McDonald’s flips golden arches, Fox to slash ad time: International round-up
Plus Walmart introduces pre-prepared meals and how Coca-Cola Asia is helping combat that post-lunch slump.
Fast-food giants celebrate International Women’s Day
To mark International Women’s Day, McDonald’s has flipped its iconic M into a W while KFC is introducing the world to Colonel Sanders’ wife, Mrs Claudia Sanders.
As part of McDonald’s IWD campaign in the US, the company’s upside-down arches will replace rightside-up arches across its digital channels in a bid to celebrate women. It is understood the logo will also be changed on all of the company’s social media channels.
Meanwhile, KFC Malaysia has temporarily changed its logo of Colonel Sanders to Claudia Sanders across its social media and digital platforms.
Now, Malaysians are marking the event on social media by tagging their posts with #KFCIWD.
“To all women of KFC and the world out there, we would like to say that your future is always bright, equal, safe and rewarding. Keep inspiring us and impacting lives, and thank you for all your hard work and contribution to our community, family and this organisation,”Merrill Pereyra, chief executive officer for the Restaurant Division of QSR Brand, says.
READ MORE: McD’s flips its golden arches while KFC Malaysia introduces Mrs Sanders
McDonald’s takes ‘golden’ opportunity with quirky new outdoor advert
In addition to flipping its arches to celebrate International Women’s Day, McDonald’s has also cropped its iconic golden ‘M’ to help direct drivers to the nearest fast-food outlet in Canada.
Appearing across numerous outdoor adverts the billboards, sections of the golden arches suggest drivers should “Follow the arches” – hence the title of its new campaign by Cossette.
The bold move suggests McDonald’s branding is so well recognised that the company can safely take such a minimalist approach with its adverts.
According to reports the campaign consists of four billboards so far, three static and one digital, which can be found in Toronto and surrounds.
“To create a new way-finding system, we noticed that the directions were right there in the logo,” the brand says.
“By cropping the Golden Arches into a directional path, and reducing the visuals to only what’s essential, we transformed an under-utilised media space into a simple unified design system adaptable to any market around the world.”
READ MORE: McDonald’s crop the golden arches to direct you to closet restaurant
How Coca-Cola Asia is helping combat that post-lunch slump
Coca-Cola Asia thinks it may be able to help you beat that post-lunch slump.
Coke in Singapore has just launched a new campaign, produced by FCB Cape Town and launched across South East Asia, Russia and Africa, which suggests the drink is the antidote to that mid-afternoon energy crash.
The advert shows a group of young friends eating lunch in a cafeteria. All are drinking Coke aside from one lad who’s looking rather sleepy.
His friends pass him a bottle of Coke, he takes a sip and suddenly he’s on his feet busting out some killer dance moves.
This incident is captured on someone’s mobile device and shared as a meme with the caption “you just got jigged”.
“In a nutshell, the Coca-Cola Company wanted a new campaign for Coca-Cola to position it as the antidote to the lurgy or lassitude that typically affects people in the afternoon,” says Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola South East Asia’s head of creative content.
“It had to show that – from the pop of the cap or tab on opening, to the hiss as the gas escapes, to the clink and crack of the ice – the unique and delicious taste of Coca-Cola has the ability to ‘fizz up’ even the most lethargic.”
READ MORE: Coke Asia campaign attempts to kick start global dance craze for Gen Z
Fox to significantly slash ad time on its network
Fox is aiming to reduce the amount of ad time across its broadcast network to just two minutes per hour by 2020 and is understood to be considering selling ads using a time spent metric, rather than the number of views.
This means, in a bid to avoid a revenue slump, Fox would need to raise its ad prices and shift the way buyers think about purchasing media, according to reports.
However, this is perhaps a tough goals considering the average TV network on broadcast ran 13 minutes of commercials per hour in 2017, while cable ran 16 minutes per hour, according to figures by Nielsen.
READ MORE: Two minutes to midnight
Walmart introduces pre-prepared meals and meal kits
Walmart plans to introduce pre-prepared meals to more than 2,000 of its stores across the US by the end of the year in a bid to improve the company’s grocery business which is the chain’s biggest source of revenue.
Ten items are already available in 250 stores, and via the company’s delivery service, as the retailer aims to sell more food and attract more customers who would normally order from restaurant chains.
Walmart senior vice president, Tyler Lehr, says the meal kits will take pressure off families.
“More than 80 percent of Americans don’t know what they will have for dinner tonight,” he adds.
Walmart’s meal-kit delivery service rival, Blue Apron, saw its shares drop as much as 5.8% on Monday.
READ MORE: Walmart to sell prepared meal kits at stores nationwide
Samsung pushes boundaries and debuts Galaxy S9 on Burj Khalifa
The Samsung Galaxy S9 has arrived, and in spectacular fashion.
The mobile giant pushed traditional advertising boundaries and triggered a true sensory overload by launching its new device via a spectacular LED show at Dubai’s famous Burj Khalifa, making it the first technology company to present such a show at the tallest (828-metres) building in the world.
According to reports the multi-sensory experience was sure to capture consumers’ attention as the company attempts to demonstrate its commitment to defying barriers and meaningful innovation.
The new Galaxy S9 and S9+ were unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
