Episode 141 - McDonald's Drive-Thru School Ad Reviewed by Amplifon, ProofPoint and Haleon
Ever found navigating a drive-thru to be a challenge? McDonald's in the UAE has taken this real-life scenario and turned it into an activation - the Drive-Thru School ad chosen by Contagious for Advertisers Watching Ads this week.
Is this campaign a brilliant demonstration of understanding consumers’ needs? Does it work beyond the very specific niche it’s aimed at? And why would McDonald’s want to advertise the drive-thru service specifically?
Join the panelists Chiara Fracassi (Senior Marketing Director Italy at Amplifon), Helen Gillbe (EMEA Demand Generation Director at ProofPoint), and Phil Jackson (Global Digital Marketing Effectiveness Innovation Director at Haleon) as they debate the merits of this ad in our latest episode.
Episode 141 - McDonald's Drive-Thru School Ad Reviewed by Amplifon, ProofPoint and Haleon
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
Tom Ollerton 0:33
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of the creative effectiveness platform, Automated Creative. But before we get to this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Chiara Fracassi 0:42
Hello, everybody. Chiara Fracassi, I'm the Marketing Director for Amplifon Italy.
Helen Gilbe 0:48
Hi, I'm Helen Gilbe. I'm the EMEA Demand Generation Director at ProofPoint in EMEA.
Phil Jackson 0:53
Hi, everyone. Phil Jackson, Global Digital Marketing Effectiveness and Innovation Director at Haleon.
Tom Ollerton 0:59
What a panel! And what an ad! We are going to see an activation by McDonald's in the UAE.
Tom Ollerton 2:26
On a scale of one to five, how many points would you give this? One, two, three... Is it a three? A four and a three. Right... So I dug deeper on Contagious, who are our partners for the show. Thank you, as ever, Contagious. 300 students went through this drive thru experience, had a reach of 32% of UAE and 28% increase in drive thru sales and brand love went up by 13%. So Helen, what do you think of this?
Helen Gilbe 3:14
I personally, absolutely loved this ad. It was entertaining. It was comical. And I can really resonate with it as well because I actually feel like, you know, I've had an experience of going through a drive thru and, and, you know, not knowing which buttons to press and actually also being miles away from the window. So I think it's an absolutely vital part of any driving test moving forward. I think the ad itself is something that can be scaled, you know, it's obviously experiential and it can be scaled outside of the UAE as well into any other market.
Chiara Fracassi 3:44
I mean, if you experience in any way a drive thru at McDonald's, it's a, it's quite painful. And I can assume that if you are a newbie at driving, it could be even more painful So I'm quite sure that the defining insight is pretty strong. I'm not super clear just watching the video, of course, how strong the, the overall execution. That definitely looked like a case study. What did they do to reach such a big audience? I mean, it left me with this kind of curiosity, trying to understand how big the exploitation was. If they try to scale it up through different touchpoint, question mark.
Phil Jackson 4:18
I understand it in its entirety, that's probably based on a really interesting piece of insight around the, the barriers to getting a drive thru is quite complex. Just navigate through. And if you're an inexperienced driver, it probably feels quite daunting. You know, I thought it was a really interesting choice of something that's gone very mass market. They didn't really for me, feel like they sold "Why? Why drive thru?" from that? It was like a tangental kind of piece, but it wasn't, "Why drive thru?" I'm surprised the results they got, the results were very positive. I'm surprised they chose that kind of barrier or reason to believe around kind of promoting drive thru, as an entire concept. As a piece of experiential, love it. Kind of tactical piece of experiential, really love the way they executed it.
Helen Gilbe 5:05
And I think you can definitely see from the actual kind of creative itself that it does lend itself well for, you know, the social kind of platforms as well. So I think, you know, on those platforms, you have a lot of younger generation on those platforms, and I think it's definitely appealing to that. And so I can see why it would resonate with an audience on social. I do think as well, however, obviously, I know it was a post-pandemic campaign, but I think the ad itself is obviously dated itself by having people still wearing the masks, etc. So if you think about the longevity of the ad, then it's not going to have huge amount of legs because obviously now, you know, no one is really wearing masks and things anymore. So it's like it will have to be recreated to kind of live in the current times as well.
Chiara Fracassi 5:50
It's difficult to understand from such a distance. I mean, we are based in the Western world and to be honest, I had to force myself from looking at these hard through the lenses of someone living in the, in the West. I was completely unaware that it's a struggle for young people in the United Emirates to get to learn how to drive. We in Italy, we get to be formed through a very wild driving style downtown, through narrow streets in the city center, okay? So for me to get learn that you get a driving institute was a "Wow!" Oh, my God. They must be very, very distant from how reality looks like when it comes to driving.
Tom Ollerton 6:31
Is this actually a very low cost PR piece?
Helen Gilbe 6:34
Yeah, and I think it possibly is, because also I did some research to find out a little bit more about the ad and how it performed, I couldn't find a huge amount out there in terms of people actually picking it up, even from a PR perspective. So if that was the main objective of, you know, the actual experiential activity, then, you know, I think they would have missed on achieving that because they just didn't necessarily get the coverage that they perhaps would've expected to get on the back end of it.
Tom Ollerton 7:01
How would have you improve this? What do you think are the obvious builds here?
Phil Jackson 7:05
It really is about focusing on drive, improving the way to which people are using that channel. Then I think focusing more on just the driving experience and what happens when you've got your lunch or your dinner. And then where, where do you go next? My memories of getting a drive thru is the car stinking the next day, really stinking the car like do you think they've got the drive home? Are we going to park in the car park or I think they can continue it on to be a bit more complete. And the narrative around what the drive thru experience is, other than if you're not careful, you might prang your, your car or do damage to the... do damage to the window.
Tom Ollerton 7:41
Is this just, say, an awareness ad for one of their services?
Chiara Fracassi 7:44
It really depends on what basis you're starting from. I mean, if the original awareness was for a specific target group, maybe it's credible that they're having such, such a jump. To be honest, awareness does not always mean activation, either consideration or activation. So question mark is maybe that kind of, you know, experience. So experiential marketing could be, could mean a specific activation for that target group. So I'm still with a lot of open question, but I think if the I mean, McDonald's, they know how to do stuff, no? Even if we think of Burger King a lot of times lately, but I think they know what they do. So if they picked up that specific service, I think there must be a reason. It can be the awareness, it can be activation, the specific targets. So I'm eager to learn more.
Tom Ollerton 8:37
What will you be taking back to your teams with this?
Helen Gilbe 8:40
They're clearly trying to be innovative and to do something different, to stand out from key competitors so you know, some of their key competitors, whether it be like, say, Burger King, KFC, etc., everyone has a drive thru. You know, how can you create something that's different that's going to be innovative and make you stand out from the crowd?
Phil Jackson 8:56
They're really focused on the consumer, and the consumer insight is around the nervousness and the struggle that you have when you're first learning to drive. So they're really putting the consumer at the heart of the, of the story here, which is admirable. Have they gone maybe too far and not balancing enough the consumer and the product or the brand itself? Maybe for me, yes, but I do like that element of it that they really kind of double down on the consumer, what maybe their challenge is, and as a result, maybe have started something that can build a little bit more.
Tom Ollerton 9:29
Yeah, I think that's a really good point to finish on. Would you sign this off in its current guise, one two, three...
Tom Ollerton 9:40
Come on, Helen. Okay, interesting. I was not expecting that. Well, there you have it, McDonald's, an interesting and creative bit of work. Thanks to our panelists and we'll see you all next week.
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