Page 13 - Going for Growth: Targeting Today's Diverse Consumers

12 GOING FOR GROWTH: TARGETING TODAY’S DIVERSE CONSUMER

A McDONALD’S MOMENT

Lizette Williams, Head of Cultural Engagement and Experiences at McDonald’s, refl ected on
the ways in which this iconic brand plays a role in virtually everyone’s life. “We sometimes
refer to it as one of the most democratic brands in the world,” said Williams, who is deeply
aware of the cultural signifi cance of the brand and the diversity of customers who walk
through its doors every day. “We bring people together,” Williams explained, “but how we
tell that story is where the resonance comes from.” Telling stories about human connection
formed the foundation of a recent brand campaign called “Moments.” The creative developed
for what is often referred to as “General Market” or mainstream media featured a series of
vignettes refl ecting the lives of a spectrum of consumers: Black urban youth, White truck
drivers, a Latina mom picking her child up from soccer practice. The tagline for the campaign,
“We Have More in Common than We Think,” turned the diversity being shown on the screen
into a unifying idea that illuminated McDonald’s as a facilitator for shared experiences that cut
across communities.

Williams went on to explain how a
specifi c cultural insight relevant to
Latinxs led to a distinct approach
to creative development for this
segment. Differences in the Latinx
community are rooted in differences
between generations, and between
the immigrant journey for those
newly arrived and those Latinxs who
may be children of immigrants but
not immigrants themselves. More so McDonald’s TV Commercial
than differences in occupations or “UNCLE ROBERTO”
interests, or in where U.S. Latinxs
are living — even more than the specifi cs related to the many countries of origin involved
in the Latinx diaspora — the U.S. Latinx reality has its own facets that weren’t refl ected in
the General Market work. Williams challenged her agency to “use a Latino lens,” and to tell
the McDonald’s brand story from a cultural point of view. This led to the creation of “Uncle
Roberto,” the story of a young man and his uncle as they spend a day together overcoming
the gaps in communication, misunderstandings, and culture clashes until they fi nd that sweet