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Big Brands React to Luis Suarez’s World Cup Biting Incident

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In the moments after Uruguay soccer player Luis Suarez apparently bit Italia's Giorgio Chiellini at the end of an exciting World Cup game today, Twitter exploded with often comedic buzz—and the funniest consumer brands won the moment with real-time tweets.

Here is the context: Seconds before Uruguay scored the only goal of the game, Suarez—who has a history of pulling such Hannibal Lecter-like moves—seemingly chomped into Chiellini’s shoulder. This is the third time the player’s been punished for biting opponents, reports CBSNews.

Bud Light and Listerine quickly bought Promoted Tweets around the #Suarez hashtag, with the beer brand playfully utilizing a picture of a bitten-into bottle. Listerine set-up a social newsroom before the Cup began for these types of marketing opportunities.

Other brands cleverly tweeting thanks to Suarez's actions include Trident, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Snickers, McDonald's, Whataburger and Major League Baseball.

Check out how these brands reacted below.


Here Are Some Advertising Slogans. Do You Remember the Brands? [Video]

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What's the last advertising slogan you remember?

Every year, advertisers and marketers spend millions of dollars pushing taglines to get you to buy their stuff. But do they work? To find out whether regular consumers can connect taglines with their proper brands, we headed to the branding capital of the world, Times Square, and gave people a little quiz.

You may know some answers, but could you get all of these right?

Is Tim Howard the Perfect Brand Partner?

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Following his gutsy performance for Team USA in the FIFA World Cup, goalkeeper Tim Howard is preparing for a big score.

The 35-year-old American, who also plays for Everton in England, became a media darling in the wake of America’s July 1 knockout-round loss to Belgium. Now, he’s looking to cash in on his newfound celebrity and break into the elite endorsement leagues. (He currently has six-figure deals with Nike and McDonald’s, making him a small fry in the rarified world of big-time sponsorships.)

“People’s perception of me may have changed in the past two weeks, but I haven’t changed a bit,” says Howard, who adds that he’s seeking the same kinds of deals as always: “blue-chip opportunities [with] really good companies with good reputations.” (Read more of our exclusive interview with Tim Howard, here.)

Neymar | Photo: Getty Images

Howard’s agent, Dan Segal of Wasserman Media Group, says his client has received dozens of offers in the past two weeks, and that he’s close—perhaps just days away—from inking deals with at least three national advertisers. “We’re looking for things consistent with his image,” which is down-to-earth and hardworking, rather than flashy or glitzy, Segal says. “We don’t feel in any way, shape or form a desperation to try and grab everything that comes along.”

Howard’s ascension stands in contrast to the fate that befell 22-year-old Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (universally known as Neymar), the Brazilian striker who also plays for FC Barcelona in Europe. The 2014 World Cup was billed as Neymar’s showcase, and some predicted that he would enhance his superstar status by leading Team Brazil to a title in front of its home-country fans. Instead, Neymar will spend several weeks immobilized in a back brace after suffering a broken vertebra in Brazil’s quarterfinal victory over Colombia. (His team was routed 7-1 by Germany in the following round.)

In March, Neymar was feted as “The Next Pelé” by Time magazine, in a nod to his countryman who reigned as the global face of soccer a generation ago. SportsPro Media ranked Neymar as the world’s most marketable athlete, and this year he’ll earn $16 million from endorsements alone, per Forbes. The injury, however, puts his future, both on and off the field, in jeopardy. Needless to say, Neymar’s brand-building value will plummet if he can’t regain his form. Luckily, he won’t require surgery, and as long as he comes back healthy, he should reclaim his stature as a top endorser, experts say.

As for Howard, “Tim can make some money in the U.S. I wouldn’t call it a big payday compared to other athletes,” says Paul Danforth, head of global sales at CAA Sports. Manish Tripathi, a marketing professor at Emory University who focuses on sports, advises Howard to “make deals as soon as possible. Once the World Cup ends, the enthusiasm will wane. Think Landon Donovan after he had the big goal against Algeria in the last World Cup.”

The disparate circumstances of Howard and Neymar underscore key issues for brands seeking to leverage sports. Sometimes bankable stars get injured or sullied by scandals, limiting their value. And while signing Howard might seem like a good idea right now, he’s no youngster, and his glow could soon fade.

“With risk comes reward,” says Danforth. “With elite athletes, their global reach far outweighs the downside.” The synthesis of athletes and brands is nothing new—and the scope of such relationships is more profound than ever, with huge player, team and league deals seemingly announced every week. Experts say that all signs point to increasingly lucrative contracts for the foreseeable future.

Bull Market
The elevation of sports within the marketing mix stems mainly from “the shift from a world of passive consumption, where fans primarily fed their passion for sports through traditional broadcast and print media, to the world of interactive new media,” says Simon Wardle, chief strategy officer at sports, music and entertainment marketing firm Octagon. “Time shifting, on-demand programming and other shifts in consumption of traditional entertainment content have made above-the-line media less effective. Sport is one entertainment medium still capable of consistently aggregating and delivering large audiences who share a passion for the content and will commit to watching it live.” 

