McDonald’s next generation - Marketing chief Mary Dillon has introduced the once-conventional fast-food giant to YouTube, podcasts.
In a little more than 18 months, Mary Dillon, athlete, marathoner and the mother of 4 children, has taken the world’s largest hamburger chain to venues its founder Ray Kroc could not have imagined.
While Dillon, 45, who was named executive vice president and global chief marketing officer of McDonald’s Corp. in September 2005, hasn’t yet run a guerrilla marketing campaign, she has introduced the button-down company to YouTube, Webisodes (short Web-based episodes), cell-phone text messaging in Japan and podcasts, all places where its young adult and ‘forever young’ customers now are found.
‘It creates buzz and fun about the brand,’ Dillon said.
While Dillon is not reinventing the ‘I’m lovin’ it’ marketing message made famous by her predecessor, Larry Light, in 2003, she is tweaking how that message is getting to the fast-food giant’s customers by crafting campaigns for the Internet, mobile phones and other alternative outlets. She’s also has expanded the company’s licensing brand strategy, breaking away from Disney movies to make promotional deals for coming films such as ‘Shrek the Third.’
She refers to the strategy as the ‘I’m lovin’ it’ next-generation program.
Dillon, who is out the door at 5:30 a.m. each day, in the gym at McDonald’s Lodge by 6:15 a.m. and at her desk by 8 a.m., is part of a group of seven outside senior executives who were hired in the past 5 years to shake up the business and, in the process, pave the way for a record-breaking 47 months of higher sales.
In so doing, the company’s stock has nearly quadrupled in value, rising from a close of $12.38 on March 12, 2003, to Friday’s close of $45.05, up 56 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.
Dillon controls a marketing budget that exceeds the $1.8 billion in revenues at Quaker Oats Co., where she was president before being lured to the Golden Arches’ Oak Brook headquarters.
While a guerrilla marketing campaign such as one by the Cartoon Network that riled Boston police earlier this year isn’t in the cards right now, Brian Williams, president and chief executive of Element 79, a Chicago-based advertising agency, wouldn’t be surprised if one emerged.
‘She likes trying new ideas as long as it doesn’t hurt the brand,’ said Williams, who has known Dillon since her days at Quaker.
Also read: New ideas in action.
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