The people working at McDonald’s play a significant role in the brand image. An anonymous workforce that seemingly doesn’t have a lot of skills. A large part of the general public does not have a great deal of respect for the work that our crew does.

The objective was to provide the crew with a stage, to build understanding and appreciation for their job, serving the guests of McDonald’s, and to build the good opinion on the brand as a result. Because research shows that a positive perception of the crew is very important for a positive experience for the restaurants and correlates with an increase in repeat visit intentions.

To communicate the qualities and skills of the crew, making them more special and less anonymous, we created an online video format with 2-minute episodes distributed via social media.

The insight: Every week, 22.000 crewmembers make sure that over 3 million people have a good time at McDonald’s. Surely, you must have skills to do that.

The idea: SuperCrew. In each episode of this online format, we put a different skill of our crew to the test. The audience is entertained by the almost realistic yet near impossible challenges that the hero of the episode must face.

Will our McDrive crewmember get the order right even if it is rapped at high speed? And will our hostess remain patient and friendly, when she’s confronted with a bus full of demanding seniors? After completing the challenge, the crew member is commended for their performance and accepted as an official SuperCrew member.

The work that the McDonald’s crew does often goes unnoticed. A classic response to people not performing in school is a variation on “you’ll end up working at McDonald’s”. The amount of skills that are required to do the work that the crew does are consistently underrated, while the interaction that the crew has with the guests is one of the most important facilitators for a great guest experience.

We wanted to highlight our crew’s qualities in a fun and entertaining way, without being explicitly informative. This way the content would be attractive to watch, the crew would become more humanized and likeable and the viewers would develop a more positive view of the McDonald’s crew and McDonald’s as a brand. And it sent a message to the crew that their effort and hard work is appreciated, that taking pride in their ability and skills is encouraged by the brand.

SuperCrew is an online video format under the McTV umbrella: entertaining, snackable content with new episodes following a fixed program formula.

To increase exposure, the episodes were released via Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and other relevant online platforms.

In (up until now) seven episodes, we introduced one crew member at a time. And every episode concern one particular skill.

SuperCrew is a big success for McDonald’s, in terms of views and engagement, as well as in impact on the image. It is loved by both the crew and the public. It not only shows the skills, but also the personality of the McDonald’s crew, which then helps to add to a positive perception about both the brand and our crew. And the results showed that.

The SuperCrew episodes that have aired thus far have had a reach of between 800.000 – 900.000. One in five viewers watched more than 50% of the long form video’s.

62% of SuperCrew-viewers is more positive about McDonald’s as an employer and the visit intention of viewers had grown by 119%.