McDonald's answers your questions

While McDonald's has long been confident about the quality of its food, practices and procedures, consumers were not as convinced. Social media listening indicated that highly-crafted food quality advertising was fuelling some of the negative perception. So instead of going after McDonald's lovers, Tribal DDB targeted those who actively question the quality and nutritional value of McDonald's.

The agency came up with a campaign that provided "consumers with questions" unfettered and unfiltered access to the company. The site (Yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca) allowed Canadians to ask any food-related question they wanted. No question was too tough or too raw for McDonald's to answer. A response team was created, comprised of 10 full-time staff tasked with vetting and answering the questions as efficiently as possible. In many cases, detailed research was needed, requiring input from all levels of the McDonald's organization, from suppliers to front-line crew, right up the president and CEO.

Tribal DDB socialized content through "follow" and "share" functionalities - and notified each consumer when their question was answered. It also used just-in-time video and image answers to increase impact and shareability. Despite a low-budget approach to the videos, "Behind the scenes at a McDonald's photo shoot" achieved nearly seven million YouTube views and "What is in the sauce that is in the Big Mac?" achieved more than two million hits.

McDonald's has received more than 7,000 questions so far, exceeding the campaign target by over 250%. The site generated more than two million Canadian interactions with an average engagement time of five minutes. And its branded YouTube channel garnered more than 10 million views.