David Zlotnik, Re-branding Ronald McDonald
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Ronald McDonald, the iconic mascot for McDonalds was ready for a make-over in 2014. He ditched the romper in favor of cargo pants and a sharp blazer, stepped-up activities in social channels and made friends with a selfie stick. David Zlotnik, Director of Global Marketing at McDonalds will give us a 1st hand look at the strategy behind the makeover, key components of his marketing and communications touch points with consumers and success metrics.
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David Zlotnik, Re-branding Ronald McDonald
- 2. Senior Director Global Public Relations
- 4. ONE BRAND
- 5. 19631963
- 6. 19631963
- 7. 19681968
- 8. 19701970
- 9. 19711971
- 10. 19831983
- 11. 19871987
- 12. 19921992
- 13. 20062006
- 14. 19661966
- 15. 862 RESTAURANTS IN THE U.S. CANADA 1966 PUERTO RICO 1967 2015 36,000 RESTAURANTS WORLDWIDE
- 16. 19741974
- 21. 20132013
- 22. Brand Icon Social Hero Beloved by people of all ages People want to see him in person Namesake of Ronald McDonald House Charities Symbolizes corporate brand
- 23. More visibility Modern look Defined mission
- 26. Ann Hould-Ward
- 31. reality over content no traditional mass media short production timelines
- 36. Ronald McDonald can’t wait to connect with people through social media. “Selfies …here I come! It’s a big world and now, wherever I go and whatever I do...I’m ready to show how fun can make great things happen, “ ”
- 37. What will I say? Who is my audience? How do I respond to conversation and questions? Who will I follow?
- 41. STILLS - Ronald with kids in Rio
- 44. 600,000+ views
Editor's Notes
- CLICK TO ROLL VIDEO – McDonald’s is our kind of place TVC
- Hello, I’m David Zlotnik. I’ve spent the past 9 years at McDonald’s in Global Marketing overseeing the Ronald McDonald brand around the world, among other initiatives. I recently made a move over to Global Public Relations. And I am living proof that you can take the boy out of the clown but you can’t take the clown out of the boy. I know I’m here to share with you about Ronald but I can’t do that without first sharing the context of who we are as a brand. //
- McDonald’s is made up of more than 36,000 restaurants worldwide feeding 69 million people every single day. We are a company of locally operated businesses run by business men and women in their local communities. As a franchised organization, there are many requirements franchisees must follow but they also have the opportunity to grow and develop their business as makes sense for their local culture whether it’s in Chicago, Dubai, Munich or Argentina. Customers have grown to rely on McDonald’s for consistency in quality food, value and convenience.
- Ronald is one of those creative brand assets we share and we recognize that no matter how different McDonald’s may be from city to city or culture to culture, we are viewed as // one brand McDonald’s. Ronald provides us with the rare opportunity to centrally control and manage how he looks, how he behaves and how he interacts with customers and communities. At the same time, we are seeing the rise of the corporate brand where conversations dominate communication and consumer advocacy is the new gold. Ronald could help get there but only if he evolved. //
- So let me take you back to 1963 Take a look at what life was like in 1963 // VIDEO –RONALD INTRO SPOT TRT 1:00
- A lot had changed by 2013 when we realized it was time to evolve Ronald with today’s customer’s thoughts and beliefs. // // Now take a look at how it had changed in 40 years. //
- What began so humbly 50+ years ago as a local promotional TV appearance, had turned into a pop culture icon more recognizable than Santa Claus. The clown wearing a paper cup for a nose had become a celebrity.
- // Three years following his debut, Ronald was named national spokesperson for McDonald’s and made his first national appearance in a TV commercial. // The same year, he joined the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade where today he appears every Thanksgiving as a giant balloon and live as part of the parade driving his big red shoe car. //
- By 1966, McDonald’s had grown to 862 restaurants in the US. International expansion began in 1967 first in Canada then in Puerto Rico growing steadily to today’s 36,000 restaurants. And Ronald had to learn many languages to mirror McDonald’s global footprint.
- Also, in 1974, Ronald McDonald House Charities started in Philadelphia which today provides a home away from home for nearly 9 million families with critically ill children every year.
- For the most part, as you saw, people had changed, media had changed and culture had changed. But Ronald McDonald had not. Yes, he had undergone minor appearance adjustments over the years and his primary purpose remained virtually the same -- to embody McDonald’s dedication to the happiness and well-being of people worldwide, spreading smiles wherever he went. As the media environment and the public’s media consumption habits evolved it become apparent that an evolution was also necessary with the way Ronald engaged people.
