McDonald’s Corp. has signed agency AKQA to lead its global digital marketing efforts, a new role the QSR created.
AKQA will oversee and develop worldwide initiatives in the digital space for the company out of its San Francisco office. The addition of AKQA to the QSR’s roster does not change any of McDonald’s AOR assignments or work handled by other agencies, such as The Marketing Store and Arc Worldwide.
“We are pleased to partner with AKQA to develop a global digital marketing strategy to further strengthen the McDonald’s brand online and throughout our more than 30,000 restaurants around the world,” said Mary Dillon, McDonald’s Global CMO in a statement. “We expect this partnership to lead to new relevant consumer-driven innovations across all digital media. AKQA will work closely with our outstanding network of local digital agencies around the world.”
AKQA works with a number of clients on a global basis, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft Xbox and new client Smirnoff, an AKQA spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Tribal DDB Chicago will continue its work for McDonald’s handling U.S promotions and product launches. McDonald’s hired Tribal DDB as its AOR in the U.S. in 2000.
“This is a new assignment issued by [McDonald’s] global marketing group,” Paul Gunning, president of Tribal DDB East, said. “We’re going to keep on working for McDonald’s in a big way. This doesn’t affect us.”
Tribal DDB has run such promotions as McDonald’s successful Monopoly campaign and its Olympic work in the U.S. The agency has handled major product launches this year including the Asian Chicken Salad and McDonald’s Snack Wrap.
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