Photo: Randall Slavin

That new reality has been brought into sharp focus by the explosion in digital devices, literally putting games—and sponsor messages—in the hands of fans everywhere. “The whole digital universe is available to one of the most highly consumable types of content—sports,” notes Octagon CEO Rick Dudley. Thanks to modern media analytics, “we can quantify how much value you can get, [and help you] reach a specific demo using a certain tone.”

AS Roma’s planned 52,000-seat stadium is the centerpiece of a massive entertainment and retail complex.

Based on this dynamic, Wardle believes, “you will continue to see more brands investing in below-the-line, passion-based marketing assets. International events like the FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games, Rugby World Cup and Wimbledon aggregate millions of global consumers at one time, which can be an attractive media buy if you’re a global or pan-regional brand.”

Data from IEG supports that analysis. The research and consulting firm projects $40.4 billion in global sports sponsorship spending in 2014, up $8.8 billion over the past five years, and more than double what it was a decade ago. Global marketers have increased overall sponsorship spending to 23 percent of their budgets (compared to 16 percent a decade ago), with approximately 70 percent of those dollars earmarked for sports. “We are bullish that the healthy growth we have been seeing should continue,” says IEG svp Jim Andrews. “There are no dark clouds on the horizon.”

The future looks especially bright for soccer, which ranks as the top team sport in most overseas markets, while its domestic popularity continues to rise. Team USA’s June 22 tie with Portugal and its July 1 loss to Belgium in the World Cup rank as ESPN’s most-watched soccer broadcasts ever, with audiences of 18.2 million and 16.5 million, respectively. On a global scale, IEG says FIFA will make $1.68 billion in sponsorships for the 2014 Cup cycle, almost half a billion more than it did in 2010.

Soccer Kicks A$$
“Soccer is helping sports marketing blow up globally,” says CAA’s Danforth. One salient example: General Motors’ Chevrolet is paying a mind-boggling $560 million to put its golden bow tie on Manchester United’s jerseys for seven years starting with the 2014-15 season.

“While there are opportunities for U.S.-based brands to market internationally using soccer—such as GM’s Manchester United kit sponsorship—there seems to be even more opportunity for global brands to connect with American customers via sponsorship of clubs finding appeal among U.S. fans,” says Donald Roy, a sports promotions expert and professor of management and marketing at Middle Tennessee State University.

FC Barcelona is a juggernaut, owing to its winning ways, star power (Neymar and Lionel Messi) and reach that includes weekly match broadcasts in 200 countries and 320 million fans and followers online. (The team claims that its social footprint is larger than any other sports franchise.) In recent months, FC Barcelona has, via CAA, inked arrangements with three very different marketers. Its three-year pact with Gatorade seems like a natural fit, as the electrolyte beverage is on the sidelines with many teams in various sports. Riffing on the famous “Intel Inside” positioning, FC Barcelona players in December began wearing jerseys with the tech titan’s emblem visible only when they pulled the garments over their heads, something soccer players have been known to do after they score. (The Intel deal is reportedly worth $25 million for five years.)

The team’s four-year program with Stanley Black & Decker covers signage, co-branded promotions (match tickets, merchandise, meet-and-greets with players) and live events like the 2015 Global Striker Challenge. “We’re barely one month into our partnership, and we already have 21 countries confirmed for Barcelona-related promotional activations,” says Earle Smola, director, corporate brand design and sponsorships at Stanley, which also has deals with MLB’s New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and Nascar, among others. “Sports provide our brand teams with opportunities to connect with a diverse range of demographics through programs that consumers are truly passionate about.”

Thus, in our fickle, fragmented media age, teams, leagues and players can make desirable long-term promotional partners, says James Pallotta, the billionaire investor who serves as president of Italian soccer team AS Roma and holds a small stake in the NBA’s Boston Celtics. “Sports mean so much more than a movie or TV shows,” he says. “Star Wars is not your movie. Roma is your team—it’s your family’s team.” Pallotta believes he can leverage such ardor to “build out a brand and content company.” Its hub is a 52,000-seat stadium and entertainment complex, slated to open during the 2016-17 season. In addition to hosting home games, the facility—more like a small campus with year-round event potential—will include shops, restaurants, performance spaces, a boutique hotel and a video production studio.

Global Playbook
While soccer is in the lead, other sports are playing smart and hard to increase their global footprint. The National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Baseball are staging more games overseas to attract new fans and sponsors.

Basketball ranks as the No. 2 global team sport, and the NBA is running a full-court press, broadcasting games in 215 countries in 47 languages while maintaining international offices and social outreach efforts such as NBA Cares. This strategy appears to be paying off. New international partnerships from the 2013-14 season include Samsung (Mexico) and Kumho Tire (Korea). Plus, 30 percent of the NBA’s merchandise sales are from outside the U.S. “There’s still plenty of upside,” says NBA deputy commissioner and COO Mark Tatum. “We’re still growing.”

A global focus can yield sponsorships on the team level as well. MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers—long known for the international flavor of its roster, which currently features South Korean pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu—recently added sponsorships from Korean firms LG, Hankook and Nexen. In fact, the Dodgers kicked off the 2014 season with a pair of games in Australia against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Such trips “expand our business and provide more touch points,” says Dodgers CMO Lon Rosen. (The Dodgers and Adweek are owned by affiliates of Guggenheim Partners.)