- Like every solid, long-storied character, we had defined who Ronald was and where he came from. Of course, Ronald comes from McDonaldland. Where else would he be from?
- And over the years, he amassed many friends who also came from McDonaldland – Grimace, Hamburglar, Captain Crook, Mayor McCheese, Birdie, the Fry Guys and Officer Big Mac. In fact when I landed at McDonald’s in 2006, my mom dug out from the attic an 1974 Officer Big Mac puppet I had as a kid living in Chicago, McDonald’s hometown. That McDonaldland fantasy place was always communicated through TV and live appearances. With fantastic TV sets, costumes and whimsical stories, Ronald was on a quest to protect McDonaldland from the evils of the Hamburglar and Captain Crook. Take a look: VIDEO – old McDonaldland TVCs (2-3)
- As the McDonald’s brand progressed to stay relevant with the times, the characters began losing their place beaming into the living rooms of America. // And eventually, Ronald’s friends were sent off to live a nice and peaceful retirement. Occasionally, you may see one of them make a cameo appearance in the media, on our social media channels or at a restaurant which is a special treat. They also make international appearances along with Ronald. With the friends retired and learning to wear white shoes, play shuffleboard and eat early bird specials, Ronald took center stage as the primary face of the McDonald’s brand. While Ronald is magical and can travel around the world at the snap of a finger, we realized that he was losing presence and lacking a meaningful connection with people.
- So now back to 2013. As a corporation we recognized the need to increase Ronald’s relevance for today’s times. At the same time, we had to uphold the need to be responsible marketers imposing self-voluntary limitations on our marketing and advertising to children which presented challenges in Ronald’s role and how he is used.
- Like any good brand stewardship initiative, there was a steady stream of ongoing research to understand people’s attitudes towards Ronald. And, lo and behold, // he is beloved by people of all ages. We’ve spoken with kids, parents, young adults, and tweens all across the globe. // People love him and want to see him in person. He touches a nostalgic place in people’s hearts for McDonald’s, he reminds them of what it’s like to feel good and be entertained // and maintains a positive reputation as the namesake of Ronald McDonald House Charities. // From a brand standpoint, Ronald symbolizes the corporate brand, brings emotion to our social channels and increases brand advocacy. We wanted to move him from a brand icon to what we’ve called a social hero.
- Lest you were wondering, Ronald is a clown. And sometimes clowns can be polarizing, but all in all, we felt good about consumer perceptions. Within that, however, there were several challenges we were facing. McDonald’s is customer driven business. // Customers told us they wanted to see Ronald more frequently, // he needed to dress more for today // and they wanted to better understand his purpose.
- And the journey began as did my slow steady decline into baldness. Again, we returned to our customers to learn about Ronald – especially his appearance. He had grown iconic. // His red hair, white face, big red shoes and red and white striped clothes were highly recognizable and attributed to him. We knew we couldn’t mess with those. But there were some liberties given to his evolution. First of all, customers said, Ronald works at McDonald’s. He has a real job and should look “smarter” as we heard in the UK and he should no longer wear a onesie. In the US we heard he shouldn’t wear such baggy clothes. In Italy we heard we could minimize the McDonald’s branding on his clothing. In Japan we heard things like I change my clothes everyday, why can’t Ronald. He’s still the same person underneath.
- How in the world were we going to do this? Reinvent an icon so recognizable that it would be like moving the Cubs to the south side of Chicago. We put a brief together acknowledging the liberties and the mandatories and set about with Ronald’s tailor to recreate his new look. // Everything we looked at wasn’t right. Too ordinary – anyone could buy at retail. Too whimsical – he’s not a circus ringmaster. Too stuffy – remember he’s still a clown. Again, remember I used to have hair. One day, someone had a brilliant idea to seek out a professional costume designer, because in fact, while we had always thought of Ronald’s clothes as just that, clothes, he was actually wearing a costume. Who costumes actors best?
- Well, of course, a Tony award winning costume designed. Meetings were arranged and in 2 short weeks, we had partnered with a woman named Ann Hould-Ward, an esteemed theatrical costume designer who received a Tony award for her work on the Broadway production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast among other accolades. She had also dressed Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus ensembles. // She gladly accepted the challenge and set out to design what Ronald wears today. Another note, is that Ronald’s clothes had to have many functional requirements. Ronald sometimes puts a microphone in his pocket or presents magic tricks or runs a 5K. These clothes had to be able to do all of that and allow Ronald to be comfortable in a variety of climates from the cold of Chicago to the heat of SE Asia. The process was not easy. Ann was in New York. We were in Chicago. Ronald travels the world every day and is never in one place for very long. This took us some time. Not to mention the number of corporate approvals, fittings, fabric testing, color matching and washability testing. But we got there.
