McDonald’s New Growth Plan Focuses on Digital and Creative Innovation

Save 50% on your Social Media Week pass ! Join leading brands and agencies in NYC this April 9–11 to learn about emerging trends, tools and strategies. Register now—savings expire Dec. 11 . The world’s largest quick-service restaurant brand, McDonald’s, is updating its growth strategy. It has added various new targets, including to its loyalty base and growing its fleet of restaurants globally to 50,000 while maximizing its marketing and improving its customer experience online, within restaurants and in delivery. Under president and chief executive Chris Kempczinski, the brand has focused its sales growth on the “Accelerating the Arches” strategy, which the business claims has delivered growth of 30% since 2020 while also modernizing its values. It now aims to evolve the strategy with new growth targets as it aims to build relevance amongst customers through emotional connections and world-class creative, driven by its “Feel-Good Marketing” approach. The added focus on marketing comes following the highly successful launch of the “Raise Your Arches” campaign, which came out of the U.K. at the start of the year and has been repeated internationally in more than 35 different markets. The campaign has led to McDonald’s being named by Kantar as one of the world’s top five most-valuable brands, while it also rose five places on Interbrand’s Best Global Brands list, coming in at 11th with a brand value of $50.999 billion. “As I’ve said before, there has never been a better time to be part of Brand McDonald’s. The McDonald’s System has demonstrated exceptional execution of our ‘Accelerating the Arches’ Digital development focused on loyalty growth Digital development focused on loyalty growth Meanwhile, the business also aims to “double down” on its digital presence, led by its app and loyalty schemes, which have helped it offer personalized value and digital offers to encourage repeat sales. It aims that 30% of delivery orders will originate through the mobile app over the next three years. It claims to have 150 million 90-day active users spending over $20 billion in Systemwide sales (the sales at all restaurants) through the loyalty program, which has become one of the largest in the world. To increase that user base to 250 million 90-day active users, the company intends to deliver $45 billion through annual systemwide sales by 2027. It also plans to expand its “Ready on Arrival” pilot, which has been tested in the U.S. across its six top markets by 2025. This service allows customers to pre-order before they arrive through the app. A new partnership to deliver AI A new partnership to deliver AI Meanwhile, McDonald’s has also announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud, which will introduce new technology to apply generative AI solutions for its restaurants worldwide. The partnership will accelerate automation innovation from equipment manufacturers, while reducing complexity for staff and serving hotter food more quickly. “We’re focused on making AI more helpful for everyone, with the potential to unlock many new opportunities for innovation,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, in a statement. “We’re excited to see how McDonald’s will use our generative AI, cloud, and edge computing tools to improve their iconic dining experience for their employees and their customers all over the world.” This will also impact the mobile app and loyalty kiosks in store from the start of 2024, with new software and a bespoke operating system set to be introduced. The use of more shared data, it claims, will allow it to accelerate customized AI solutions around the world to help it better understand and automate solutions within its restaurants.