McDonald's has rolled out the Your Food, Our Questions campaign to Australia and it's the content of chicken nuggets, beef sourcing and just how McDonald’s gets the eggs in an Egg McMuffin so perfectly round that have been occupying Australian's minds.
The ongoing initiative is part of McDonald's efforts to be more transparent as a business and improve its reputation around quality produce.
Since launching here, McDonald’s has received more than 550 questions from the public in two weeks and around 100,000 unique visitors have come to the site to read the answers during this time.
The fast-food company is dogged around the world by criticism about its ingredients and the nutritional content of its menu, but has taken steps to improve the quality and choice available. The initiative is part of its efforts to “bust the myths” that surround its food and make sure its 100% beef message and other quality ingredients messages get through.
The questions on Australian’s lips revolve around the chain’s 100% Australian beef message, with many wanting to know if it's a lie.
The initiative first launched in Canada in 2012, and saw the CMO of the Canada business star in a number of videos answering questions put to the business by consumers. It went on to win a number of awards and is hailed as a case study of how to rebuild trust in a brand.
Last month, AdAge reported McDonald's global CEO Don Thompson criticising creative ads in the domestic US business by saying they had not been up to scratch, but lauded both the Australian and Canadian businesses for the strength of creative work.
Creative concepts like the Australia Day campaign that saw the chain rename itself to Maccas and the Track My Maccas app, which used augmented reality to help consumers trace their meal back to Australian farms and bakeries that supply the chain, are held in high regard by the Australian business.
Mark Lollback, McDonald's chief marketing officer, Australia and New Zealand, told AdNews: “There are many great advantages of global sharing and learning through the network - we can learn from best practice and implement campaigns here with local insight.
“Our campaigns are always driven from market specific insights. For instance [Maccas Day] local insight around relevance, heritage and Australia's national holiday were combined to deliver a market specific campaign for a global brand. Our Food, your Questions also embodies this well. These are local questions and we're giving local answers.”
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