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In the U.S., McDonald’s “What We’re Made Of” food-quality campaign includes TV spots introducing its suppliers, such as potato grower Frank Martinez and cattle rancher Steve Foglesong. But in Australia McDonald’s is using a variety of high-tech tools to go even deeper with its food sourcing/quality message, allowing diners to track the ingredients in the [...]

Maybe money can’t buy you love, but it can get you a lot of “likes.” According to Chicago-based social-benchmarking company Unmetric’s Fast Food Report, released July 14, McDonald’s is “the most astute fast-food chain in social media,” with Taco Bell a close second. That McDonald’s is most effective in using both Facebook and Twitter, according [...]

Craig Bahner may only have started as Wendy’s chief marketing officer in April, but he’s already weighing significant changes to strengthen the brand. Speaking to analysts at Wendy’s Investors Day program on June 28, Bahner outlined plans to accelerate new-menu-product development, revise its 99¢ value menu into a two-tier pricing structure, increase its use of [...]

Wendy’s announced today that it will sell Quebec-favorite “poutine” at its 368 restaurants in Canada, but the most interesting additions to the chain’s marketing strategy have been its belated embrace of social media and its side track into merchandise sales. Poutine—traditionally brown gravy and cheese curds over french fries—joins the new Signature Sides collection rather [...]

Last December, CKE Restaurants pulled the plug on agency David & Goliath on the approximately $50 million Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s account after less than a year, replacing it with its digital-marketing shop, 72andSunny. CKE suggested it just wasn’t getting the social buzz from D&G’s advertising that it had gotten from the shop it replaced, Mendelsohn Zien, [...]

The chain that two years ago dared you to unfriend 10 people on Facebook in exchange for a free Whopper is once again using social media to find out what people will do in exchange for free food or prizes. The time the question is “What would you give?” and it’s being asked in Australia. No lockout slowed the [...]

A month after Jack in the Box dropped Mini Sirloin Burgers from its menu, seemingly signaling the passing of the mini-burger fad, Burger King has brought back the tiny treats that began the trend. Now if only BK could decide on a name for them.  First introduced in 1987 as Burger Bundles, they resurfaced in 1990 as [...]

What should your next burger be? Ask your customers. McDonald’s is trying out social media as a means to involving consumers in the tricky business of menu R&D. In Germany, the “Mein Burger” (My Burger) promotion invited consumers to create their own McDonald’s burger. One finalist is a meatloaf-style patty and potato salad combo on [...]

Ξ Most digital-media marketing claims to be interactive but isn’t. “Tell us why you love our brand” is a one-way street. But a recent digital effort for McDonald’s in Sweden shows how digital technology can be used to engage and entertain.  A digital billboard in a Stockholm square invited passers-by to “Pick ‘n Play” games [...]

[Update: McDonald's put out a press release on the campaign a few hours after BurgerBusiness.com posted this item. The company says this is a "pan-Nordic" campaign created by DDB Oslo for Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. I'll still wager the burger and the campaign come to the U.S.] Is McDonald’s planning to bring its 1955 Burger to the U.S.? The answer [...]

Social media are taking hold in India, where Facebook opened its first office just five months ago, and where its users reportedly numbered  15 million then. So it’s not surprising that McDonald’s first Facebook marketing campaign is designed as something of a social-media tutorial. McDonald’s on Monday introduced a new four-item “Spicy Delights” menu in [...]

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRrr-wO8w2I There’s some good-natured—or is it? —lampooning of rural America in the Facebook-based game and advertising that McDonald’s/France launched today in support of its McFarmer double-patty cheeseburger. Go to the McDonald’s dedicated Facebook page for the “La ruée vers le McFarmer” (roughly “The rush to McFarmer”) game and you’ll meet “Roy,” who looks like a caricature [...]

Ξ Give Wendy’s credit for making social networking truly social. So often it’s one-way nonsense like the endless “Tell us why you love us!” Facebook promotions and pointless “So what’s going on?” Twitter chatter. Most chains and indies would rather than speak than listen. After all, now that you’ve amassed several hundred Twitter and Facebook [...]

[Update: Jack in the Box introduced the Pastrami Grilled Sandwich on Aug. 30.] Ξ Watch for Jack in the Box this week to introduce the new extension of its Grilled Sandwich line that the chain said it was readying in its talk with analysts earlier this month. Is it the Quesadilla Grillers tested last year? [...]

McDonald’s this week invited Canadians to visit its Facebook page and vote for either the Big Mac or the Quarter Pounder with Cheese as their favorite sandwich. A pair of giant hot-air balloons—one for each sandwich– hovering over Landmark, Manitoba, give real-time  updates on the voting: whichever balloon is floating higher in the sky is [...]