hmm.
00:12:02:08 - 00:12:20:18
Joyann Boyce
Because that, that makes me wonder how much presence does McDonald's have within the Middle East versus its presence here. So when you are creating an ad that's trying to tap into your presence in that culture, you have to kind of let check your ego a little bit. I guess.
00:12:20:20 - 00:12:23:03
Jade Pett
Yeah. See how you're actually doing over there.
00:12:23:05 - 00:12:28:02
Joyann Boyce
Mm. They would have definitely done that. This is, McDonald’s is a huge brand.
00:12:28:04 - 00:12:29:08
Jade Pett
Yeah.
00:12:29:10 - 00:12:49:22
Joyann Boyce
This is the scene that I particularly like. So one of the scenes within the western one is of another office shot, a woman presenting to a room and the faces that you're seeing a scene, a Black woman at the front of the room, you're seeing a woman closest to the camera giving that body language shot and presented to two men.
00:12:49:24 - 00:13:15:23
Joyann Boyce
This is the one they didn't keep consistent because the reason this stood out to me is because in the real world, it is somewhat rare for a Black woman to be portrayed in a position of power in an office. So if you search for those who don't believe me. But if you search stock photos, you can see when you ask for an office scene, it's normally typically a man, a white man that is a head.
00:13:15:23 - 00:13:39:05
Joyann Boyce
Head of the office or standing or taking a position of dominance. Whereas going to the Middle Eastern one, they do have a woman in the room, but the gender number is flipped in terms of, whereas the Western one has a 50/50 gender split. The Middle Eastern one has one woman in a room of 5 men, which is interesting.
00:13:39:07 - 00:14:21:03
Joyann Boyce
The dynamics of it. But the scene shots are still the same. Oh, there are more people. It's interesting. Yeah, it's really fascinating. I definitely recommend to check the links in the shownotes to see how this has compared for yourselves and how if you're stepping into, obviously McDonald's is not stepping into a new market. They've been in the Middle East probably maybe not as long as they've been in the Western world.
00:14:21:05 - 00:14:33:17
Joyann Boyce
But I think it's important for any brand to think about how they're stepping into new markets and what positions they're playing into or not or stereotypes.
00:14:33:19 - 00:14:34:13
Jade Pett
Yeah.
00:14:34:15 - 00:15:02:03
Joyann Boyce
Because the other thing I know about the Western one is that they had a white guy as the janitor and statistically in an office building. Unfortunately in the current society we have, if you're looking to reflect actual society, the janitor is more likely to be a person of colour. And that's also what's portrayed in the media. So the fact that they kept these things and probably made active decisions to not reinforce current stereotypes.
00:15:02:04 - 00:15:04:21
Jade Pett
Yeah, yeah.
00:15:04:23 - 00:15:28:11
Joyann Boyce
It's a very active thought. It's not you can't take your campaign and put it in another region and think is going to perform the same one. But you also can't assume the same inclusive efforts you make for your campaign in the West are going to be the same in the East.
00:15:28:13 - 00:15:29:21
Jade Pett
Exactly.
00:15:29:23 - 00:15:47:24
Joyann Boyce
We want to do more like this, but if you see any other campaigns out there that are comparing how they run in one regions another, please do send away. Send it to our Instagram DMS. Jade will be checking.
00:15:48:01 - 00:15:49:18
Jade Pett
00:15:49:20 - 00:15:56:02
Joyann Boyce
And any final thoughts on the two ads Jade?
00:15:56:04 - 00:16:14:04
Jade Pett
I think I think it's just genius because it has that level of kind of universal-ness, like the cheeky McDonald's, the cheeky pick me up, like even the music. I feel like we have the same kind of connotations. in The subtlety of it, I think, is so clever.
00:16:14:04 - 00:16:42:21
Joyann Boyce
The subtlety. Yeah, I agree. I don't know if it's true, but I think like Justin Timberlake got paid like millions or whatever to do the Ba Ba Ba Ba Baa. Anywho. Do not know if that's true, do not quote me. That might be an urban legend. But McDonald's is one of the most recognised brands in the world. I think they were very intentional with this and never actually saying the words as well.
00:16:42:23 - 00:16:46:02
Jade Pett
Yes. You just you see the arches and you know.
00:16:46:04 - 00:17:05:16
Joyann Boyce
You know, you know, that's, that's what you've got when you've got good branding, you've got good branding, when you've got good brand recognition, you know, you know what you could do, you could flex, but also you humble yourself when you know your brand recognition is not as good in other countries. You ramp it up because.
00:17:05:16 - 00:17:08:11
Jade Pett
Right. Yeah.
00:17:08:13 - 00:17:34:01
Joyann Boyce
So thank you very much for tuning in to the Marketing Made Inclusive podcast. My name is Jade. My name is Jade. My name is Joyann and I was joined by Jade. Jade you can leave that it actually. It’s the JJ, JJ reacts. Yeah, let us know in the comments.
00:17:34:01 - 00:17:35:00
Jade Pett
That’s it we’re taking over.
00:17:35:00 - 00:17:46:02
Joyann Boyce
We’re taking over. JJ reacts. I'm going to pick all the commercials that we like. I think we need to start picking some that aren't so great. We might make a couple enemies, but.
00:17:46:04 - 00:17:48:07
Jade Pett
That could be fun.
00:17:48:09 - 00:18:08:09
Joyann Boyce
You're like that could be fun. We do have a lot in the vault, but thank you very much for tuning in. If you're listening and make sure to head over to YouTube and give it a watch so you can see and but also all the links to what we've mentioned will be in the shownotes You can find me anywhere on the Internet, @ Joyann Boyce.
00:18:08:09 - 00:18:11:08
Joyann Boyce
And Jade, how can people find you?
00:18:11:10 - 00:18:15:12
Jade Pett
I'm on LinkedIn at Jade Pett.
00:18:15:18 - 00:18:22:01
Joyann Boyce
Fantastic. So thank you so much for tuning into Marketing Made Inclusive Podcast and we look at you and next week.
