case study

Why you’re still lovin it

MCDONALD’S MAKES THE TRANSFORMATION TO CUSTOMER-FIRST

We live in an era where the ephemeral, tactile act of eating a hamburger is just the
over 120 countries
beginning of the dining experience. “Something we all share is that we eat three meals
a day,” said Paul Matson, US Director of Social Media at McDonald’s. “Some of us less,
some of us more. But it’s an intimate experience. There’s a physiological as well as an
emotional impact with that.”

Indeed, food now carries an air of romanticism. People want to immortalize their 36,000 locations
meals in the form of a perfectly filtered Instagram post, a critical Yelp review, or a
beaming Tweet.

For brands, this is an exciting opportunity to be closer to customers than ever before.
And for McDonald’s, the trend allowed the company to make a comeback and win
the hearts of its customers. By reinvigorating its brand with a digital strategy that
centered around the customer, McDonald’s achieved growth after 14 consecutive 28,000 social accounts
quarters of decline.

Even more incredible is the seismic shift in public perception that McDonald’s achieved:
a 10% year-over-year improvement in sentiment, all because it began to truly listen to
each and every one of its customers.

69 million customers
organizing globally around the voice
of the customer
McDonald’s began its digital journey in 2013. At that point in time, the brand was
focused on creating a strong infrastructure for its new digital strategy. It first had to
assess and simplify its global ecosystem: its people, process, and technology. 60 mentions a minute

“Being in 120 countries around the world, we had quite a complicated ecosystem,”
said Matthew Tennant, Global Director of Social Media at McDonald’s.

© 2016 Sprinklr, Inc. All rights reserved. www.sprinklr.com info@sprinklr.com

For example, “We found out that we had 28,000 social accounts out there – many of
which were inactive. So, we started to lay the foundation around where we needed to
go to bring us closer to the customer.”

That foundation began with the launch of McDonald’s global brand hubs, a series of
offices spanning the globe from London to Singapore, with “a ‘follow the sun’ model of
engagement to track and interact with customers in real-time, all the time.” The hubs
enabled the company’s 200 digital employees to interact with the 60 brand mentions
that flow in every minute, around the world. “Our hubs are instrumental in making ‘Our
McDonald’s’—our digital transformation
“Our hubs are instrumental in making ‘Our McDonald’s’ – our digital transformation mission—come to life.”
mission – come to life.” A key component of these hubs are command centers “that
bring all customer data together, including social, web, and CRM data, to better
understand customers, content creation, and advocacy, along with training.”
Matthew Tennant
GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA
After organizing around a hub and spoke model, McDonald’s also needed to simplify MCDONALD’S
its digital technology ecosystem of over 28 tools. “We were already using Sprinklr in
the US. In late 2015, we did a global RFP (Request for Proposal) and selected Sprinklr
as the main tool and are now deploying it globally,“ said Tennant. “It’s really helping
us be smarter, faster, and more efficient in how we understand and connect with our
69 million customers in over 36,000 locations in 120 countries that we serve everyday.
That’s a lot of customers, conversations, and data.”

Centralized technology enables McDonald’s to operate as a global entity and activate

huge campaigns such as Euro 2016 and the Olympics. “A key driver of trying to
communicate with all of these countries and aligning on something like content is
Sprinklr,” Tennant said.

The company’s multi-pronged digital strategy rests on the digital team’s ability to
innovate and look toward the future. For example, McDonald’s wants to see its
customers – not just listen to them. “We get 12,000 photos a day submitted on social
that don’t always mention our brand,” Tennant said. With Sprinklr’s Visual Insights,
McDonald’s can analyze and aggregate photographic ‘mentions’ that otherwise would
be impossible to track. “When we can hear customers quickly, we can make changes
within the business quickly,” said Tennant.

© 2016 Sprinklr, Inc. All rights reserved. www.sprinklr.com info@sprinklr.com

creating transparency for customers
While the digital brand hubs around the world provided a solid foundation, McDonald’s
needed to build on the insights it was collecting and drive a deeper connection with
its customers through one unified brand voice. As Matson said, “People want to
see brands humanized...the ‘Wizard of Oz behind the curtain,’ if you will. There is a
transparency and accessibility aspect.”