Non-team sports can also benefit. Nascar has been on a fast international growth track. “We have been successfully adapting our proven formula to suit local conditions and deliver value for sponsors,” says COO Brent Dewar. “Mexico is seeing rapid growth in Nascar interest—with sold-out venues and five new tracks that have been built since the introduction of the Nascar Mexico Toyota Series. We look to this series as a way to both develop international drivers and stoke the passions of our Mexican fans.”

Only a few stars will emerge as global brands (and branding platforms) unto themselves. Icons like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and David Beckham are in a league of their own. Nike’s Jordan Brand has become a $2 billion business that pays the long-retired M.J. an estimated $60 million per year. Tiger’s many endorsements, combined with his PGA winnings, made him the first professional athlete to top $1 billon in earnings. And Beckham is involved in everything from H&M’s David Beckham Bodywear to his own fragrance line and even Haig Club scotch from Diageo.

It remains to be seen whether the latest roster of sports stars joins the pantheon of those endorsement gods.

McDonald's Launches 'Chicken Legend' With World's Least Dangerous Daredevil Stunt

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Chickens might not fly much in life, but in death, a few of them got some pretty good air time with this odd U.K. stunt for McDonald's new Chicken Legend sandwich.

A spot recapping the effort opens with ingredient action shots that are slightly more melodramatic than standard-fare food porn. The finished recipe is placed in a box and strapped to the back of a remote control car.

The whole package proceeds to perform an Evel Knievel-style jump over a couple of McDonald's tractor trailers, all under the direction of RC car world champion Lee Martin.

Why does this chicken patty get to jump over trucks? Because advertising puns! It's a Chicken Legend, and legends do fearless things, and what better way to sell sandwiches than to project human qualities like courage onto inanimate food like chicken cutlets.

It's brilliantly shot—even serene, at moments—if a bit more involved than the brand's work on the other side of the English Channel. And it's an ultimately endearing bit of fun, even if it is pretty dumb, not unlike your average chicken. 

If you feel so inclined, you can carve up your own cut of the video on a McDonald's microsite.

McDonald's Will Spend the Next 18 Months Rebranding

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Amid anemic sales, employee pay issues, and an increasingly bad dietary reputation, McDonald’s has announced it will devote the next 18 months to rebranding itself as not only a cheap food destination but an appealing and high-quality one, as well. Call it a McSoulSearch.

Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the company “told investors this week it is taking the next year and a half to regroup” and that the change “won’t necessarily involve the typical hallmarks of a rebrand, such as a new logo or total design overhaul.” Instead, the chain will focus on improving customer service, adjusting its menu, and retooling marketing efforts, particularly online and in social media. (According to the social media analysis firm Infegy, 38 percent of online conversation about the Golden Arches last year were negative.)

Following, perhaps, in the footsteps of Chipotle—which, according to MediaBistro's AgencySpy, has surpassed the fast food chain in sales growth—McDonald promises to add “sustainable beef” and more fruit and vegetables to its menu. In addition, it will be remodeling its restaurants, adding more locations, and offering WiFi.

Chief executive Don Thompson said during an earnings call on Tuesday that the goal is to make McDonald’s a “more trusted and respected brand” and to create an experience that “customers will feel good about.”

Fans of the chain don’t need to worry about menu staples getting lost in the revamp. According to Thompson, the Big Mac, fries, and Egg McMuffin—which together represent some 40 percent of all sales—will remain at the forefront of the restaurant’s improved menu. 

This Shop Turns Sunday Circulars Into Hyperlocal Mobile Ads

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Specs
Who (From left) Xavier Facon, chief technical officer and founder; Tom Jones, chief revenue officer; Stacey Hafers, chief financial officer; and Jason Young, chief executive officer
What Mobile ad-tech provider
Where New York office

Since launching in 2002, Crisp Media has been on a mission to convert Sunday circular promos to location-based mobile advertisers that change on the fly with personalized products. The New York-based mobile tech player has evolved from building rich media ads to developing hyperlocal mobile promos aimed at tracking the entire path to purchase for clients like Unilever, Walmart, McDonald’s, American Express and Chrysler. “We believe there’s a huge opportunity in the combination of mobile, digital and shopper marketing programming,” said CEO Jason Young. The tactic is paying off—Crisp’s revenue has grown 50 percent in each of the last two years. When they’re not looking for the next slam dunk in mobile, employees blow off steam shooting hoops at the office’s Pop-a-Shot basketball game.

McDonald’s Gets Super-Sized Backlash With Instagram Ads

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Just as marketers expect for Instagram to open its advertising platform to the masses soon, a new McDonald’s promo underscores the challenges that marketers may have in nailing ads on the social-mobile app. 

McDonald’s recently ran a number of sponsored ads on Instagram to promote the Bacon Clubhouse burger that was launched earlier this year to appeal to millennials and make up for slipping sales. Like a bunch of other millennial-focused marketers, McDonald’s likely picked Instagram to grab the attention of smartphone-toting youngsters. These marketing efforts seem to be falling flat though with a swarm of backlash against the burger chain’s ad.

