McDonald’s is push further into the coffee market with the launch of “McCafé moments”, a partnership with Channel 4 that it hopes will establish the brand as a destination for premium beverages.
According to Marketing Week, the 10-month collaboration will see 40 pieces of content aired that showcase a series of conversations between “real people” drinking McCafé beverages. The Gogglebox inspired clips will see them talking about what’s happening on their favourite Channel 4 programs, such as Location, Location, Location or Made in Chelsea.
Alistair Macrow, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of McDonald’s UK and Northern Europe, told Marketing Week he hopes the campaign will put McDonald’s front of mind when people are thinking about going for a “quality cup of coffee”. He describes its offering as “upmarket, down-to-earth”.
“The opportunity that sits in the coffee market is well known throughout the UK,” Macrow says. “It’s a rapidly growing business and it has been for about 10 years, and we’re already a huge player in it.”
McDonald’s sold over 140 million cups of coffee, and was the biggest seller of traditional and non-specialty coffees, he claims.
“It’s not that we’re small, but too many of our coffee occasions are purely through convenience,” Macrow told Marketing Week. “We believe we can offer something which is very differentiated from the rest of the market…We can sell coffees that are just as good quality as anybody else on the high street in a way that is far more convenient, faster, and at an affordable price.
“I suspect that we will be investing more money in the premium beverage market in 2015 than anyone else.”
