McDonald’s listens and leans into subcultures
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 4:24 am
Whether you’re promoting a new product, jumping on a jamaica b2b leads trend or triaging when something goes wrong, social is the perfect arena for gathering customer insights to infuse across your marketing plan. Here are four brands embedding social into their customer-centric marketing strategy–and takeaways for how you can do it yourself.
When you serve millions of customers globally on a daily basis, it’s safe to say your brand has mass appeal. But McDonald’s doesn’t simply settle for generic campaigns that unite burger lovers everywhere. The fast food giant has made a concerted effort to root all of its recent marketing efforts in what they refer to as “fan truths”—in other words, specific customer insights.
With the help of social listening, their marketing team is able to pinpoint even the most niche trends that segments of their customer base are tuning into. This kind of intel was the driving force behind the “WcDonald’s” campaign, a marketing and product play that leans into how the brand has been referenced in anime for decades.
A McDonald's X post teasing it's WcDonald's campaign in February 2024.
This kind of subculture marketing only happens when you keep a constant pulse on what your customers are talking about or engaging with online (including the topics that aren’t directly related to your brand or industry). With that information, you can design marketing strategies that acknowledge your audience as whole people with diverse interests—not simply fast-food diners or online shoppers.
When you serve millions of customers globally on a daily basis, it’s safe to say your brand has mass appeal. But McDonald’s doesn’t simply settle for generic campaigns that unite burger lovers everywhere. The fast food giant has made a concerted effort to root all of its recent marketing efforts in what they refer to as “fan truths”—in other words, specific customer insights.
With the help of social listening, their marketing team is able to pinpoint even the most niche trends that segments of their customer base are tuning into. This kind of intel was the driving force behind the “WcDonald’s” campaign, a marketing and product play that leans into how the brand has been referenced in anime for decades.
A McDonald's X post teasing it's WcDonald's campaign in February 2024.
This kind of subculture marketing only happens when you keep a constant pulse on what your customers are talking about or engaging with online (including the topics that aren’t directly related to your brand or industry). With that information, you can design marketing strategies that acknowledge your audience as whole people with diverse interests—not simply fast-food diners or online shoppers.