"While we are unable to provide specific details about our media strategies, we are always looking to engage with our guests and fans in fun and relevant ways in social media. Instagram allows us to share compelling and entertaining photos about our brand, food and more in unexpected and innovative ways," said David Martinelli, digital marketing manager at McDonald’s.

One such ad appeared on Monday morning. The post had 45,347 "likes" and 1,941 comments, many of which were negative from users who were ticked off by seeing a McDonald’s ad in their newsfeeds.

Take a look at some of the comments on the expanded picture above, but needless to say, the sponsored ad is not getting the kind of response that McDonald’s likely envisioned.

The burger slinger is running a few different types of creative on Instagram, and a quick search on Twitter shows that users are equally as unenthused (and vocal) about the fast food’s promos on Twitter as they are on Instagram.

 

 

In fact, some of the negative tweets stem back to early July when the brand ran a World Cup ad.

The burger chain’s seemingly big Instagram backlash comes at an interesting time as some experts expect for the mobile-social app to start earning $100 million quarterly if it were to roll out its photo-based promos to a wider group of marketers.

While there are likely hoards of photo-savvy brands in line to run Instagram ads, McDonald’s campaign suggests that while marketers see its potential as red-hot, consumers aren’t ready to see ads start popping up in streams of photos yet.

Mickey D’s efforts also suggest that fast food chains may not be as well-suited for Instagram as other image-heavy brands like the fashion labels and sports marketers that routinely dominate social engagement on the platform.

Experts: McDonald’s Needs Better Grip on Millennials Before Moving Social Strategy Forward

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When it comes to brands charged with spearheading a social media strategy, McDonald’s brand managers have it rough. The burger slinger routinely gets beat up on social media with negative comments and mentions, some of which it tries to deal with on Twitter.

Nonetheless, McDonald’s continues to pour hefty amounts of money into social advertising. The brand is one of a small handful of names running paid promos within the Instagram app with a campaign that erupted into a slew of backlash the past few weeks. Mickey D’s has also had a few well-publicized blunders on Twitter, most recently with a Promoted Tweet that went awry quickly, per an article from Digiday.

That’s not to say that McDonald’s isn’t trying with social. After all, it was one of the first brands to test out Snapchat (which now Wendy’s and Burger King have both latched onto), and ran an interesting rich media campaign on Facebook and Twitter last year to promote a new chicken wing product.

The Oak Brook, IL.-based company has more than 269,000 Instagram followers, 31 million Facebook "likes" and 2.49 million Twitter followers.

So, with all of the adverse feedback, will McDonald’s be shaking up its social media strategy soon? The brand declined to comment on its digital plans, but Valeria Maltoni, vp of digital strategy at PM Digital, pointed out that the fire hose of recent bad press shouldn’t stop McDonald’s from trying new social efforts.

"Rather than shunning new social strategies, McDonald’s should use consumer opinions to help develop new content and platform-specific ideas to ensure their content resonates with its intended audiences. McDonald’s is exploring some early forms of paid social media to create engagement opportunities for the brand in the social space and, as with most advertising and media campaigns, these strategies may require tweaking going forward," Maltoni said.

Both the Instagram ad and recent Promoted Tweets push a new burger from McDonald’s called the Bacon Clubhouse that is meant to appeal to millennials. Millennial-minded marketers are quick to single out platforms like Snapchat to target youngsters. But some argue that the social-mobile app may not be such a good idea for McDonald’s in general.

"McDonald’s can recapture its mojo by carefully targeting a campaign [around] the where and the what," noted Seth Traum, partner at Vivaldi Partners Group. "For the where, I’d avoid the millennial-focused platforms like Instagram, as reaction tends to be swift and sarcastic. And for the what, I would focus on including some form of value in the ad." For example, Traum recommended that McDonald’s could have attached a coupon to its Instagram ad to link the promo to a sale.

But Travis Freeman, vp of social media strategy at Dentsu Aegis argued that McDonald’s can make Instagram work as long as the company uses the right content.

Competitor Taco Bell was also one of the first marketers to employ Instagram ads to launch a new product and didn’t get nearly as much backlash. Unlike the McDonald’s effort, Taco Bell’s campaign did not focus on products, which led to a 29 percent increase in ad recall. Millennials are a notoriously hard group for marketers to win over, and it’s fair to assume that at least some of the messages that McDonald’s keeps pushing out through social media feel more like ads than pieces of content to the group.

"Product is inevitably in the shot, but only after discovering it through the consumer-centric experience that Taco Bell was targeting," Freeman explained. "Content is the glue that ties any of this together."


Burger King Is Getting 380 Tweets Every Minute for Chicken Fries

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If you've ever wondered why Burger King, McDonald's and KFC consistently "bring back" shelved menu items (respectively, Chicken Fries, McRib/Shamrock Shake, the Double Down "sandwich") for a limited time, the key reason is simple: Quick-serve restaurants (QSRs) need to give Joe Consumer—who tires of the same old menu items all the time—a buzzy/fun reason to start patronizing their locations again.

