McDonald’s is unifying its premium drinks and sweet snacks under its McCafe sub-brand in the UK ahead of a marketing drive to lift awareness of the products.
The McCafe logo will appear on hot drinks and small carry-out bags for its baked goods from October 16 as the restaurant looks to drum up awareness following the brand’s soft-launch earlier this year. The sub-menu was introduced nationwide to bring together McDonald’s treats and desserts items, but has only been promoted through its Iced Fruit Smoothies and Iced Frappés to date.
It is being led by the launch of the McDonald’s Mocha, which is being promoted in-store and via a voucher from the brand’s mobile app.
A wider marketing campaign to support the McCafe brand will run early next year.
The fast food chain is increasing the rate of product innovation including recent updates to its breakfast range as it looks to ward off the advances of Starbucks and Costa into the fast-food market.
Separately, the restaurant is set to ramp up its marketing of children’s books in Happy Meals after formalising its ties to the National Literacy Trust. While there will be no major marketing drive to announce the move, a new partnership logo alongside set of National Literacy trust “Reading Tips” will appear in every kids’ book being offered through its Happy Readers promotion from October.
The literacy charity will advise on future Happy Meal book promotions as well as help refresh all text-based elements of the sub-brand, including the packaging and activity sheets. It will also share research and insights as the restaurant looks to address ongoing criticism from parents and health professionals around the impact its marketing is having on kids.
McDonald’s says the tie-up aims to make reading as “accessible” and as “attractive” to families as possible. The business has pledged to provide at least 15 million fiction and non-fiction books to families across the UK by 2014.
The restaurant started offering books with Happy Meals earlier this year, when it first started working with the National Literacy Trust, under its “Happy Readers” campaign in a bid to tackle illiteracy among younger readers and encourage families to read together. The campaign has performed well so far, according to the business, and it is hoping the ongoing presence of the charity can add more weight to its book strategy.
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