(ATR) Social media will play a larger role in the way McDonald’s will activate its sponsorship of the Vancouver Olympics, the company’s marketing chief tells Around the Rings.
Global Chief Marketing Officer Mary Dillon says the Champion Kids program will involve more athletes than in Beijing. Gymnastics gold medalist Shawn Johnson is serving as an ambassador for the program.
“She just brings a lot of fun and energy to the whole thing, so that’s going to be one of the things that’s new,” Dillon said.
“It’s really going to be another chance for kids to meet athletes, be a part of the Olympics and really be hometown reporters which we think will be really fun.”
Other athletes included in McDonald’s ads: speedskater Cindy Klessen, snowboarders Brad Martin and Chrispin Lipscomb and freestyle skier Alexandre Bilodeau.
Athletes will also be engaged in McDonald’s social media activities.
“What we will see is an increase use of social media. It’s natural that we continue to evolve in our choice of media to be as relevant as we can to our customers,” Dillion said. Mary Dillon tells ATR that McDonald’s will see an increase in social media use. (ATR)
In the U.S., the McDonald’s promotion, “How do you McNugget?” will allow fans on Twitter and Facebook to follow and try to find athletes in different cities across the United States on the social networks.
“While we still use more traditional media like television, which works really well for us, we’re definitely doing a lot more online in social media, and you’ll see that in Canada and the U.S. and other countries as well,” Dillon said.
Dillon tells ATR that the promotion gives McDonald’s an opportunity to learn more about how fans “McNugget.”
Participating fans will be entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to the 2012 Games in London.
As the Vancouver Games approach, McDonald’s has ramped-up its global advertising, involving all of its markets. But Dillon says efforts will be focused on locales where interest is high in the Winter Olympics.
“Right now, what we see is some great activation that we are having in Canada, the U.S., the Nordic countries, Germany, Ukraine. We see all bringing the Olympics to life through advertising, or food promotions or packaging, and it varies a little bit around the world,” Dillon said.
“We always want to be as relevant to our customers as possible, so where our customers are really tuned in, we’ll be bringing in to life,” Dillon said.
McDonald’s will hold a press event for the media to preview its Games marketing plans.
In Vancouver, 300 restaurant employees from McDonald’s has a been TOP sponsor since the 1996 Olympics. (Getty Images)Canada will work at the Games as part of the McDonald’s Olympic Champion Crew. They will work at the restaurants in the Olympic Villages in Vancouver and Whistler and a third location at the Main Media Center in Vancouver.
McDonald’s also announced its new menu items for the Games. They include the S’mores Pie, Crème Brulee Crunch McFlurry and Happy Meals with Vancouver 2010 mascot toys.
McDonald’s in the U.S. will offer Chicken McNuggets with new sauces for a limited time. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway are offering special Chicken McNugget promotions.
McDonald’s first began supporting the Olympics in 1968 when it sent hamburgers to U.S. athletes at Grenoble.
It became an Official Sponsor in 1976 for the Montreal Summer Games and a TOP sponsor for the first time for the Atlanta Olympics.
To subscribe to Around the Rings
Click Here
With reporting from Isia Reaves
For general comments or questions, click here
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
