Covid-19 brutally forced many businesses to close its doors. At McDonald’s, we had to indefinitely shut our most powerful customer engagement medium - our dining rooms.

With no end in sight to the pandemic in the Philippines, we needed to make sure that the trust we had built with our customers would not be eroded simply because we couldn’t (yet) welcome them back into our stores.

Our challenge was to find a new way for McDonald’s to stand out and be meaningful to our core audience of families, and in doing so uphold our Brand Trust scores, as defined by the following Brand Imagery attributes:

? “Makes a positive influence to my community” - + 2 ppts

? “Is a company I trust” : + 3 ppts

? “Is an ethical and responsible company” : + 4 ppts

The Philippines remained to be the last country in the world with classrooms shuttered by Covid-19. The widely-criticized distance learning system was a struggle for both teachers and students . It wasn’t just the internet connection that was inadequate, but also the space - the absence of both has degraded the quality of learning.

McDonald’s had the space - party rooms that used to welcome 60+ guests per event, have stood empty since 2020. It had the Wi-Fi connection and more importantly, the scale.

As a member of the community, it was time to put this scale into good use.

We transformed our unused party rooms into McDonald’s Classrooms : work areas for teachers and students who needed quiet, sanitized, Wi-Fi-connected spaces for virtual learning.

Covid-19 upended everyone’s lives and nobody was spared from the disruption. Survival was the imperative not just for businesses who needed to stay open, but also brands who needed to stay relevant.

With dining rooms closed, McDonald’s suffered from the loss of not just foot traffic, but its most powerful medium of engagement with its customers. The use of the word “pivot” has become cliché, but this was what McDonald’s sought to do.

McDonald’s may have been unable to open its doors to its usual patrons, but through this initiative, we reached its customers in an entirely different way – and in a deeper, more meaningful way. In transforming unused rooms into classrooms, we turned what had been a liability for the business into an asset for the brand

We transformed our unused party rooms into McDonald’s Classrooms : work areas for teachers and students who needed quiet, sanitized spaces for virtual learning.

We mobilized our trade marketing team to conduct a nationwide inventory of our party rooms that were most accessible to our audience. Next, we collaborated with local school officials to assess the needs and feasibility of both teachers and students.

Online registration was set-up, to ensure the rooms would not be overcrowded and abide by social distancing safety protocols. After registration, stable Wi-Fi and free snacks welcomed them. Fun virtual backgrounds, character appearances and even celebrity greetings added a much-needed boost to what would’ve otherwise been dreary hours of screen-time.

What began as a pilot for teachers in 2020, was expanded to include students in 2021, with classrooms in 249 locations all over the country open for a total of 86,648 hours.

McDonald’s Classroom was not an idea designed to bring in incremental sales to McDonald’s, but it brought in so much more.

We received 100% positive sentiment from the classroom participants - teachers and students who sincerely appreciated not just the space, but the change of pace. This sentiment was echoed not only by the media (generating $400,000 in earned media value) but by the general public.

This initiative proved to be an idea too powerful not to share. McDonald’s Classroom, in fact, became McDonald’s Philippines’ MOST SHARED CONTENT on Facebook for 2021, clocking in 3449% more shares than the average

Even better than the buzz it created, McDonald’s Classroom definitely overachieved against the objective of upholding Brand Trust scores:

Brand Imagery 2021 run

Makes a positive influence to my community +2.47 ppts

Is an ethical and responsible company +5.49 ppts

Is a company I trust +3.37 ppts

McDonald’s may still have restrictions in welcoming back its usual patrons, but through McDonald’s Classroom, it reached its customers in an entirely different way. This initiative has since inspired other McDonald’s markets experiencing similar lockdown difficulties to open their own classrooms.

“There is no ‘turning back’ for McDonald’s Classrooms,” shares Margot Torres, McDonald’s Philippines Managing Director and Campaign Asia’s Women Leading Change awardee. “What began as a pivot for the brand is now a long-term community program that will continue to support teachers and students even when the pandemic is over.”