- And 13 months later Ronald’s new clothes were ready to make their debut. Anne had worked her magic and Ronald McDonald was ready to swap his yellow one-piece jumpsuit for a new wardrobe, which includes yellow cargo pants and a vest, accompanied by a red-and-white striped rugby shirt. His iconic big red shoes would remain the same. Reserved for special occasions, Ronald was given a whimsical new red blazer with the Golden Arches on the front pocket and his well-recognized signature on the back, and a special bowtie to complete the look. Part 1 accomplished. // VIDEO – Costume Change wonder woman
- While we knew we had to update Ronald’s clothes, we also knew he needed an updated and well-defined mission. Again, back to customer feedback. We knew what Ronald stood for – first and foremost it was fun followed by and in no particular order: joy, bringing good to the world, making people smile, travels, new adventures and advocating for learning. Over the years Ronald has and continues to deliver positive messages and lessons about a variety of subjects like bicycle safety, fitness, nutrition, road safety, fire safety, self-esteem and friendship. How could we articulate that in a way that stays true to who he is, stays true to the McDonald’s brand and makes sense to people in a simple way. We arrived at an insight that people are inherently good and want to have fun while doing good – and that can be inspired by Ronald.
- And his new mission was born – fun makes great things happen. As you can imagine, we had hearty debates about using the word “great” or vs. the word “good”. Is great too lofty, good, not aspirational enough? As you can see, we landed on “great.” Ronald is a world traveler and everywhere he goes, he inspires people to do great things through fun. // VIDEO -- Manifesto
- VIDEO -- Manifesto
- Then we had to figure out how we were going to communicate his new mission. Traditional mass media were out of the question. The approach had to signal a major shift both in our announcement and consumer engagement strategy. // Our key principles were threefold: reality over content, no traditional mass media and short production timelines.
- Obviously, social media had to play a major role. We also had a looming deadline…
- Every 2 years, McDonald’s brings together all of the franchisees, suppliers and corporate staff at a Worldwide global convention. // This was the perfect stage to re-introduce Ronald in a big way. That convention in April 2014, was our D-Day. While we didn’t have the exact social media platforms figured out yet, we couldn’t miss this opportunity to engage with our internal audience and we knew that this couldn’t be kept a secret once the new Ronald emerged.
- Like every good secret, this one couldn’t be kept and about 4 weeks prior, we began getting media inquiries about new clothes for Ronald. As much as we wanted to keep it contained, it just wasn’t possible. Finally, we caved to external rumors and agreed to do an exclusive interview, the week before the Convention, with Crain’s Chicago at our archives in Elk Grove Village. The reporter agreed to embargo the story until our press materials were ready and she pushed send on the agreed date and filed the story. While we had a hunch the new Ronald would garner some media attention, we had no idea the news would take off like it did. It was covered by traditional and digital outlets ranging from pop culture like E! and GQ, to national news programs, picked up by all 3 networks, nationally and locally, like CNN international, Associated Press and Yahoo. It also generated countless social media conversation – both positive and negative trending organically on facebook, yahoo and twitter. This all could have fizzled, because we were not putting any paid media behind it…but it took off. Within a few days, the image of Ronald in his new clothes spread like wildfire, garnering nearly 1 Billion media impressions in a few short days.// VIDEO – 2014 WWC GENERAL SESSION BEFORE OPENING SESSION
- Part of the news was also Ronald’s new global mission – fun makes great things happen -- to rally the public through inspiring events. For the first time, Ronald McDonald would take an active role on McDonald’s social media channels around the world and engage consumers using the hashtag RonaldMcDonald. As Ronald begins his journey, he seeks to deliver on the mission: “Fun makes great things happen” - the idea that moments of fun and enjoyment bring out the simple pleasures in life and can lead to acts of goodness. Ronald is real and a worldwide traveler. All over the world he is meeting people, who like him, do believe that FUN MAKES GREAT THINGS HAPPEN and he uses social networks to post all the good things and good people he discovers. We knew we needed to be where people are…on social media
- Our press release simply stated – “Ronald McDonald can’t wait to connect with people through social media. “Selfies …here I come! It’s a big world and now, wherever I go and whatever I do...I’m ready to show how fun can make great things happen,” said Ronald McDonald.” For some reason, the use of a hashtag, gave the news media the impression he was taking to twitter. That wasn’t the case but we were not ready to bring him into social media with his own voice quite yet.
