Why McDonald’s Romania Believes in Gen Z Potential
Last year, McDonald’s in Romania launched a platform with which it vowed: “We Believe in Romania’s Youth”. On the basis of this, last year the fast food chain released a campaign in collaboration with Bruja, an uprising Romanian artist, in the shape of a spoken-poetry manifesto.
This year, with the help of DDB Romania, McDonald’s is continuing its commitment to the country’s youth with a new campaign and equally new tagline - “Experiences, not experience”. Proving its relatability to gen z and their endless entrepreneurial spirit, McDonald’s invites the youth population of Romania to embrace each other’s differences, varying hobbies and passions and join the team, whatever path they are taking on.
The campaign film is essentially a music video for a song by Romanian up-and-coming artist Rares who speaks directly to his peers on how each of them can benefit from joining the McDonald’s team while they work on passion projects, side-hustles or progress in their careers of choice. In the video we see a number of inspirational examples - a tattoo artist, a gardener working in between apartment buildings, street dancers - who all ultimately end up being accepted in the burger chain’s ever-expanding and diverse team.
DDB Romania’s senior copywriter Alexandra Jitărel said: “McDonald's wants to be the support that youngsters need, showing them that they are valuable and valued just the way they are, as their life experiences are enough to make them great employees. They want to be that employer that eases young people into the challenging enough work field.”
LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to Alexandra, as well as DDB Romania’s senior art director Teodor Minea and executive creative director Roxana Nita about choosing Rares for his incredible musical talent and relatability, speaking to Romania’s youth and constructing a green corner between apartment buildings.
LBB> How did the idea for this campaign come about and how did you approach it at first?
Teodor> Knowing we had to address a certain age gap in the target, we tried to put ourselves in their shoes and began with asking ourselves how we expected to be treated back in the day when we started our professional paths. Despite the acute sense of awareness, digital fluence and adaptability that gen z possesses, many systemic biases have remained unchanged over the years in the big frame of the ‘first job’ market. I guess we aimed to paint as naturally as possible the reality of being a unique individual, with strengths, weaknesses, and a lot of untapped potential.
LBB> Did you always know you wanted this to be a musical campaign or did that happen post factum?
Alexandra> Like many ideas, this one also took various shapes during the creative process, growing and developing step by step, much like a newborn. With every new shape, the next one came naturally, as if it was the most obvious answer.
Once ‘experiences, not experience’ came to life, we knew we needed a powerful way to deliver the message to the youth of Romania. So what better way than through a song, putting the lyrics on the lips of our target audience?
LBB> How creatively involved were McDonald's and what were their initial ideas for the campaign?
Roxana> The communication platform for the employer branding was launched last year with its main statement being “We believe in Romania’s youth”. Last year’s campaign was a spoken-poetry manifesto, done in collaboration with Bruja, an uprising musical artist, that spoke about flipping stereotypes surrounding youth. So, for this year’s brief, we met together with our client and we discussed potential ideas on how we want to continue this platform. We both instantly agreed that we’re going to use another fresh gen z artist to talk to our target and continue to be rooted in pop culture. So we kind of took it from there.
LBB> How did you find the artist you worked with and did you have to hold castings for the role? Why did you decide to go with him?
Teodor> As always, there was a shortlist involved, out of which Rares stood out not only as a truly relevant artist for the public of the campaign, but also as an authentic bearer of the message, himself being a modest zoomer that worked his way up to the beloved pop singer that he currently is. He has the important quality of being both relatable and aspirational, a rare find, and nothing short of what DDB and McDonald’s were looking for in this project.
LBB> What was the songwriting process like and did it take a long time? What were the biggest challenges that came with it?
Alexandra> We wanted to do everything by the book with this campaign, which meant leaving the professionals to do what they do best. Thus, the song and its lyrics were the result of a great collaboration between our agency and the record label, the latter coming up with the tune based on a thorough brief that guided them in highlighting the campaign idea and key message.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was the short amount of time we had to make everything work, especially the seamless integration of the lyrics for each frame. But as I mentioned before, we were fortunate to work with real professionals, which made the whole process as smooth as it could get.
LBB> And what were the most fun parts of the campaign?
