--- title: "How McDonald’s Scored Big With Its Corporate Event" id: "23133" type: "post" slug: "how-mcdonalds-scored-big-with-its-corporate-event" published_at: "2014-05-16T18:11:29+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-09T18:24:40+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2014/05/16/how-mcdonalds-scored-big-with-its-corporate-event/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2014/05/16/how-mcdonalds-scored-big-with-its-corporate-event.md" excerpt: "The fast-food giant drew success with an event strategy that focused as much on the people who couldn’t attend as those who could. Also: An association management pro looks to his hometown sports teams for inspiration." taxonomy_category: - "Meetings / Events" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "corporate events" - "event planning" - "meeting strategy" - "Meetings" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "C-Level" - "Director" - "Manager" - "VP" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » How McDonald’s Scored Big With Its Corporate Event No matter your opinion of Mickey D’s food, you have to be impressed by the company’s ability to consistently come up with inventive marketing approaches. That inventiveness extends to its event planning. Every two years, the company puts on a Worldwide Convention in Orange County, California, and it tried a new approach to promote the event this year: Rather than simply launching an event site on its intranet, it created a content-heavy Facebook-style news feed. “It was a more digestible news-bite type format rather than heavy reading. It’s categorized into topic areas, and you can search and filter by topic,” the company’s Lisa Fingerhut told *BizBash* magazine. “It features messages that are designed to resonate with and align the entire system.” Why this particular content strategy? Simple: The company was trying to engage people who *don’t* go to the event, rather than the 15,000 owner-operators, corporate staffers, suppliers, and franchisees who already do. Likewise, the company leaned heavily on live-streaming this year in an effort to attract that audience. With 35,000 unique visitors to the website since its launch, the strategy appears to have worked. [Check BizBash for more details (opens in a new tab)](http://www.bizbash.com/how-mcdonalds-used-technology-to-engage-attendees/new-york/story/28449#.U3T80ZRdWSC) on other tech-friendly strategies McDonald’s undertook for its event. ### Love Your Hometown Teams > Association management advice, courtesy of our Boston sports teams [http://t.co/30qqzFsv81 (opens in a new tab)](http://t.co/30qqzFsv81) > [#assnchat (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/hashtag/assnchat?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > [#redsox (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/hashtag/redsox?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > [#bruins (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/hashtag/bruins?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > [#patriots (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/hashtag/patriots?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > [#celtics (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/hashtag/celtics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) > > — Andy Freed (@andy_freed) [May 15, 2014 (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/andy_freed/status/466959643642974208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) **Being Boston-based, it only makes sense** that Virtual, Inc., President Andy Freed might see a lot of leadership lessons through the lens of his hometown sports stalwarts—who, by the way, do quite well for themselves most seasons. But in the case of one team that’s not doing so well, Freed has some particularly translatable points. To put it simply: You can focus on your past victories only so much, a situation the Boston Celtics know plenty about these days. “Whether you’re talking Bill Russell, Larry Bird, or Paul Pierce, they dominated for many eras,” he writes. “But none of that matters right now—[the Celtics are] a below-average team at best, playing for a lottery pick. So they’re pretty low on the Boston sports pecking order at the moment. Similarly, your members aren’t going to keep rejoining based on what you did four years ago.” Read more of Freed’s insights [over this way (opens in a new tab)](http://blog.virtualmgmt.com/winning-lessons) . *(ht @[andy_freed (opens in a new tab)](https://twitter.com/andy_freed/) )* ### Other Noteworthy links **If you’re a Buffer user,** you may want to take a gander at [the company’s new Feed feature (opens in a new tab)](http://blog.bufferapp.com/introducing-rss-feeds-buffer-social-media-sharing) , designed to make it easy to share an article from any RSS feed on a social network account. **Trying to earn some media coverage?** [On Inc.com (opens in a new tab)](http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/8-content-promotion-tactics-for-great-media-exposure.html) , WordStream’s Larry Kim offers some advice to boost your press play. **Here’s a pretty genius idea** that marketers could totally steal: Cover your packaging with smart writing. [Chipotle just started doing it (opens in a new tab)](http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/05/chipotle-cups-will-now-have-stories-by-jonathan-safran-foer-toni-morrison-and-other-authors?mbid=social_twitter) , and though you may not get help from Toni Morrison as Chipotle did, it’s certainly good inspiration. **David M. Patt ponders** the pluses and minuses of electronic certificates [versus physical ones (opens in a new tab)](http://aem-patt.com/aem-blog/index.php?itemid=1830) . (photo by Miguel Vaca/Flickr) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. [More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Tags: [#corporate events](https://associationsnow.com/tag/corporate-events/) [#event planning](https://associationsnow.com/tag/event-planning/) [#meeting strategy](https://associationsnow.com/tag/meeting-strategy/) [#Meetings](https://associationsnow.com/tag/meetings/) **Stay Informed** [Subscribe to our free newsletter](https://associationsnow.com/newsletter/) , *Associations Now Daily News*, to find out what’s happening in the association world every business day. ## You Might Like - [ArticleWhat Meeting Planners Miss About AttendeesDecember 12, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/12/12/what-meeting-planners-miss-about-attendees/) - [ArticleHow To Incorporate Wellness Into Corporate Meetings and EventsOctober 20, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/10/20/how-to-incorporate-wellness-into-corporate-meetings-and-events/) - [PodcastAssociations Now Presents: Beyond the Contract: Building Stronger Destination PartnershipsSeptember 24, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/24/associations-now-presents-beyond-the-contract-building-stronger-destination-partnerships/) - [VideoMelvin Tennant, CAE, President & CEO of Meet Minneapolis, Welcomes You to Great Ideas 2026September 2, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/09/02/melvin-tennant-cae-president-ceo-of-meet-minneapolis-welcomes-you-to-great-ideas-2026/) ## Comments **Comments are for ASAE members.** [Learn more about comments on this site.](https://associationsnow.com/comments/) [Log in](https://associationsnow.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fassociationsnow.com%2F2014%2F05%2F16%2Fhow-mcdonalds-scored-big-with-its-corporate-event%2F%23comments) to your member account or [join ASAE](https://my.asaecenter.org/select-a-membership-type/) !