• Ad Age, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 11 AM

Looking to boost traffic for their spanking new McCafes, regional McDonald's cooperatives are building a rare bottom-up marketing strategy for the traditionally monolithic marketer, Emily Bryson York reports. The mother ship isn't expecting to begin national advertising until midyear.

McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud says some markets will have been selling McCafe drinks for as long as three years by the time national creative hits. The national ads, which haven't been completed yet, will reflect what the company has learned from regional rollouts, she says. McDonald's hasn't undertaken a rollout of this magnitude since the 1970s -- but that was one product at a time, and didn't require a massive capital investment by franchisees.

McDonald's has said giveaways will always be at the heart of any new product offering, particularly following the success of "Free Coffee Mondays" in the Chicago and Northern Indiana market. The program designed to launch the chain's premium coffee was so successful that the region is now offering "Free McCafe Mondays," with outdoor advertising support.

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