There are few individuals more qualified to speak about the standing of marketing in the boardroom than former McDonald’s UK CEO Alistair Macrow.

He spent almost 15 years in senior marketing roles at McDonald’s, latterly as global chief marketing officer of the iconic brand. Then, in 2021, he stepped into general management, taking on the role of CEO at McDonald’s UK and Ireland. He only departed the business last month.

For any marketer, demonstrating the impact of the function’s impact to the rest of the boardroom is absolutely vital. Having been on both sides of the table, Macrow said that marketers need to start by linking their work to business impact to drive credibility with leadership.

While Macrow led McDonald’s to plenty of advertising awards, speaking at the IPA Effectiveness Conference yesterday (9 October), he said this is not how marketers should try to demonstrate impact to the C-Suite.

[Marketing has] got the ability to change the trajectory of the business.

Alistair Macrow, former McDonald’s CEO

“Don’t start with creative awards,” he advised. “Start by bringing clarity about having objectives that align with the business, continually with real commitment […] Finish by measuring; confirming the results that you’ve achieved.”

Talking about how marketing has influenced people and the way it has changed behaviour is what will have an impact with the CEO, and, indeed, CFO, he said.

Marketing often struggles with its reputation among the rest of the business, Macrow stated, with those outside of the function sometimes viewing it as the fun department that just does “a bit of advertising”.

The perception can be marketing “doesn’t have to do the hard work you do in ops”, he said, or “doesn’t have to have the financial discipline you do in finance”.

“Being able to engage with everybody and help them understand what marketing really is in its fullest extent” is vital to building the reputation of the function throughout the whole business, he said.

Three CEOs on making the jump from marketing to the top job

While marketing can still face something of a reputation problem among other parts of the business, a “good CEO” should recognise the function as “incredibly important” to the company.

“[Marketing has] got the ability to change the trajectory of the business, not just the trajectory of the sales and profit, but the trajectory of the energy in the business,” he said.

While marketers should work to illustrate the full impact of marketing, they should never get carried away and overstate the influence of advertising in particular. At any business, brand is more than just advertising, he said.

“The brand is what happens, it’s where the magic happens really, when your customers come into contact with your product, with your restaurants, with your people, that’s what the brand really is,” he says.

Driving effectiveness at McDonald’s

One of the themes at the IPA Effectiveness Conference was the changing shape of media mixes, with influencer channels attracting more and more spend. However, Macrow emphasised that the nature of the job of marketing is not changing; what is are the “tools” at a marketer’s disposal.

Marketers should bear that in mind, he said, and think carefully about how to use each piece in their toolbox.

“Like any other tradesmen, we should get to know each new tool really well, understand exactly how it works, and only use it for the right jobs,” he said.

The impact of scale was highlighted by IPA research from Les Binet and Medialab’s Will Davis, which suggests budget is much more influential on effectiveness than ROI.

McDonald’s UK CMO: Big budgets aren’t enough to drive effectiveness

However, big budgets can still lead to campaigns that are “so so”, noted Macrow. Meanwhile, sometimes small budgets can deliver big impact.

An example from McDonald’s, while Macrow was there, was an initiative it set up to create a “national Fillet O Fish day”. This saw one of the team identify a “Fillet O Fish Society” on Facebook, which only had six members. The brand reached out to the group to “revive” it and earn the product the appreciation it deserved.

The initiative, which cost McDonald’s “next to nothing”, drove Fillet O Fish sales up by around 30%, said Macrow. This small but impactful project is evidence of the power of the right idea, he noted.

“Now, that’s not my pitch as the CEO to spend less money on budget,” he said. “My pitch is, we didn’t expect this – what would have happened if you had put real money behind it?”