- That was April. Remember, Ronald had never represented his own voice in social media and we had a lot to figure out. What would he say. Who was the right audience. How would he respond to conversation and questions. Who would he follow? Back to my decentralization comment from the opening, McDonald’s has many local and global channels and we needed to figure out what was right for him because there is only one Ronald McDonald so he couldn’t be on all channels at all times. We were aware that Ronald had a social media presence, but not one we were involved with. People post celebrity content and Ronald is seen as a celebrity. How could we harness this in a fun and positive way?
- After much discussion, we determined that we would use 3 social platforms for Ronald to highlight his travels and inspire people to participate. First, we wanted a way to aggregate all user generated content that involved Ronald. // So we created what we named Ronald’s social hub at ronaldmcdonald.com. A 3rd party software program allowed us to receive any UGC that used the hashtag Ronald McDonald, among others. Of course, we obtained user permission before we reposted anything. // Ronald’s social hub was hosted on and remains on aboutmcdonalds.com, our corporate website and farmed out to local markets to also link to their local channels. Additionally, we also knew we wanted a way to showcase some longer form content so we turned to our global corporate // YouTube channel and created a Ronald playlist of videos. // Lastly, determining that Instagram was a great place for Ronald to express himself and invite engagement, we also created an account for him to be able to share his travels and recount his adventures to his followers. We devised an editorial calendar that would bring the “fun makes great things happen” mantra to life. We wanted to Ronald in real life events and interactions to inspire people to post and share great things. Over the course of several months, Ronald created an indoor sledding hill in Kuala Lumpur for people who had never experienced snow. // VIDEO - MALAYSIA
- After much discussion, we determined that we would use 3 social platforms for Ronald to highlight his travels and inspire people to participate. First, we wanted a way to aggregate all user generated content that involved Ronald. // So we created what we named Ronald’s social hub at ronaldmcdonald.com. A 3rd party software program allowed us to receive any UGC that used the hashtag Ronald McDonald, among others. Of course, we obtained user permission before we reposted anything. // Ronald’s social hub was hosted on and remains on aboutmcdonalds.com, our corporate website and farmed out to local markets to also link to their local channels. Additionally, we also knew we wanted a way to showcase some longer form content so we turned to our global corporate // YouTube channel and created a Ronald playlist of videos. // Lastly, determining that Instagram was a great place for Ronald to express himself and invite engagement, we also created an account for him to be able to share his travels and recount his adventures to his followers. We devised an editorial calendar that would bring the “fun makes great things happen” mantra to life. We wanted to Ronald in real life events and interactions to inspire people to post and share great things. Over the course of several months, Ronald created an indoor sledding hill in Kuala Lumpur for people who had never experienced snow. // VIDEO - MALAYSIA
- Ronald took part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge after being challenged. // VIDEO – ALS CHALLENGE
- And Ronald was present in Rio on the beach during the World Cup and toured the city with McDonald’s Player Escorts, kids from around the world chosen to attend the World Cup. // VIDEO – Player Escorts
- We also were able to surprise a teenager from Sweden who posted a letter that he wanted to meet Ronald and his favorite soccer player. We arranged for Ronald to visit him and play soccer with the kid, his friends and his soccer idol. // VIDEO OF SWEDEN
- The social hub also features something we call the Daily Ronald with animated gifs highlighting fun and wacky daily calendar events like Wiggle Your Toes Day.
- The majority of the engagement has been positive which tells us this is the right thing for Ronald to do. To date, Ronald has more than 10,000 followers -- all harvested organically. We have yet to invest any paid media dollars to amplify his social media presence. His following has been interesting, consisting of a diverse, global audience. // Total video views have reached over 600,000. While the social media hub is still live, we are exploring new opportunities to make it more responsive on a mobile platform.
- We continue to look for ways for Ronald to show how fun can make great things happen. He remains the embodiment of McDonald’s dedication to the happiness and well-being of people worldwide and also helps kids learn in a fun way about important subjects, that include fire safety, exercise, health and hygiene, anti-bullying, self-esteem and literacy. Ronald will also be keeping up with his duties as the face of his namesake, Ronald McDonald House Charities, just as he has since 1974. Ronald will continue to travel the world bringing his mission to life and inviting people everywhere to join him. He is a star and continues to delight people of all ages…bringing fun, smiles and joy…. inspiring them to adopt his mission and…..//
- …..use fun to make great things happen. Thank you.