New McDonald’s gains momentum

In this article, Judie Lannon talks to Jill McDonald, the Marketing Society’s Marketer of the Year, about how McDonald’s transformed its communications strategy, and learned to listen to its customers.

New McDonald's gains Momentum

Jill McDonald

JUDIE LANNON: I understand you were head-hunted from British Airways for this job. What skills did they think you would bring to McDonald's?

JILL MCDONALD: They were looking for somebody who had brand experience. McDonald's is good retail marketer, but they wanted somebody who was going to take the brand forward. I think that was the pull I had over other candidates. And, of course, the chemistry. I really clicked with these people. McDonald's is a massive company, so chemistry was important.

I think they could see somebody who they could work with...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands