Not all marketing roles are created equal. Although some marketers might relish the challenge of selling ERP solutions or office stationery supplies, it is difficult to deny that some brands are simply more exciting than others. Getting the gig as CMO of McDonald’s, therefore, would be a dream for many marketers.
It certainly was for Ben Fox, who assumed the role of UK CMO this year. Fox has worked at the fast-food chain since 2012. Before that, he worked with McDonald’s at a media agency, so it’s fair to say he’s a paid-up member of the golden arches fan club. “Busting some of the myths that persist around the brand is one of my favourite things to do,” he says, referring to viral social media posts about McDonald’s supposed use of ‘pink slime’. “I love squashing those things because I’m genuinely proud of the food we serve – it’s something I’m very passionate about.”
But passion alone isn’t enough. Fox is acutely aware that the job of the marketing chief is not only to protect the brand’s reputation, but also to rethink customer strategy in an era of fractured attention spans.
Marketing in the age of attention scarcity
When Fox joined McDonald’s, amid the fervour around the London Olympics, the media landscape looked very different. “Previously we could rely on having a heavy weight of media spend,” he says. “That competitive advantage diminished very quickly with the advent of social media and more personalised, relevant ways of connecting with customers.”
Creativity is one of the last bastions of competitive advantage
This has presented an exciting challenge for Fox and his team, who must reach an audience that has unparalleled access to entertainment and information. Brands must earn the right to appear on consumers’ feeds. “It’s not that you can’t advertise to people, it’s that you have to give them content that’s worth engaging with,” says Fox.
This means focusing not only on ‘memeable’ content that can be consumed on the go via a smartphone but also elevating stories that resonate with audiences on a personal level. Fox explains that McDonald’s is “essentially a global family of local businesses”, thanks to its franchise structure. “We’ve got a real breadth of stories that we can tell, from the local farmers we support to the communities we serve.”
Global brand, local resonance
This international network of franchises creates both challenges and opportunities for the UK marketing team. Maintaining brand consistency from country to country is essential. But what resonates with a consumer in Macau, for instance, won’t necessarily resonate in Manchester. The secret sauce for balancing global reach with local tastes, Fox says, is: “The strategy travels, the execution is localised.”
He adds: “There are unifying factors that are universal – a focus on value, speed, service and convenience – but how you take those messages and localise them is important.”
Understanding how to localise these messages starts with consumer insights. Through programmes such as McDonald’s customer loyalty scheme, the fast food chain has grown a digital database of more than 16 million customers in the UK. And this, says Fox, is the bedrock for creating a “clear and consistent tone of voice that resonates with modern Britain”.
This tone of voice is playful and warm with a wholesomeness that could be seen as at odds with the virulent criticisms often levied at the brand. Despite a long fight to combat public criticism, McDonald’s is still perceived by many as a symbol for poor-quality food, animal cruelty and the obesity crisis.
Nevertheless, the chain still appeals to hundreds of millions of people. In 2024, McDonald’s served 4 million customers a day in the UK alone, so the brand’s popularity with a broad cross-section of the population remains a cornerstone of its marketing strategy. “We’re an unashamedly mass brand,” says Fox. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the prime minister or a traffic warden, you can come in and still have the same experience.”
Embracing “creative bravery” in marketing
This can be seen clearly in one of Fox’s all-time favourite McDonald’s adverts: Just Passing By. The 2009 ad showcases the broad range of people who eat at McDonald’s – “the labourers and cablers and council-motion-tablers” as the advert called them – over a soundtrack of upbeat music and a poem read by the actor David Morrisey. According to Guy Moore, the creative director behind the ad, the brief was to show how democratic the fast-food outlets were. The plan worked, with the ad sweeping an armful of awards including a Cannes Lion while McDonald’s sales reportedly shot up by more than 500%.
Poetry and Big Macs may seem to be at opposite ends of the cultural spectrum, but their unlikely partnership is a classic example of something Fox holds dear: “creative bravery”. According to Fox, this quality is in short supply among today’s data-savvy marketers.
We’re an unashamedly mass brand
“We can get blinded by data. I’ve seen a lot of good brands go down the wormhole of just focusing on data performance,” he says. “They forget the value of creativity which can genuinely uplift a brand and create those emotional connections.”
Data, he says, is never a substitute for creativity and the best practitioners will understand when to use those data insights to give customers more relevant experiences and when to tap into the human emotion with great stories. The ability to marry the two is what Fox looks for in his team members. “You need someone who is a connector,” he says, “someone who can connect the dots between data and what’s happening in the world at large, someone who can read society and product trends, matching cultural insights with customer insights.”
Joining the dots between consumer insights and trends in the wider world has given rise to some of Fox’s favourite work. An example is the McDonald’s McCafe ad, which pokes fun at the trend of increasingly complicated and pretentious coffees. “I think that was some of the best coffee advertising I’ve seen,” says Fox. “It felt different, it felt fresh; it was bold and it was brave.”
Another value Fox looks for when hiring is an aptitude for bravery. “It’s very easy to mimic the norms of a category, but it’s very difficult to define them – and that does take a certain sort of person.” These people are supported, Fox says, by a culture of calculated risk-taking, where bravery is rewarded and encouraged.
Fox thinks advertising on social media is also brave, because ads can be shared, memed and remixed by audiences.
“You have these ideas and then you have to let social media take it off in its own direction,” says Fox. “It requires bravery to ‘share the pen’ with our customers, to let them play with an idea and make it their own. That can be quite challenging for people who have grown up in a very restricted corporate marketing environment.”
Bravery with a safety net
But Fox does acknowledge that the the food chain’s vast structure makes creative risk-taking a little safer. It’s empowering, he says, to be part of a network of global CMOs, each of them responsible for taking marketing risks in their regions.
“It means our CMOs can be like magpies,” he says. “You can pick what’s best and decide which bits from other regions could work for your audience, basically lifting and shifting best practice.”
This community has helped Fox to stave off the loneliness often felt by those in executive positions. Although the buck stops with him, when it comes to marketing decisions for the UK, he has a network of global marketing leaders from whom he can learn.
For Fox, this combination of local agility, “creative bravery” and the shared wisdom of a global network is what keeps the golden arches shining bright.
Not all marketing roles are created equal. Although some marketers might relish the challenge of selling ERP solutions or office stationery supplies, it is difficult to deny that some brands are simply more exciting than others. Getting the gig as CMO of McDonald’s, therefore, would be a dream for many marketers.
It certainly was for Ben Fox, who assumed the role of UK CMO this year. Fox has worked at the fast-food chain since 2012. Before that, he worked with McDonald's at a media agency, so it’s fair to say he’s a paid-up member of the golden arches fan club. “Busting some of the myths that persist around the brand is one of my favourite things to do,” he says, referring to viral social media posts about McDonald's supposed use of 'pink slime'. “I love squashing those things because I’m genuinely proud of the food we serve – it’s something I’m very passionate about.”
But passion alone isn’t enough. Fox is acutely aware that the job of the marketing chief is not only to protect the brand’s reputation, but also to rethink customer strategy in an era of fractured attention spans.
