McDonald’s is rolling out a new advertising campaign. It’s very, very simple: 6 of their main menu items appear as icon-style illustrations, with no copy except a tiny Golden Arches symbol next to the graphic. This is the latest incarnation of a design driven campaign from McDonald’s French advertising agency, TBWA Paris, and we think there’s a few really nifty aspects to it:

• Speed of communication:

  Viewers know almost instantly what’s on offer, without any need to read

• Universal communication:

  McDonald’s is a global brand. Their customers speak many different languages, including English, Spanish, French, Mandarin and more. These ads can be used to reach all of these customers, without any need for translation.

• Scalability:

  Good design means these ads will display well at many different sizes, from the tiniest smartphone screen to billboard size.

The benefits of this graphics-driven campaign are certainly appealing to McDonald’s. They should be equally important to the majority of small business owners. Consider if you can apply the same concept to your own brand. For example, a bridal retailer might identify themselves with a stylized image of a wedding gown, while a plumber might use an image of a toilet. It can take quite a bit of thought to reduce your business to a single distinct image or suite of images, but this exercise will really help clarify what your company’s about and why your customers seek you out.

McDonald’s appears to be using this campaign primarily for advertising. There are other ways the campaign can be deployed. Retailers could develop a suite of images for their different product lines and use them as signage within the store. There are numerous digital marketing applications, from distinctly branding different sections on your website to regular deployment via social media as a brand building endeavor.

A graphics-only campaign can be a valuable addition to your current marketing mix. Over the long weekend, why not ponder how you can adapt this concept to better build your business?

Need help making it happen? Give us a call. We’re here to help!