McDonald’s appoints Y&R Group to handle digital and social media

McDonald’s has appointed Y&R Group’s VML Sydney to focus on social media and digital content in Australia following a competitive pitch process.

The agency ousted incumbents OMD, which continues to handle media. DDB Sydney and Leo Burnett also remain on the roster handling creative, with DDB’s Tribal handling some elements of the digital account, including its website.

Mark Wheeler, McDonald’s director of digital said: “We are very excited to be adding a specialist digital agency to our roster to help us transform our approach to engagement across our social media platforms.

“McDonald’s is committed to innovating on social media and believe they showed throughout the process that they will deliver to this fully.

“2015 is a huge year for us as we roll out Create Your Taste in all of our Australian restaurants by the end of June, and we look forward to working with a digital specialist and our other agencies to introduce this experience to our customers.”

McDonald’s chief marketing officer Mark Lollback added: “We are fortunate to have a very strong roster of creative agencies, and adding digital specialists makes complete sense with our increased focused in this space in 2015 and beyond.

For VML the win follows on from the agency taking home the top gong at last week’s AIMIA Awards.

VML clients include LG, Rip Curl, Kellogg’s and Ajax.

Miranda Ward