TMW Ideas

McDonald's UK: Make up your own mind about McDonald's

I was visiting a restaurant review site today, where I spotted an ad for a site called www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk
I was sufficiently intrigued to find out what it was all about so I clicked and found myself on a site that at first looked like a consumer forum for food and food suppliers.

Then I noticed the unmistakeble Golden Arches residing inconspicuously in the bottom right hand corner. But that was it in terms of branding. No “I'm loving it”, no pictures of Big Macs and fries.

Reading further , I discoivered this was McDonald's attempt to embrace the web, and start a dialogue with their consumers - just as we've been talking about on TMW Ideas for the last few months.

It invites real consumers to visit their kitchens and beef suppliers and write their own reviews.
It provides forums for consumers to chat both positively and negatively about McDonalds products. It lets consumers ask questions and actually receive answers.

In short - it's everything a brand (especially controvercial ones like MDs who are constantly on the receiving end of abuse like this and images like the above) should be doing to embrace and manage its consumer's opinions. And it's not even a blog!

This is what Web 2.0 is about - not sticking a picture of a clown on Myspace and making friends with 5 yr olds.