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

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 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 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 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.

organizing globally around the voice of the customerMcDonald’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.

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

over 120 countries

36,000 locations

28,000 social accounts

69 million customers

60 mentions a minute

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 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.”

After organizing around a hub and spoke model, McDonald’s also needed to simplify 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

“Our hubs are instrumental in making ‘Our McDonald’s’—our digital transformation mission—come to life.”

Matthew TennantGLOBAL DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIAMCDONALD’S

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 total transparency. Thus, Our Food, Your Questions was born.

Matson shared that it was a “socially driven campaign...to quantify and identify the 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 prepared? Here is your answer for that, as well.”

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

“People want to see brands humanized...the ‘Wizard of Oz behind the curtain,’ if you will. There is a transparency and accessibility aspect.”

Paul MatsonU.S. DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL MEDIAMCDONALD’S

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

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. “Changing 14,000 locations and the supply chains that are associated with that is unbelievable. McDonald’s buys more eggs than any other buyer on earth.”

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 Day Breakfast.”

With the help of Sprinklr’s Listening capabilities, McDonald’s combed through 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© 2016 Sprinklr, Inc. All rights reserved. www.sprinklr.com info@sprinklr.com

The McDonald’s Digital Team begins searching for breakfast posts on social

The team finds the first Tweet about All Day Breakfast, dating all the way back to 2008

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

On October 6th, McDonald’s launches #AllDayBreakfast

© 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 people” instead of just blasting it out across traditional channels.

Over the course of September 2015, the pre-launch of All Day Breakfast kicked off with 12,000 Tweets to McDonald’s customers. The announcement of the launch began with a Tweet to the first person who ever requested 24/7 breakfast on social media. “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 the campaign.

“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.

“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.”

Paul Matson

“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.”

Matthew Tennant