5 Ways McDonald's Can Help You Raise the Bar

What if every break you did, or every piece of imaging you aired, or every idea you gave to a client was subject to a 1-10 scale where 10 meant “set the world on fire?”

Exposing ideas to such a scale is one of the steps in the creative process for McDonald’s lead advertising agencies DDB, Leo Burnett and TBWA (read more in Adweek’s “How to Sell a Sandwich").

Here are five McDonald's take-aways that you can use to help raise the bar for your content or serve as a theme for a future staff meeting:

1 - Create value in peoples’ lives with communications that are stimulating, interesting and relevant, and help develop a deep relationship.

2 - Simplicity, optimism, inspiration, and welcoming are powerful themes that take precedence over execution.

3 - Rate your creative/content on a 1-10 scale where 10 is “the kind of work that sets the world on fire.”

4 - Focus less on what you have to offer listeners and more on “why they will love it.”

5 - “I’m lovin’ it” is an “aspirational statement" that should sum up a listener's response after hearing a piece of content. Make what you do "earn the right to use those words.”