McDonald's Marketing AVP Oliver Rabatan on how brands must not 'quarantine' creativity

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The COVID-19 pandemic ushered disruption within the industry—yet the most remarkable marketers are the ones leading their brands with resilience and courage, as they rise above the times and usher innovation and creativity in their strategies and decision-making.

adobo Magazine presents Meet the Remarkable Marketers: A CMO Series 2021, where we feature some of the most fearless, agile, and exemplary brand leaders as they provide inspiration, insights, and key learnings that have shaped their business —from surpassing industry benchmarks and launching creatively effective campaigns, to initiating best practices as they navigate through uncertain times.

Oliver Rabatan‘s comeback to McDonald’s as the Assistant Vice President, Marketing & Channels came at a time of crisis, calling for an acute sense of agility and compassion — seizing the period to reiterate the brand’s commitment to the community.

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An award-winning marketer for creative excellence and effectiveness, recognized by numerous award-giving bodies, both locally and internationally, Ollie is behind the Golden Arches’ most notable campaigns, from “Hooray for Today!”, “McDonald’s National Breakfast Day”, “Doodelivery”, and most recently, McClassroom and Ride Thru. Oliver brought his penchant for solving complex business problems and unearthing strategic opportunities based on human insights as he steered the brand’s pandemic and post-pandemic strategies and roadmap.

Months into the pandemic, McDonald’s Philippines launched their M Safe campaign, reinforcing the brand’s safety practices and assuring their consumers that they comply with COVID-19 sanitation protocols.

As people moved to the online sphere and practiced social distancing amidst COVID-19, Mcdonald’s launched the McClassroom — converting unused birthday party areas to classrooms for teachers, providing them with free wi-fi access, and an optimized and quiet working space.

The brand also launched the Ride-Thru — making their “drive-thrus” more inclusive by welcoming all types of vehicles and wheels as people continued to follow COVID-19 protocols.

And as the BTS fever continued to spread across the globe, McDonald’s Philippines did an exemplary job localizing the BTS Meal global campaign. The Philippines was recognized as the market with the most creative and high-impact execution as they conceived local activations, including the viral crew dance challenge on TikTok, as well as offering “first dibs” for frontliners.

Of course, the brand continued launching their much-awaited thematic campaigns — an exhibition of creative excellence. McDonald’s took their storytelling prowess up a notch, embracing the stories of people amidst the pandemic such as in their Mother’s Day specials: “Na-Lockdown Tayo, Ma”, and “Himbing”.

Oliver talks to adobo about how brands must not “quarantine” creativity during this time, and how fortifying the basics worked for him and McDonald’s Philippines.

What has been the most disruptive part of the pandemic cycle in your role as a marketer and what did you have to immediately address to fortify your brand’s foothold in the market?

As a marketer, the disruptive part of the pandemic cycle was the need to adapt to the drastic changes not just of our consumers and in the media landscape, but in our business model. This propelled us to change our marketing plan and strategies overnight.

On a personal note, I began my role as the marketing head at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. While I was a ‘comeback kid’ of sorts, starting my career at McDonald’s in Marketing, a lot has changed since then, more so with the pandemic. Instead of the initial challenge of adapting to the “new” role and managing a “new” team, it was compounded with the “new” operating environment, with a lot of restrictions/limitations. It’s as if starting from scratch, in a crisis setting at that.

Together with the team and our agencies, our immediate response was to:

Have that mindset to not “quarantine” our marketing.
Make agile changes in marketing plans and priorities, based on revamped strategies—fully recognizing that this will continuously change given the many uncertainties
Address immediately the need for safety in our restaurants and channels, prioritize our people, and how as a brand make a positive impact on our customers and communities during this pandemic.We asked ourselves questions like “How do we bring our brand to the homes of our customers safely, literally, and figuratively?”, “How do we make our brand relevant amidst the challenges that make a meaningful impact in the lives of our stakeholders?
Find the right balance between programs needed to drive the short-term and long-term brand building initiatives. Based on historical evidence, it is during times of crisis that brands should invest in brand-building initiatives versus short-term sales-driving programs. This is of course easier said than done given that the short-term need is to “survive” and generate as much revenue as possible while remaining true to our brand purpose not just when business is good, but especially when it’s bad.

Another point I would like to share is how the pandemic has also evolved the role of marketing within the company. As marketers, we must realize that our responsibility to brand-building is not just to consumers but to our own people, partners, and in the communities where we operate. We have the opportunity and skill to connect, engage, and rally our people and partners towards bringing to life our brand’s purpose. As marketers, the challenge is to turn our stakeholders into brand advocates.

In terms of marketing budgets and brand investments, what were the shifts you made in terms of marketing efforts and media channels to reach your digitally-connected, at-home customers?