Historically, McDonald’s hasn’t provided much public information about the sources of
its food. Looking to turn over a new leaf, however, the company undertook a policy of
“People want to see brands humanized...
total transparency. Thus, Our Food, Your Questions was born.
the ‘Wizard of Oz behind the curtain,’
Matson shared that it was a “socially driven campaign...to quantify and identify the if you will. There is a transparency and
accessibility aspect.”
common misperceptions...literally thousands of different questions that we have
received over the years. You want to know where our beef comes from? Well here is the
answer. If you’re eating in Montana, how is your lettuce locally sourced or how is that Paul Matson
prepared? Here is your answer for that, as well.”
U.S. DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA
MCDONALD’S
With 69 million customers a day, and with 14,000 locations in the US alone, McDonald’s
needed technology to facilitate “talking to people at scale, which is really bread and
butter when it comes to Sprinklr.” Matson said that because the company knew it
couldn’t talk to everyone who has ever asked it a question, McDonald’s “wanted people
to do the talking for us. The way you reach scale is...through arming people and giving
them permission to talk about your brand.”

© 2016 Sprinklr, Inc. All rights reserved. www.sprinklr.com info@sprinklr.com

listening to customers
Piggybacking on the success of Our Food, Your Questions, McDonald’s again put the The McDonald’s
Digital Team
customer at the center of a campaign – this time upping the ante. The company’s new
begins searching
initiative would directly affect its revenue stream as well as the operations of brick-and- for breakfast posts
mortar locations across the US. on social

Under a new CEO and refreshed corporate leadership, McDonald’s was searching for
opportunities to make a big change. Breakfast seemed like the perfect opportunity.
“Since we have launched the Egg McMuffin, people have wanted it all day long...But, it’s
no small thing to serve McMuffins after 10:30 in the morning,” said Matson.
The team finds
the first Tweet
“Changing 14,000 locations and the supply chains that are associated with that is
about All Day
unbelievable. McDonald’s buys more eggs than any other buyer on earth.” Breakfast, dating
all the way back
to 2008

The Digital Team

begins teasing
the campaign by
sending personal
Tweets to 12,000
customers

So, the business needed ample data to prove that the impact of All Day Breakfast on
the supply chain would be worth the potential gains. One way to validate the demand
for around-the-clock McMuffins stood out. “McDonald’s is actually one of the most
talked-about brands on earth,” said Matson. “A third of those conversations in the US
are about our food and our menu – a big portion of which was breakfast, specifically All
On October
Day Breakfast.”
6th, McDonald’s
launches
With the help of Sprinklr’s Listening capabilities, McDonald’s combed through #AllDayBreakfast
customers’ digital conversations – all the way back to 2008 – to gauge interest in All Day
Breakfast. The output, Matson said, “was very clear validation of the in-store demand if
we made this change in the business.” Then came preparations. Internally, McDonald’s
referred to the launch of All Day Breakfast as “The People’s Launch” because the entire
initiative was a direct result of data collected from the public.

© 2016 Sprinklr, Inc. All rights reserved. www.sprinklr.com info@sprinklr.com

Matson emphasized that they “wanted to launch All Day Breakfast one to one with the “The October 6th launch became a
people” instead of just blasting it out across traditional channels. global trend organically. There was
no paid media, we started with the
Over the course of September 2015, the pre-launch of All Day Breakfast kicked off with
people and the people did the talking
12,000 Tweets to McDonald’s customers. The announcement of the launch began with
for us.”
a Tweet to the first person who ever requested 24/7 breakfast on social media.
Paul Matson
“We went digging and identified this person, and then scheduled 11,999 Tweets right
after that, all through Sprinklr,” said Matson. “This is where it all began.” One by one,
McDonald’s reached out to individual customers with personalized messages teasing “We are a customer-first company
the campaign. and we are putting customers at the
heart of everything that we do. Those
69 million customers that we serve
every day, that is what really matters
to us.”

Matthew Tennant

“The October 6th launch became a global trend organically. There was no paid media,
we started with the people and the people did the talking for us,” Matson said. All Day
Breakfast was and is still a delicious hit—and it’s arguably the primary driver behind the
company’s recent positive growth.

McDonald’s balances large campaigns with steady, always-on digital content by keeping
its focus on the customer. “If you have something to say to McDonald’s or something to
ask McDonald’s, we want to be there for you,” Matson remarked.

“We are a customer-first company and we are putting customers at the heart of
everything that we do. Those 69 million customers that we serve every day, that is what
really matters to us,” Tennant added. One thing is for sure: McDonald’s customers and
stockholders alike are certainly lovin’ it.

www.sprinklr.com info@sprinklr.com
© 2016 Sprinklr, Inc. All rights reserved.