MUNICH, Germany–Very little rattles Jurgen Knauss.
That includes putting his shop up against Leo Burnett and DDB Chicago, two of the world’s biggest advertising agencies, replete with more resources–and ego–in a contest that captivated the gossipy ad industry for much of the summer.
Against the odds, Knauss and his 20-something creative team at Heye & Partner won out, landing the rights to produce the first-ever global advertising campaign for McDonald’s Corp.
The campaign, unveiled last week at the agency’s headquarters just outside Munich, is part of a massive revitalization plan by McDonald’s to lure back customers and upgrade its image.
It’s a radical shift in tone for the fast-food giant, dumping warm and fuzzy ads that built on memorable lines like “You Deserve a Break Today” for a slick, urban message complete with hip-hop music and quick vignettes that don’t always mention the food. McDonald’s new slogan: “I’m lovin’ it.”
Knauss, the agency’s chief executive, said he went with his gut.
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“We had tons of different ideas and different directions … there’s always fighting,” says the 65-year-old executive. “But we decided, one night, to take the idea `I’m lovin’ it’ and go forward only with that.
“For some reason, we were extremely confident from the beginning.”
Larry Light, McDonald’s new worldwide marketing chief, says the choice fits his “borderless” marketing strategy, in which he’ll take the best idea no matter where it comes from, rather than relying on one main agency.
“I got a few calls asking how we pulled it off,” said Light, who joined the company last year.
For Heye’s rival bidders, the decision was a stunner. While Heye & Partner is no stranger to McDonald’s–it handles work in Germany for the food concern–few thought the agency from Unterhaching, Germany, would be chosen for such a prominent global push.
Neither DDB Chicago, the lead agency on McDonald’s business, nor Burnett, the secondary agency, were happy with the outcome. Both have been fighting for bragging rights as McDonald’s lead agency for several years.
But one McDonald’s executive said they may have underestimated Light’s determination to open up the contest to agencies outside of the U.S.
Though there was no financial loss to any agency, pride was another story altogether.
Last week, Light didn’t seem to care how other agencies were taking this new approach. He couldn’t talk enough about Knauss, who with his pipe and more laid-back style, seems like he should be teaching on a college campus rather than heading up a mid-size German advertising shop.
Founded in 1962, Heye & Partner has been a McDonald’s agency almost as long. It’s one of a number of agencies working for McDonald’s overseas.
In fact, because of the way the fast-food chain built its international network, McDonald’s regions around the world are far more decentralized than restaurants in the U.S. Each region or country usually works with its own advertising and marketing firms, and consistency from one region to another, until now, has been non-existent.
As a result, McDonald’s has hired dozens of advertising agencies around the world. Many of them, like Heye & Partner is now, are owned by New York-based DDB Worldwide, which has pursued a path under chief Keith Reinhard to surround McDonald’s with agencies wherever it can.
The result of that decentralization has been a mixed bag for McDonald’s. In some cases, particularly in the United Kingdom, it has resulted in some of the best advertising for the chain.
But those familiar with the workings of McDonald’s say that it is this decentralization that in the past has made it virtually impossible to pull off what McDonald’s is now putting together on a global basis.
They say many regions might have resisted a global campaign from a U.S. agency, fearing Oak Brook would be trying to force a U.S.-led campaign down their throats.
“It was clear from the outset that the idea, in order for it to work, would have to come from an agency outside the U.S.,” said one McDonald’s source.
Light denies that notion. Nevertheless, by deciding to go with Heye for the kickoff of the campaign, Light had in one decision shook up the status quo at McDonald’s. No longer would the biggest agencies doing the most work automatically be considered for the job.
Insiders said that the man who paved the way for Light to conduct the global review was McDonald’s chief operating officer, Charlie Bell.
Considered to be CEO Jim Cantalupo’s heir apparent, Bell has rare experience at the chain.
Though considered an operations maven, Bell is one of the few top executives steeped in marketing and had completely signed off on Light’s plan for the “competition of ideas” that later turned out to be the biggest creative jump ball in the history of the company.
“There is no way Larry would have gotten this past management had it not been for Charlie,” said one advertising source close to the situation.
Though owned by DDB since 1979, Heye & Partner is still dominated by the personality of Knauss, who has been with the agency since shortly after it was founded.
With 328 employees in three offices in Germany, Heye is a presence in Germany, but far from being a dominant agency. Most of its other clients are European based, including oil company Esso Deutschland and Eckes Granini Deutschland, a beverage company.
And while it has worked on the McDonald’s business for more than three decades, the work hasn’t been so outstanding that the agency has gained notoriety outside of Germany.
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Until now, that is. Though Knauss doesn’t show it, his agency, and Unterhaching, were put on the map last week, thanks to McDonald’s, likely changing it forever. Knauss takes it in stride.
On a tour last week with reporters, Knauss was more concerned about getting people on the roof to see his vista of Germany than showing off the inside of his agency, which, like agencies in the U.S., is a mix of dressed-down creative executives and more businesslike “suits,” or account service personnel.
“We’re getting a little bit more awareness,” he said. “I’m expecting that we are respected more. But I don’t think that every client is running to work with us. It’s still a fight out there.”