Given the pandemic’s impact on the business, we are operating with fewer resources, which I see as an opportunity for us to be more efficient and hardworking with our marketing spend.

Prior to the pandemic, we’re already seeing a year-on-year increase in our digital investments. But with the pandemic coupled with changes in the media landscape, we’ve consciously shifted our planning from TV-led to digital/mobile-led media, recognizing the prolonged stay-at-home situation and the rise of on-demand and create-your-own content.

In terms of brand platforms, the shift was to go back and fortify the basics and communicate the brand’s foundation of quality, service, cleanliness, value, convenience, and safety. We have made significant investments in platforms like M Safe, and community-focused programs like McDo Kindness Kitchen and McClassroom—from their operations to media spend.

To realize your need to manage this cataclysmic shift, what do you expect from your partner advertising, media, PR agencies, and how does this differ from the pre-pandemic period? How are you structuring for the uncertainties ahead?

McDonald’s has always prided itself on having great, collaborative relationships with our agencies. To us, they are not agencies but business and brand partners, fully committed to growth. We work with some of the country and the world’s top agencies like Leo Burnett, TBWA, Wunderman Thompson, OMD, and Greenbulb Communications.

Having this kind of relationship with them allowed us to adapt and respond quickly without compromising creative excellence. We are also very appreciative of the accommodation they have extended to us, especially when our sales revenues plummeted at the onset of the pandemic. We truly value how they have shared the risks and burdens with us.

In terms of what lies ahead with our partnership, we continuously challenge them to:

Change their mindset given the shift to digital as our primary communications channel. This entails reviewing their business models, planning processes, team structures, talents, and creative expertise.
Continuous testing and learning, taking risks, and proposing new and bolder ideas. We welcome agency-led initiatives (outside any marketing plans or briefs).
Be more collaborative not just between us but between other agencies; we also try to encourage them to build on the ideas of other agencies.
Adapt to the changing needs and priorities of the brand and business.
Co-creation of marketing briefs and strategies with the marketing team.

Intelligence, insights, and real-time data gathering are essential to your marketing decisions, more so than any other time. What are you on the lookout for?

First, we have to embrace the digital transformation journey of our company so our plans, decisions, and priorities are informed by data. What we look out for:

Ways to expand our market or capture new markets/segments
Focus on platform-based campaigns versus one-offs that are grounded on strong consumer, brand, and cultural insights.
Understanding the younger generation (Gen Z and Gen Alpha) and building strong affinity with them.
Creating a meaningfully differentiated brand as an ambition

What are your thoughts on the surge of brand purpose and cause-related advertising to an often skeptical consumer?

I think it is a good thing that more brands are using their voice to make a positive influence in the community and support nation-building. It sets the tone for the industry to be more responsible and purposeful, so together, we can create a bigger impact

There is also a challenge to remove the skepticism from consumers, especially nowadays, by being more authentic and remaining committed to the purpose/cause. Consumers can see through when it is used as a marketing tactic/campaign rather than a genuine act to improve the lives of Filipinos and make a greater contribution to society.

What are the greatest work and life lessons you have learned from the past year?

I learned how important it is to not get swept by things you cannot control. It is during the most challenging times that you need to stay focused and stay true to who you are as a person/marketer, who the brand is, and what it stands for. Doing anything outside this will come out inauthentic.

Another is to not be so hard on yourself, be humble to admit mistakes and work towards continuous learning.

How do you foresee 2022 and what do you anticipate will be the emerging trends? Do you feel ready to take it on?

If 2021 is any indicator, I am cautiously optimistic for 2022. By then, we all have learned to live with the pandemic better, realizing that this is going to be how it is for the next few years—consumers will be more confident and are craving to experience what they have missed for 2 years.

“Basics” that are here to stay: safety, value and convenience. Emerging trends: more consciousness on health, Inclusivity, purpose-driven marketing/advocacies.

On wellness, how do you take care of yourself and find that white space in this all-consuming, digitally-connected new world? Give us a few tips.

I have the same routine when I’m working from home or working in the office. I wake up at the same time, prepare and dress up, start and stop work as if I’m in the office. This helps me avoid that pitfall of not being able to delineate work and home given the work from home environment.

While having a routine is important, breaking from it from time to time is as important. Such creates a kind of “reset” that we also need.

Unplug for a few hours a day besides sleep. Spending time with my wife and young daughters recharges and inspires me. Tip: give your phone to your spouse so you literally are disconnected.

The value of unlearning as an essential aspect of learning. Aside from not quarantining marketing, it goes alongside not quarantining the importance of one’s growth. Despite the many limitations, we should not stop learning and developing one’s skills.

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