Producer passion drives progress

The McDonald’s Flagship Farmers programme has been active for several years, showcasing McDonald’s suppliers across Europe. Building on that solid foundation, our new digital platform expands the programme’s reach to a global audience, driving positive change across the whole agricultural sector.

Going global

The challenge

Our assignment was to create a new, global presence for a programme that empowers and guides individual producers to make their farms more productive and sustainable.

Talking their language

The process

We transformed the site’s communication approach, allowing the passionate voices of McDonald’s most progressive producers to shine through. By promoting the use of innovative practices, the platform enables farmers to improve their impacts on the environment and their livestock, and increase the economic success of their businesses.

Delving into a wealth of existing supplier case studies, we brought key messages to the fore, providing visitors with high-level overviews of actions and benefits. The accessible layer of content aims to support farmers on the start of their sustainability journey and is underpinned by more detailed information, available as PDF downloads.

Flagship Farmers website displayed on both tablet and mobile

An immersive digital experience

The solution

Working closely with McDonald’s in-house teams, the rebranded platform was built using a content management system (CMS) that allows for the easy addition of new farmer profiles and site-wide translation into several languages.

With farming practices differing across the world, we devised a smart user interface that allows visitors to conveniently browse individual farmer profiles by location, product and agricultural practice.

A new ‘Explore sustainable practices’ section summarises best practice in a variety of areas ‒ from water stewardship to animal health, and from climate change to biodiversity. Grouped under the three ‘Es’ of environmental safeguarding, ethical practices and economic viability, these sustainable best practices are cross-linked to the farmer profiles, helping producers find relevant content quickly and easily.

The new site is now the perfect platform for those within and beyond McDonald’s supply chain to adopt or adapt what their peers around the world are doing, and to strengthen the long-term viability of their own businesses.

By working with the team at Flag, the McDonald’s team was able to shine a light on the amazing farmers, ranches, producers and growers who make up the Flagship Farmers program. The Flag team intuitively understood the type of platform we needed to share the stories of these women and men who serve as great examples to their peers. And we continue to work together to expand the reach and influence of this platform and the stories it contains.”

Lucas McKelvie Global Farmer Program Manager, McDonald’s Corporation

What we did

  • Strategic consultancy and content strategy
  • Copywriting
  • Design
  • Web development and content population
  • Content management system build
  • Information architecture
  • Production and project management
  • Proofreading and quality assurance

About McDonald’s

McDonald’s Corporation is the world’s leading global foodservice retailer, with over 37,000 locations in more than 120 markets serving 69 million people every day. Over 90% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by local, independent businessmen and women. For more information, please see the Flagship Farmers digital platform and visit the corporate website.