Macca's Chef: McDonald's are embracing social media

It seems that everywhere you look companies are embracing online media and web platforms to get their messages across to consumers or to give them increased interaction opportunities with their brand.

McDonald's promotion of their new Angus burgers uses a nine-part spoof of MasterChef entitled Macca's Chef. It features Chris and Steve, both battling it out to become Australia's top Macca's Chef.

McDonald's is also encouraging consumers to rate the Angus burgers on the MasterChef site. They are hoping to learn from their customers to better improve the range. Although it's a simple online vote, it's definitely a step to increased participation from consumers in the fast food industry.

Check out Episode One of the spoof here!

Hawkins the face of Myer shares: What The?!

Leonie Wood's article for The Age cites her bewilderment at Myer's decision to promote their shares by using the same "face" (that of former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins) for their November float.

I agree with Wood when she writes, "[a]s an investment drawcard, Hawkins epitomises nothing ... Her face tells us nothing about the company ... its dynamism, its competitive position, its momentum." Wood further highlights how Hawkins is being used as a semiotic sign to connote particular ideals relevant to the Myer department store, and to establish an emotional connection.

An article by Adam Ferrier, Managing Partner of Naked Communications, on giving people utility over emotion in marketing is especially significant in this context. Ferrier writes that positive emotions are a natural corollary of giving them (people) what they want -- value. Although Myer are playing strong on the loyalty stakes by offering Myer One members an option to pre-purchase shares, the unidimensional emotional appeal through Hawkins as an ambassador is, in my opinion, a poor move. It positions Myer the fashion brand in the same manner as Myer the safe financial investment. Weird.

the price promise: is price "matching" sufficient?

Kmart's new TVC (wonderfully done, I must add) advertises their Price Promise campaign.* I'm sure must of us are familiar with Bunning's "Find a cheaper price, we'll beat it by 10%" promise, so I'm curious to see whether Kmart's "price match" is sufficient?

What Kmart does have going in its favour is a curiousity-rousing TVC, but in these so-called 'harsh economic times' I don't think that novelty is enough, you need to deliver something better, different or more affordable.

*I don't have an online link to the commercial so keep your eyes peeled; it features individuals in domestic settings talking about how people make promises they don't necessarily intend on keeping. If anyone knows where to find it online, let me know!

bloggers show GM whose boss

General Motors has axed a Buick sports-utility vehicle because of social media criticism about the vehicle before it even went into production.

You can read more over at The Age.

McDonald's family ad a winner

I think that the McDonald's commercial that's been airing on commercial and subscription television networks since (I think) May 2009 is brilliant.

Conjuring up nostalgic feelings of childhood and reminiscing of eating McDonald's after a sports game makes me feel like a McChicken burger.

What's best, though, is that given the major rebranding McDonald's has undergone to show itself as a family-friendly place that serves real food is so well incorporated with the parents drinking their McCafe coffees.

Check it out for yourself.

social networking to help curb melbourne city violence

The Saturday Age (15.08.09) reported on youths working to make Melbourne a safer city through social networking and online media. Jennifer Lim's story (which you can read here) covered STEP BACK THINK - a youth-led organisation founded after the bashing of then 20-year-old James Macready-Bryan.

STEP BACK THINK intends to use social media so that club patrons are given a voice and can "rate" venues and share their experiences in terms of safety. Venue operators are reported to be up in arms about the idea, probably because this campaign might compel them to actually have to DO something! If it does force them to work in collaboration to help make nightspots safer, it's great for everyone and shows the versatility and multiple (non-time-wasting) uses of social media. Ultimately, what happened to James shouldn't happen to anyone.

shop til' you drop men

ACP's Shop Til You Drop has a new sibling, or should I say live-in partner, SHOPmen. The magazine is in September 2009's usual Shop Til You Drop. SHOPmen is not a pull-out so I'm assuming men who want to read it will have to do some snooping unless they don't mind getting caught reading a 'women's magazine'.

I unashamedly read men's lifestyle magazines so it naturally follows that I wouldn't have such a problem with this new addition to the market. I do and it's with editor Justine Cullen's letter on page 228. Cullen writes "One thing we didn't want, was for our special men's issue to feel like ... a mag for guys put together by a bunch of girls".

There's nothing wrong with the idea nor the sudoku toilet paper that features at #5 in the list of Top 10 Buys for Men in September; but, in taking stock of what men "need" they've pigeon-holed and typecast male consumers in the worst of ways. Guest editor Sam Elson is a 'surfing, guitar-playing blokes' bloke' who clues up the predominantly female editorial team on what "real men" want. In Cullen's own words they wanted to be "doubly sure" not to make the magazine "overly styled [and] metrosexual", so an additional 6'4 surfer-tradie became their muse. Obvious choice.

This practice of regarding consumption as preeminently feminine and subsequently "making masculine" anything in the same vein for men is a little outmoded. SHOPmen appears to have assumed use one kind of masculinity (surfer-tradie, guitar-playing blokes' bloke) as all-encompassing and an adequate typification of what men will even consider buying. Who knows? I'm interested to know what others think. In any event, I just found something new to do on the toilet so it can't be that bad.

rad to the power of sick creativity

This video is incredible!



The team at George Patterson Y&R wondered whether creativity works ...

The answer is a resounding YES!

welcome

Welcome to the brown man. This blog is created and run by Tarang Chawla, currently a fourth-year Media & Communications/Law student at the University of Melbourne. This blog catalogues my thoughts on happenings in the Communications Industry, advertisements and marketing campaigns which interest me and general-life-stuff of a consumer-oriented nature.

Feel free to leave comments and contact me.

You can find out more about the brown man here.