Online Pitches Made Just for You

New York Times, March 6, 2008 — IT’S an offer you can’t resist: fly to Honolulu for $200 round trip.

Alaska Airlines, which is tailoring online advertising to specific Web users, recently tested ads with and without Mount Rainier. But what you might not know is that the offer was designed especially for you.

Alaska Airlines is introducing a system on the Internet to create unique advertisements for people as they surf the Web.

McDonald's Takes On a Weakened Starbucks†

Food Giant to Install Specialty Coffee Bars, Sees $1 Billion Business

Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2008 — This fall, a McDonald's here added a position to its crew: barista.

McDonald's is setting out to poach Starbucks customers with the biggest addition to its menu in 30 years. Starting this year, the company's nearly 14,000 U.S. locations will install coffee bars with "baristas" serving cappuccinos, lattes, mochas and the Frappe, similar to Starbucks' ice-blended Frappuccino.

Internal documents from 2007 say the program, which also will add smoothies and bottled beverages, will add $1 billion to McDonald's annual sales of $21.6 billion.

McD's Newest Ad Platform: Report Cards†

Not Surprisingly, Watchdogs Give Fast-Feeder's Play Failing Marks

Advertising Age, December 6, 2007 — McDonald's has found a nifty way to reach kids even as TV ad options toward the demographic shrink: Advertise on report cards.

The Golden Arches picked up the $1,600 cost of printing report-card jackets for the 2007-2008 school year in Seminole County, Fla., in exchange for a Happy Meal coupon on the card's cover. With 27,000 elementary school kids taking their report-card jackets home to be signed three or four times a year, that's less than 2 cents per impression.

Countering the Innovation Backlash

Prophet, September 1, 2007 — Kevin O’Donnell believes innovation’s role as a driver of organic growth and a differentiator that adds substantially to a brand’s value remains as critical as ever. In his inaugural column in the newly relaunched Marketing News, a publication of the American Marketing Association, O’Donnell spells out one solution: Creation of innovation “systems” that foster actionable creativity.

Lovin' it: McBranding hooks preschoolers, study finds

Reuters, August 6, 2007 — Preschoolers preferred the taste of burgers and fries when they came in McDonald's wrappers over the same food in plain wrapping, U.S. researchers said, suggesting fast-food marketing reaches the very young.

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"Overwhelmingly, kids chose the one that they perceived was from McDonald's," said obesity prevention expert Dr. Thomas Robinson of the Stanford University School of Medicine, whose work appears in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Don't Be Afraid to Plunge Into Emerging Media

Prophet, July 23, 2007 — Color today’s marketers dazed and confused. It’s an understandable reaction to an environment that has become almost impossibly complex, making it difficult for them to figure out where to start (or much less how to go about) meeting management’s escalating demands for demonstrable returns.

McDonald's Recruits Mom to Be Ultimate Influencer†

Gatekeepers to Go on 'Field Trips' and Hopefully Return as Brand Evangelists

Advertising Age, June 11, 2007 — Battered by attacks blaming the fast-food industry for making children fat, McDonald's Corp. is recruiting the gatekeeper for its side. The Golden Arches has been quietly amassing an army of moms — often its toughest critics — as "quality correspondents" to act as citizen consumer reporters

McDonald's next generation Marketing chief Mary Dillon has introduced the once-conventional fast-fo

Chicago Tribune, March 25, 2007 — In a little more than 18 months, Mary Dillon, athlete, marathoner and the mother of four children, has taken the world's largest hamburger chain to venues its founder Ray Kroc could not have imagined. While Dillon, 45, who was named executive vice president and global chief marketing officer of McDonald's Corp. in September 2005, hasn't yet run a guerrilla marketing campaign, she has introduced the button-down company to YouTube, Webisodes (short Web-based episodes), cell-phone text messaging in Japan and podcasts, all places where its young adult and "forever young" customers now are found.

What Starbucks Can Learn From the Movie Palace

New York Times, March 4, 2007 — WI-FI service is quickly becoming the air-conditioning of the Internet age, enticing customers into restaurants and other public spaces in the same way that cold “advertising air” deliberately blasted out the open doors of air-conditioned theaters in the early 20th century to help sell tickets.

Smooth Move By McDonald's

Forbes, February 28, 2007 — Who would've thought that a company whose foundation was built on hamburgers and soda would be trying to compete with the likes of Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts? On Wednesday, McDonald's (nyse: MCD - news - people ) announced that it is exploring adding smoothies, iced coffee and other specialty coffees to its menu at its U.S. locations.