Marketing the return of such menu items via social media is practically a no-brainer. For instance, since launching #chickenfriesareback on Monday, Burger King has averaged 380 tweets a minute while garnering 150,000 total social media mentions in the campaign's first 72 hours, according to Eric Hirschhorn, CMO of the Miami-Dade County, Fla.-based company.

"Over time, people forget what it is you have in the restaurant," he said, explaining the "bring back" strategy employed by so many QSRs. "So you bring things back for a period of time, and then you make business decisions based on that."

A Social Media State of Mind

And you load up on social—especially if you are Hirschhorn. After all, #chickenfriesareback was born thanks to "chicken fries" getting between about 600 and 1,000 social mentions on Facebook and Twitter during January, per the marketing chief. A BuzzFeed listicle that month helped generate such chatter, since BK's chicken fries appeared alongside other "extinct" foods, such as lime-flavored Skittles, Planters Cheez Balls, etc. There was even a Change.org petition to bring back the fried poultry sticks. So Burger King rebooted the item this week, while launching Tumblr and Snapchat accounts to add to their social accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine. (Check out one of the brand's Vines below.)

Hirschhorn characterized the initiative as the brand's most social ever. Damon Ragusa, CEO of software marketer ThinkVine, commended the viral strategy.

"Instead of spending large paid media dollars, you let consumers know the product is coming at the outlet," Ragusa said. "Loyalists see that and spread through social media to get the same, if not more, impressions ... and for a fraction of the cost."

BK is repurposing its original chicken fries TV spot created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky nine years ago, which will air exclusively on Thursdays, or "Throwback Thursdays," playing on the meme when folks put up old photos on social media pages. The single tweak in the commercial entails a "#TBT" in the lower right corner of the screen. The limited-time offer is being primarily pushed via digital advertising and marketing.

"This is a different approach for us," Hirschhorn said. "Historically, when we've promoted a product, we'd take a traditional approach with a several-week campaign with TV, limited digital/social support and obviously some in-store merchandising. But since the origins of [#chickenfriesareback] are in the digital world, we wanted to keep it there."

Reacting to Robin Williams' Death in Real Time

It turned out to be an eventful week for the CMO and his team—particularly on Monday evening, when they were caught in the middle of a Hollywood tragedy. They were featured as Twitter's Promoted Trend, which costs roughly $200,000 for one day. But when news broke that popular comedic actor Robin Williams had died, shortly after 7 p.m. ET, hashtags such as #RIPRobinWilliams and #Mork became national trends. Burger King quickly pulled the ad.

"We felt like it was the right thing to do," Hirschhorn said. "We have our social media dashboards open all day, every day. We make our decisions in real-time. ... We picked up our phone. We called our agency, we called Twitter, and it was done."

Additionally, he said that the #chickenfriesareback endeavor represents a cultural veer at BK toward digital. He pointed to hiring Adam Gagliardo as director of digital marketing and social media one year ago, pulling him away from L'Oréal USA.

"There's been a dramatic shift from the top of the organization down," Hirschhorn said. "There's been a behavioral change here over the last 12 to 18 months. We put a new team in place that Adam is leading. We have a new agency in Code and Theory. And as a result, I think we've seen an incredible impact on our business."

Taco Bell Quietly Debuts Dollar Cravings Menu

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With very little fanfare, Taco Bell went national this week with the 11-item, everything's-a-dollar menu that it had been testing in select locations for almost a year. The move marks a rebranding of its longstanding Why Pay More menu to the new Dollar Cravings Menu.

Customers across the United States can now purchase a Cheese Roll-Up, Caramel Apple Empanada, Triple Layer Nachos, Beefy Mini Quesadilla, Cinnamon Twists, Cinnabon Delights 2 Pack, Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito, Beefy Frito Burrito, Spicy Tostada, Shredded Chicken Mini Quesadilla or Spicy Potato Soft Taco for exactly $1. Or, you could buy the whole menu for a Hamilton and a Washington.

The fast-food chain tweeted a picture of the low-cost options, but no national ad campaign has been launched to supplement an earlier series of radio spots Deutsch LA reportedly produced for a single dollar. Taco Bell's parent Yum Brands also kept quiet, making no press statement and dedicating its most recent social media posts to hunger relief activities and staff recognitions.

On Taco Bell's YouTube channel, you won't find a traditional ad for the new menu, but you will find this 3-minute "haul video" from YouTube personalities Steve Zaragoza and Lee Newton of SourceFed:

An interesting quirk to Taco Bell's latest pricing strategy is that three items were previously sold for 99 cents at most of the chain's restaurants. As Money noted, "For historically cheap Taco Bell, known for rolling out burritos for 59 cents and 79 cents during the recession and pricing entire meals for just $2 not long ago, a dollar menu means that many customers might actually pay more (not less) than they used to."

To be fair, the price increase for a potato taco, cheese roll-up or cinnamon twists is just a penny. Also, with competitors such as McDonald's adding the qualifier "and more" to their own dollar menus and charging as much as $2 for some selections, fast food customers might still see Taco Bell's menu as a deal.

One positive sign came from GrubGrade's chief blogger Ryan, who sampled every Dollar Cravings offering during a single lunch. He rated the food slightly above average overall and concluded, "I love value menus, and when they're set up where everything is the same price, I love them even more. Spending a few bucks to create your own combo is what I wish for at every fast food restaurant."

