This morning, on the heels of Chipotle revealing a 56% surge in profit, McDonald's reported yet another quarter of struggling sales. It's a tale of two fast-food giants, and a panel at Forbes' inaugural Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon provided a window into one potential reason why these brands' financial stories have diverged: advertising.
In a talk entitled, "Is Advertising Dead?" panelists Raymond Braun (LGBT marketing lead for
"I think marketing at its core is storytelling," Braun said. "As a marketer you're responsible for telling the story of your brand."
"Advertising is an opportunity to communicate your values," Tipograph added, noting that politicians can be one of the greatest examples of this concept. ("I say Barack Obama and you think hope," she quipped.) Tipograph described walking into her boss' office at Gap and asking him about the retailer's so-called share values. "It’s not Gap talking to the world; it’s about having a dialogue. So having that conversation from the get-go is how you decide what your advertising needs to be."
CAA's Hunter, who worked on the team behind the famous Chipotle "back to the start" ad -- which, it's worth noting, has racked up more than 8.5 million views on YouTube -- says that it was this convergence of storytelling and communicating the company's culture that led to the now-famous ad. (As an added bonus, the story the ad tells serves as a little bit of a dig at Chipotle's competitors -- including the one the Mexican chain is now trouncing in quarterly earnings results.)
"The idea was to show when Old MacDonald lost his way," Hunter explained, referencing the ad's "back to the simple life" message. "Look at the food system, which has been so f*cked up over past 60 years because of marketers, because of lobbyists, and the outcome was the story of a farm that lost its way. I think that’s the reason that piece resonated -- the animation told a true classic story."
Hunter explained that the song for the ad, "The Scientist" by Coldplay, was the 86th song they looked at, and when they heard the track it all clicked into place. They asked Willie Nelson to sing the song for the ad, and after he agreed, a final version of the ad spot emerged, and the result was something that, he feels, communicated Chipotle's mission (using products from cage-free animals) and tugged at the heartstrings.
"[We] were trying to create culture around an idea," Hunter said, comparing the Chipotle spot to Apple's iconic 1984 ad. "What 1984 did for Apple... people really connected with this idea of breaking free from conformity."
For budding entrepreneurs who aren't quite sure what communicating their company's culture means or how to do it, the panelists in Philadelphia provided some practical suggestions. Google's Braun referenced a Google policy that lets employees spend up to 20% of their time working on projects that might have nothing to do with their day-to-day job descriptions but are instead passion projects. (That policy, incidentally, is how is role with Google's LGBT marketing team emerged.)
"What it comes down to is empowering people to work on what they care about. Full stop," he said. "Then, when you feel like people are empowered, have them speak for you externally."
In addition to building and communicating culture, Kiip's Wong says that effective advertising hinges not just on people seeing that marketing, but truly engaging with it.
"There’s a movement around engagement advertising. That’s a first step: the consumer needs to care before you get paid," he said. "Rather than 1,000 [crappy] impressions, you want to buy 10 that really matter."
"This is for all realms of communications and advertising," Hunter added. "Whether you want to call it engagement or whatever, it’s about creating thing that have value and quality."
Update: This story was edited to show that Hunter said "Old MacDonald," not McDonald's. I apologize for the error.
