Publicis Groupe Wins Mcdonald’s GCC Business

Press release

Published January 4th, 2018 - 12:45 GMT

Publicis Groupe won out for its ability to transform its offerings into a solution required to take McDonald’s business into the future.

McDonald’s has selected Publicis Groupe to handle its consolidated business portfolio in the GCC region. Publicis Groupe had designed a new operating model to further strengthen its collaboration with the fast food giant that put its entire business portfolio up for pitch in

Publicis Groupe implemented its “Power of One” strategy by bringing together agencies and services from Publicis Communications, Publicis Media and Publicis. Sapient is set to efficiently and effectively provide the best strategic planning, creative, media, communication and digital marketing services.

“To realize McDonald’s vision of being a modern, progressive burger company, we knew that we required an agency model built especially for us. We were looking for an agile partner that could break the barriers to efficient delivery of work across our consolidated business. We had a tough decision to make during the selection process for this pitch, but ultimately Publicis Groupe won out for its ability to transform its offerings into a solution required to take our business into the future,” said Tarek El Kady, Senior Marketing Director, McDonald’s Middle East & Africa.

Raja Trad, Chief Executive Officer, Publicis Communications Middle East, said: “Together, our teams have undertaken the challenge to address McDonald’s requirements and produced an innovative resource model that is both agile and progressive, as well as future-proof. This new model will deliver on efficiency, while enabling our teams to produce great work within timelines required in today’s digital climate. We are pleased to take our relationship with McDonald’s from strength to strength and are committed to exploring new creative avenues with them in the years to come.”

Publicis Groupe brought forward some of the best talents in a multidisciplinary team that will be responsible for creative and content development, marketing, advertising and media strategy and buying, social media, corporate responsibility, PR and crisis management. Talents from across Leo Burnett, Starcom, Sapient Razorfish, Prodigious, MSL and Arc were involved.

Alex Saber, Chairman, Publicis Media MENA, said: “We are proud to be associated with such a prestigious brand and we are hungry to work with them to accelerate growth and to build that relationship through our unique, natural and interdependent Publicis Groupe client model. This win is not only testament to open and collaborative behavior that exists across all agencies within our Groupe but also to the unparalleled breadth and depth of capability that exists within Publicis Media across this region.”

Background Information

McDonald’s

In 1917, 15-year-old Ray Kroc lied about his age to join the Red Cross as an ambulance driver, but the war ended before he completed his training. He then worked as a piano player, a paper cup salesman and a Multimixer salesman.

In 1954, he visited a restaurant in San Bernardino, California that had purchased several Multimixers. There he found a small but successful restaurant run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, and was stunned by the effectiveness of their operation. They produced a limited menu, concentrating on just a few items – burgers, fries and beverages – which allowed them to focus on quality and quick service.

They were looking for a new franchising agent and Kroc saw an opportunity. In 1955, he founded McDonald’s System, Inc., a predecessor of the McDonald’s Corporation, and six years later bought the exclusive rights to the McDonald’s name and operating system. By 1958, McDonald’s had sold its 100 millionth hamburger