Alexandra> My response may be biassed here because, to me, the most fun part of any campaign is the creative process. I just love how seemingly random thoughts can crystallise into a tangible idea through the collaborative effort of the team. Not gonna lie, it’s that solving the riddle that keeps me going.
Teodor> The shooting and the post-production always have that sense of ordered chaos, out of which surprisingly coherent things never cease to flow, through the obvious efforts of everyone involved. The whole team gets in the zone and everything else fades out. Or at least that’s how I like to see it. Plus that creation of a green gardening corner inside of a concrete courtyard – yet another hint that there’s potential everywhere.
LBB> What did you hope to tell Romanian youth with the campaign?
Roxana> Young people feel huge pressure when they must enter the job market, as they often lack the professional experience to give them credibility. This pressure doesn't come only from the employers' expectations, but also from the high expectations set by themselves. Through this campaign, McDonald's wants to help them alleviate this double pressure, by telling them to relax and just live their life to the fullest. Because life experiences are what help you get hired at McDonald’s, not work experience itself.
LBB> How does McDonald's aim to be seen by young people looking for a job or hustling their way through the career ladder?
Alexandra> We’ve all been there - starting our career when, ironically enough, our lack of experience stood in the way of us getting exactly the experience we needed. McDonald's wants to be the support that youngsters need, showing them that they are valuable and valued just the way they are, as their life experiences are enough to make them great employees. We want to be that employer that eases young people into the challenging enough work field.
LBB> Tell me more about the wider platform that McDonald's has for this kind of work, does the brand work with Romanian youth in any particular way?
Roxana> This is the second year that McDonald's declares "We believe in Romania’s youth” and speaks with young people in their own language. The brand then supports its young employees by constantly investing in their training and education and by offering them tangible opportunities for career growth. The company’s values include diversity, integrity and hospitality and there’s a sense of community that forms among the employees that work in a certain restaurant. There are a lot of stories of people that started out in an entry level position and stayed with the company for a long time, while constantly advancing in their title and responsibilities.
LBB> Tell me about the choreography of the video - how was it developed and how did you cast your dancers?
Teodor> We only knew we wanted a modern street dance routine to be honest, one that would flow well with Rares’ sound and also work seamlessly within the urban landscape we wanted to portray. (If there’s one thing I’d forever tie into the fibre of gen z, solely based on people I know, it would be their spider sense for urban sweet spots.) The actual choreography we see in the video is owed in part to the inspired casting option and in part to our director, Andrei Gheorghe. Being longtime dance partners probably helped a lot, but the two talented young dance students we see in the video basically came up with the moves on the go, adapting and perfecting all of it between the takes. I think that says a lot about how trust and potential were central to the campaign, in so many ways.
LBB> How did you write each of the characters in the campaign and what do they separately (and collectively) represent?
Alexandra> Each character is written with the purpose of showing both the inclusiveness of the brand when it comes to its employees and the wide array of possible skills that would make one a great professional, starting only from their passions and experiences.
With gen z in mind, we sought to tap into their world by showing some snippets of their life, so that both those with more common interests and those with specific ones can easily find themselves in our campaign message.
LBB> Tell me about the idea of celebrating identity through the McDonald’s brand and how does that resonate with Romanian youth?
Teodor> It’s a global icon that has long been part of Romanian daily life. More than a brand, a restaurant chain or the sum of its products, McDonald’s is a piece in your mind housing a lot of memories. And the fun part with memories is that you can create them consciously and regularly, so that you never run out of them. If youth is where our most pleasant memories usually reside, then McDonald’s seems to have won its rightful place in it. If you ask Romanian youngsters where do they hang out after classes, or Romanian students where they take their coffee between courses, or what burger got them through their last hangover, the answer might be propped on two golden arches.
LBB> Any final thoughts?
All> I think we’re all happy with what came out of this collective effort between our agency, our client, our director (Andrei Gheorghe) and our artist (Rares). What’s even more satisfying is the fact that the soundtrack we created for the commercial was also recently launched as an independent music single by the artist. And people seem to enjoy it quite a lot. As creatives, it’s a pretty nice feeling to see your work go beyond advertising and into people’s headphones.