McDonald's Not So Golden With Millennials

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McDonald’s knows it has an image problem, especially with millennials. But a new study for The Wall Street Journal confirms what the nation’s top burger slinger suspected: Millennials are increasingly turning to fast-casual restaurants such as Chipotle Mexican Grill for its healthier menu items.

The study by restaurant consultancy Technomic Inc. revealed that diners in their 20s and 30s are increasingly seeking alternatives to the Golden Arches. Since 2011, the percentage of U.S. customers ages 19 to 21 visiting McDonald’s each month fell by 12.9 percentage points, Technomic reported. For diners ages 22 to 37, monthly visits were flat.

In comparison, monthly visits by 19- to 21-year-olds to fast-casual restaurants increased 2.3 percentage points, with an even greater surge, 5.2 percentage points, for the 22- to 37-year-old set, Technomic reported.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s has been trying to rebrand itself lately and beef up social advertising to boost sales after a disappointing second quarter and in light of negative publicity.

Earlier this month, Mickey D’s reported global same-store sales for U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months have been flat or falling over the past year.

Focusing its efforts close to home, McDonald’s announced Friday that Mike Andres will be the company’s new U.S. president. He replaces Jeff Stratton, who has been with the company for 41 years, but spent just two years as head of its domestic unit.

Burger King's Canada Move Really Ticks Off Twitter Users

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So Burger King might be heading to Canada to catch a tax break, eh? That's not sitting well with Twitter users, per new data from SponsorHub.

The fast-food brand—fresh off a hugely successful Chicken Fries campaign on social media—is taking heat for its plan to purchase Tim Hortons for $11 billion and move its headquarters north of the border. Some customers believe it's primarily a move to gain a tax shelter, and the backlash has begun.

SponsorHub, which has access to the Twitter data fire hose, gathered the positive, negative and neutral BK chatter and found that the brand's favorability rating dropped dramatically in recent days. It did the same for Tim Hortons and rival McDonald's for the sake of comparison. (The New York-based tech vendor doesn't call any of the restaurants clients.)

A perfect favorability score is 100, and BK's score plummeted from 72 on Saturday to 25 on Monday. The Canada development first made the rounds on TV and social media on Sunday.

Check out how the favorability scores of all three brands fared on Twitter thanks to the news.

McDonald’s Goes Mobile to Tie Brand to NFL Tailgating

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A range of exclusive Web video offerings, online contests and video game cross-promotions mark the second year of McDonald’s partnership with the National Football League. The three-pronged campaign based on the chain’s official restaurant sponsorship deal with the pro football league begins in earnest on Sept. 2.

The Golden Arches is putting a special push behind a Tailgate Photo Sweepstakes. Tweeting pictures, Vines or Instagram posts of themselves "showing their passion for football and McDonald's food" could give consumers a chance to win a party for 200 people in their hometown that is catered by a mobile McDonald’s kitchen.

Dean Barrett, the chain’s senior vice president and global relationship officer, said, "We know football fans' passion extends beyond game day and traditional tailgating in stadium parking lots. We're channeling this excitement into a new mindset of tailgating with McDonald's food that celebrates and rewards NFL and McDonald's fans anytime, anywhere this football season—whether they're gearing up for kickoff at their home or on-the-go."

The most visible aspect of McDonald’s 2014 pro football campaign for diners will be QR codes printed on NFL-themed packaging. Scanning a code on a medium-sized drink cup will give people access to NFL Now content. The ad-supported website and app lets visitors watch highlights, news reports and documentaries. It launched Aug. 5, and subscribers can personalize the priority in which clips appear.

A different set of QR codes printed on medium fries containers will let customers enter the McDonald's Pick the Play Sweepstakes. People who correctly predict the result of an EA Sports Madden NFL 15 video game play get entered into drawings for pro football-branded prizes. The grand prize includes tickets for and a trip to Super Bowl XLIX.

This year’s NFL campaign marks a significant expansion of what McDonald’s did in the online space to tie its brand to pro football during 2013. A game app titled NFL Runner: Football Dash represented the chain’s most significant mobile NFL-related initiative last season.

The league is welcoming McDonald’s expanded mobile strategy.

"As everyone gets back to football, we're looking forward to working with McDonald's to bring fans closer to the game they love through unique programs and our new personalized digital video service, NFL Now," said Renie Anderson, NFL senior vice president of sponsorship and partnership management.

Interestingly, the mobile push for NFL dollars comes with a slight retrenchment on interactive technology. McDonald’s introduced augmented reality packaging for its FIFA World Cup promotion during June and July. Those drink and fries containers created a hologram-like game experience, while the QR codes being used for the soon-to-launch NFL promotions just take users to webpages.

Consumers Trade Recyclables for Burgers at McDonald's in Sweden

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How do you get young people to care about recycling? Free burgers couldn't hurt.

