McDonald’s raises eyebrows and scoops TV creativity award

McDonald’s raises eyebrows and scoops TV creativity award

Posted on: April 6, 2023

A simple idea brilliantly realised has won McDonald’s the latest Thinkboxes award for TV creativity with “Raise your arches” – a hero spot in a wider campaign that instead of featuring restaurants or food relies on quirky humour and the power of suggestion.
“The ambition for the campaign was to drive brand love by elevating our previously established affinity platform “Fancy a McDonald’s?” to another level,” says McDonald’s head of brand marketing Hannah Pain.As such, there was only one choice when it came to which medium should take the lead.“TV is an enduringly powerful medium to talk to a huge proportion of our audience,” Pain says. “It is one of the best channels for driving trust and love – two of the most important metrics for our brand – and is a central part of all of our big brand campaigns.”The idea was born from extensive research by Leo Burnett’s strategy team.“Lots of McDonald’s customers mentioned ‘the look’ – when you’re able to signal going for a cheeky McDonald’s without saying a word,” Gareth Butters, creative director at Leo Burnett, explains.“From this I made the link between the double eyebrow raise and McDonald’s famous golden arches. Then I had to check it hadn’t been done before. Which it thankfully hadn’t – phew!”The idea was to show a whole office building marching to McDonald’s for lunch after one worker raises their arches – a universal invitation to join to grab a Maccies – set to the iconic 80s track Oh yeah! by Yello.

To view the full article visit Campaign.co.uk

McDonald's 'Raise your arches'

Agency: Leo Burnett
Creative team: Gareth Butters, creative director
Client: Hannah Pain, head of marketing (brand, affinity, trust & family) and Amber Myers, brand manager
Production company: Moxie Pictures
Director: Edgar Wright

AJ Bell “The Sweet Sound of Investing”

Agency: Pablo
Creative team: Dan Watts, executive creative director; Charlie Gee & Tian Murphy, creative directors; Charlie Gee & Tian Murphy / Chris Bovill & John Allison, creatives
Client: Charlie Musson, brand and PR director
Production company: Agile Films
Director: Zac Ella

Dogs Trust “Ground Dog Day”

Agency: VCCP
Creative team: Stephen Misir, Javier Romartinez, Matt Lloyd
Client: Nick Daniel, marketing director
Production company: Sweetshop
Director: Nicolas Jack Davis

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Agency: M&C Saatchi
Creative team: Guy Bradbury, creative partner; Tom Kennedy, creative director; Amy Parkhill, copywriter; Ed East, art director
Client: Phil Bastable, deputy director, head of marketing
Production company: Si&Ad
Director: Academy Films