1. Summarize this case study by describing the best practices of this organization's digital marketing plan.
2. Briefly describe the role each component of their strategy plays in improving the performance of the organization's objectives.

Case Study

Using digital to combat negative perceptions and build trust.

The challenge

* To change the conversation from negative to positive for McDonald's, to direct a bold campaign to face these misconceptions head on and use transparency to put any negative rumours to rest.

* The key objectives were to dramatically change consumer perceptions about McDonald's food and to increase key food quality perception scores by 14 percentage points.

Target audience

Campaign targeted all age groups. All Canadian consumers were invited to ask any questions they might have about McDonald's food.

Action

* McDonald's Canada decided to give the public a backstage pass on how things work in the company.

* Launched a digital platform called 'Our Food. Your Questions' giving people a chance to ask the company anything about its food.

* Launched a YouTube video directing visitors to a dedicated website where they could submit questions about the brand by logging in through their Twitter or Facebook account.

* Questions ranged from conspiracy theories to queries about food additives.

* McDonald's put in place a 10-person response team in the form of text, images and one-off videos shot on the fly.

* The response team answered some of the biggest questions with videos uploaded to YouTube (around 3-5 minutes each).

* The YouTube page also highlighted the best questions and allowed users to ask their own question right next to campaign videos.

* Each question answered served a myriad of functions: a personal connection to the brand, a sign that McDonald's was listening, and a piece of content designed to displace the existing inaccurate or negative information on the web.

* This all allowed consumers to browse, search, follow and share from the ever-growing content base of text images and video answers.

* Real consumer questions became a source of advertising for the platform and were brought to life with television, online videos, banner ads, wild postings, projections and subway station takeovers.

* It showed that McDonald's was ready for a transparent conversation.

Results

* By April 2013 the chain had answered 20,000 questions, exceeding the year one target by 400 per cent.

* The website gathered more than 2 million visits and generated more than 10 million interactions.

* An average 4.5 minutes engagement on the site, reading approximately 12 questions.

* More than 7 million questions were read and YouTube videos were viewed over 14 million times.

* Banners click-through rate was 93 per cent, three times greater than category average.

* Campaigns generated more than 500 media reports, 132 million media impressions and 2.3 billion social impressions.

* Independent Environics research revealed that consumers who visited the site had an average 8.5 per cent lift in the perception of McDonald's as a genuine brand. There was also a 46 per cent increase in the critical metric 'company I trust'.

* Most important, the transparent approach had a noticeable impact on the brand food scores: the top three measures for food quality perception improved by 73, 61 and 48 per cent respectively.

Lessons

Trust and reputation are a fundamental part of building a brand and maintaining a brand community. McDonald's set about empowering the consumer base by promoting and fostering a direct transparent engagement.

Links to campaign

* http://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/

* http://tribaltoronto.com/#/work/our-food-your-questions

An expert view

Sean Collins was born in 1976 and is married with three children and living in Marlow, England. He describes himself as a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, having started and exited three businesses in the last 10 years. His ventures have typically involved e-commerce and panEuropean marketing in the leisure industry. He has an active interest in education technology and social entrepreneurialism.

The challenge represented in this case study is relevant to almost all businesses regardless of the scale of your company or the product you are selling. Every company has friction points with its consumers and most will choose to avoid talking about them. What is compelling in this scenario is how the friction created significant dialogue and valued feedback without a negative overall outcome.

The case study demonstrates that to effectively target social media you need a conversation and that conversation is most likely to take place in your brand's 'marmite' zone. The 73 per cent improvement in food quality perception is a staggering improvement when you consider the volume of participants.

It would be interesting to know what product changes occurred from this feedback loop and perhaps that will be campaign number two.