DDB Stockholm and McDonald's collaborated on a campaign in Sweden which allows customers to pay for hamburgers, cheeseburgers and even Big Macs with recycled cans. Billboards placed around Stockholm announce the campaign with a roll of plastic bags that can be used to collect cans for recycling. Each bag also explains the custom pricing for the promotion: 10 cans nets you a hamburger or cheeseburger, while 40 will get you a Big Mac. The billboards are mostly centered around parks or summer festival areas, where, as DDB Stockholm puts it, "you'll find a lot of young people with empty drink cans and empty wallets."

Simon Higby, a DDB Stockholm creative, told Fast Company the challenge of the campaign was getting young people into McDonald's following summer festivals or days spent in the park. "Youngsters don't always have so much cash, but sometimes they can get empty cans," he said. "So, accepting cans in return for burgers gets them to McDonald's and the cans to the recycling depot. Everyone's happy."

The campaign makes a lot of sense for McDonald's, since it not only aligns the often criticized brand with a cause, but also gets a younger crowd inside the store—an age group which the brand has struggled to appeal to (at least stateside). And once in the store, many customers could opt for fries or a drink to go with the burger, increasing sales of such items.

The campaign is just the latest example of brands aligning with causes. McDonald's latest attempt to align itself with environmental concerns especially calls to mind Coca-Cola's recent cause marketing efforts, including PlantBottle and "Happiness Arcade," a push in Bangladesh featuring arcade machines that accepted empty Coke bottles as currency.

Food Porn Campaign Gives Applebee's a Social Lift

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User-generated content has already been embraced by social and mobile marketers as a go-to means for producing creative that’s fast and free. Now, exclusive data from Applebee’s latest Instagram campaign reveals that this strategy also is beginning to pay off.

#Fantographer fans

In July, the restaurant chain rolled out its Fantographer campaign, which encourages diners to snap pics of their meals or of themselves chowing down on sizzling sirloins. Applebee’s is culling these food porn photos and placing the best ones on its Instagram feed. Since the campaign’s launch, Applebee’s has gained 4,500 new followers, up 32 percent to 19,750; engagement rose 25 percent.

“People continue to prove that they’re more into the stuff they create versus the stuff we create,” said Shannon Scott, executive director of marketing communications at Applebee’s.

Roughly 770 images have been collected, 70 of which have already been used. If all goes as planned, Applebee’s won’t need to create any Instagram photos of its own until next summer.

To help the program scale, Applebee’s cross-promotes the images with posts and ads on Facebook and Twitter. So far, tweets tagged with #Fantographer have appeared in 78 million users' timelines. It’s also asking users to submit pics of particular appetizers and meals for upcoming promotions.

As appealing as this strategy seems, user-generated content also has its drawbacks. Some marketers worry it dilutes a brand’s reputation since the photos are low quality and sometimes draw negative comments. Applebee’s doesn’t have any data on brand sentiment collected from Instagram, but Scott refuted that there’s any negative backlash based on anecdotal feedback.

Applebee’s is hardly the first to employ consumer content. James Kirkham, Leo Burnett’s global head of social and mobile marketing, singled out McDonald’s Arabia: Instead of sharing photos of burgers and fries, its current campaign has consumers uploading artistic shots of the chain’s iconic golden arches. "They have this strange, Western culture devotion and love for the brand, which might differ from what you get in other territories," Kirkham said.

One key for these efforts to succeed is to already have a solid group of fans churning out continuous content that they trust, according to Greg Moss, executive director of strategic services at Resource/Ammirati.

And, with more consumers relying on smartphones to look up and rate restaurants, Lee Maicon, chief strategy officer at 360i, likened Applebee’s campaign to a picture version of Yelp—the Instagram pictures become a type of visual restaurant review. But he questioned if the initiative can gain traction with a big chain. "People are passionate about their neighborhood restaurants,” he said. “Are they as passionate about Applebee’s as they are about the restaurants that they post pictures of on Yelp?"


McDonald's Now Accepts American Express Rewards Points

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American Express is partnering with McDonald's to offer a new service that allows rewards program cardholders to redeem points for meals.

The pay-with-points service launches this week in New York and Chicago, rolls out next week in Phoenix, Ariz., and will be available in all U.S. locations by December.

"We want to be ubiquitous," Leslie Berland, evp for digital partnerships and development at American Express told Businessweek. "We want our customers to think about using their American Express card in places they haven’t thought about before."

The system is designed to take a fraction of a second, unlike many more traditional rewards-points redemptions. Customers simply swipe their cards at the restaurant, find out the number of points needed to cover the order, and click if they would like to use their points. Unfortunately, the transaction won't run as smoothly at the drive-through window, where customers can either use the American Express app or reimburse themselves for the purchase later by redeeming points online.

Conversion rates were created with convenience in mind. One hundred points nets customers $1 worth of food. So a cup of coffee can be purchased with one hundred points, while a Bacon and Cheese Quarter Pounder costs 400 points.

The service follows successful pay-with-points initiatives American Express launched with Uber and Verifone. McDonald's hopes the program can entice customers to visit the chain even more.

For McDonald's, it's yet another example of letting customers pay in new ways as the brand struggles to attract younger customers. It signed on as an early adopter of Apple Pay and introduced mobile payments earlier this year.

34 Places Where You Can Start Using Your iPhone to Buy Stuff

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So Apple’s best lineup of gadgets is out and its next big business is ready for launch—Apple Pay. The mobile payments service launches Monday and today Apple revealed a list of retailers who will start accepting your iPhone as currency.

