McDonald’s has given us many iconic moments over the years. The fast-food giant’s NZ director of marketing Luke Rive gives us a taste of what’s on the menu in 2025.
In the competitive quick service restaurant (QSR) market, the magic ingredient isn’t something you put in the food. For Luke Rive, McDonald’s NZ director of marketing, the secret sauce is understanding your customers.
Knowing what customers think, and want, is a big part of his broad role that includes everything from brand, campaigns and sponsorship through to all things menu and food.
“One of the more enjoyable parts of my job is something called menu council. You try new products, which is always fun.”
It’s not all tasty food and fun ad campaigns. Rive’s role also covers digital and data-driven marketing, including the McDonald’s app and MyMacca’s rewards scheme, as well as customer and business insights, aka CBI.
“The really interesting part for me is having marketing so closely connected to the CBI department. One thing it encourages us to do, because it all comes under my remit, is be super clear about the marketing levers we pull, and the measurable commercial impact.”
Lean team
Rive leads a “lean” marketing team of 13, but this swells to 30-40 if you count McDonald’s NZ’s numerous agency partners – mainly DDB on the advertising side (with Mango for PR and Track Tribal for data) and OMD for media (with Fuse for activations and partnerships).
Their efforts saw McDonald’s as a finalist in six categories at the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards 2024, winning the Best Retail & e-Commerce Marketing Campaign for “The Best of ’91 is Back”, which celebrated the return of the Kiwiburger.
Rive was also a finalist in the highly competitive Marketer of the Year category, and he says it’s hard to pick a favourite from recent McDonald’s New Zealand campaigns.
He particularly enjoyed ‘Here for the drivers’ – a summer road trip campaign that had fun with the so-called ‘driver tax’.
“I thought that was a really cool campaign that resonated with customer truths.
“A road trip almost isn’t a road trip without a stop at Macca’s.”
Other top picks include bringing Grimace here to mark the arrival of the ‘Grimace Shake’ and inviting customers to rate the spiciness of the ‘Mighty Hot McSpicy’ burger.
Over summer, McDonald’s also remixed its famous ‘Make it Click’ jingle about seatbelt safety, with the help of Kiwi DJ Jess Rhodes.
“We took something that had a real nostalgia feel to it and put it in front of Gen Z at Rhythm and Vines, using a whole bunch of social content to reignite that conversation,” Rive says.
That’s how we Macca’s
Looking ahead to this year, he says McDonald’s will continue to focus on value and customer experience, against the backdrop of strained wallets.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that cost of living is changing the way all of us are behaving. McDonald’s and QSR is absolutely no different to anyone else. Customers are making decisions not only on ‘what do I buy’, but ‘do I buy?’
“Does a customer come out to eat? That’s the question you have to ask before you ask, ‘Who do they go to?’ We almost see one of our biggest competitors being the air fryer.”
Rive says consumers look at the equation of what they get for the price they pay. It’s a combination of product and experience, but “there’s no doubt” a multiplier with how they feel about you as a brand.
“As a globally iconic brand, our big job is to focus on how we stay relevant,” he says.
“We’re excited about our new campaign ‘That’s how we Macca’s’, which really taps into our New Zealand customers and how they experience us.”
Waikato born and bred
Prior to donning the McDonald’s yellow and red in late 2020, Rive had a nearly 15-year streak working for brands with green colour schemes.
He was previously the New Zealand national marketing manager for BP, and before that held the same job title for V Energy at Frucor Beverages.
Rive also spent five years at DB Breweries with three years as Heineken marketing manager, a role that saw him run Heineken’s local marketing around the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Born and bred in Hamilton, the Waikato University graduate started his career at New Zealand Dairy Foods (now Fonterra) before a stint with McDonald’s marketing team in London during his OE.
“It was pretty awesome getting to work on Fifa World Cup campaigns, doing campaigns around the Big Mac and fries. One thing I looked after was the Piccadilly Circus LED sign, which was pretty high tech back in 2005.”
Rive’s FMCG background comes in handy in his current role, particularly around customer segmentation, he says.
“It gives you a really good understanding of who our customers are, what they’re looking for from us, and what we need to do to try and answer to that.”
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 82, March-April 2025. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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