Of course not every retailer is excited about Apple inserting itself in the payment process, so convincing widespread adoption is still a question.

Apple also showed off its new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, and the company claimed that along with its new watch and iPhone 6—both released last month—it is presiding over a golden age of computing gadgets.

Of course, none of the news today came as a surprise after the new iPads were "accidentally" leaked online. What Apple fans can look forward to, at least, is paying for their new iPads with a wave of their new iPhones at Apple Stores, which obviously will accept Apple Pay.

And if you’re wondering where else the iPhone can act as wallet, here is the latest list of retailers and businesses, including McDonald’s, Macy’s and Walt Disney World, set to plug into Apple’s new financial system:

  • Aeropostale
  • American Eagle Outfitters
  • Anthropologie
  • Apple
  • Babies R Us
  • BJ’s
  • Bloomingdale’s
  • Chevron
  • Champs
  • Duane Reade
  • ExtraMile
  • Foot Locker
  • Footaction
  • Free People
  • Macy’s
  • McDonald's
  • Nike
  • Office Depot
  • Panera Bread
  • Pet Smart
  • Petco
  • Radioshack
  • Sephora
  • Sports Authority
  • Staples
  • Subway
  • Texaco
  • Toys R Us
  • Unleashed
  • Urban Outfitters
  • Walgreens
  • Walt Disney World
  • Wegmans
  • Whole Foods

What's in McDonald's Food, Anyway? Ex-MythBuster Grant Imahara Is Hired to Find Out

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Does McDonald's put horsemeat in its burgers? What about pink slime? Would you feed McDonald's food to your kids?

So many questions. But now, taking its cues from a well-received transparency campaign from McDonald's Canada, the chain is responding to whatever hate its American critics want to throw at it. And it's hired former MythBusters host Grant Imahara to be your third-party, completely unbiased, totally trustworthy, quasi-celebrity McMyth investigator.



Imahara's first three videos have already dropped, where he visits a Cargill plant and answers the following: Is McDonald's beef real (and are there eyelids in there)? Why are the patties frozen (when fresh should theoretically be much tastier)? Why are the burgers so cheap (you get what you pay for, right)?

It's everything you'd expect from a hard-reboot, Domino's-style brand turnaround. What I most admire is that they're letting the comment feed on YouTube be just as brutal as it wants to be. And man, is it brutal. It's hard to tell the legit processed-food concerns from the horsemeat crazies.



Though honestly, that's good for Micky D's. The more they can discredit the really nutty folks by letting them be themselves—and there are some excellent conspiracy theorists blowing up the feed—the less McDonald's itself actually needs to say.

That said, I'm probably not going to bite the bullet like Imahara and munch a Big Mac anytime soon. But those sodium acid pyrophosphate fries, man. Who can resist those fries?

KFC Sets Up Shop in Myanmar, One of the Last Frontiers for U.S. Brands

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How do you say, “Finger lickin’ good” in Burmese? It may not translate literally, but KFC is hoping its secret fried chicken recipe will bring in customers when it opens shop in Myanmar, one of the last frontiers in Southeast Asia for U.S. brands.

KFC parent company Yum Brands plans to open its first Burmese franchise next year. In fact, very few global brands have a presence in Burma, or Myanmar as it's known, because it is just now emerging from years of military rulers and international sanctions.

KFC’s move into Myanmar is part of its push into 118 countries that produced $13 billion in global sales last year. The BBC reported there are 14,000 KFC restaurants in emerging markets that include India, China and most recently Bolivia. 

It’s a big world out there, and Yum Brands, which also owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, opens five restaurants a day.

So, in what other out-of-the-way places have U.S. fast-food brands established a foothold?

  • Pizza Hut planted a flag in the International Space Station with a historic delivery.
  • There’s a Taco Bell in Bangalore, India.
  • TGI Friday's, Jakarta is a thing.
  • Wendy’s opened a shop in Roppongi, Tokyo (with lobster and caviar burgers, no less).
  • Dunkin’ Donuts has an outpost in Denpasar, Bali.
  • Arby’s is in the Arab world, including in Turkey and Qatar.
  • Subway serves Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
  • McDonald’s serves Big Macs near the Palace of Versailles in France; below the Museum of Communism in Prague; in the middle of the Negev desert in Israel; outside Windsor Castle in the U.K.; and inside a decommissioned DC-3 in New Zealand.

Organic Food Snobs Are Unknowingly Fed McDonald's, and They're Lovin' It

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You probably have a few friends so opinionated about the sourcing and quality of their food, part of you wants to test whether they'd really know the difference between crap and cuisine.

You love those friends, but you also think they're being snobs, and you'd just love to troll them hard. 

Well now you don't have to, because two guys named Sacha and Cedrique did it for you. As you can see in the video below, they're on a mission to prank organic food experts in the Netherlands. They pack their bags full of a mix of McDonald's food and real organic food and present it to these connoisseurs of the finer things in life.

Check out this hilarious culinary experiment and skip to about the 2-minute mark if you want to see the real golden nuggets.  

Via Gizmodo. 

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