McDonald’s close YouTube channel because we’re not Loving It

McDonald’s has closed their YouTube channel (known as Channel Us) due to a lack of interest from the fast food chain’s youth focused target audience. The burger company invested heavily in the channel, recruiting popular YouTubers, Oli White and Gabriella Lindley  (later replaced by Hazel Hayes to head up the channel with some initial success.

One video clocked up more than 750,000 views and others regularly attracted six figure audiences, however interest soon dropped off and according to press reports, none of the YouTube clips posted in 2016 have achieved more than 1,000 views.

Compare these figures to the views the presenters regular attract to their own channels (Oli White regularly clocks up more than 1 million views) and it’s easy to see why McDonald’s are disheartened enough to pull the project.

McDonald’s chief marketing officer, Alistair Macrow, who described the channel when it was launched last summer as “a groundbreaking moment for McDonald’s in the UK” told journalists: “We got to the end of the pilot series and saw that the customers who experienced it loved what we were doing, but we weren’t reaching enough customers for my liking. We’re certainly not going to stop working in that area but the actual Channel Us, we think, has run its course.”

So why did McDonald’s YouTube offering fail so miserably?

Well perhaps McDonald’s customer base doesn’t feel as connected to the brand as the company would hope.

An article in The Drum suggested that the channel was launched because: “McDonald’s weren’t connecting with 16-24 year olds. An audience who have more choice on the high street than ever before, who demand so much more from brands in order to earn their attention, and who buck traditional media consumption trends. They saw McDonald’s as a functional pit stop without feeling a huge emotional connection to the brand.”

Perhaps McDonald’s YouTube efforts were too close to the traditional media approach that young audiences are so suspicious of.

Big brands should take note, when authentic content is king, paying for all the right ingredients (right medium, right presenters, etc. etc.) doesn’t always create something people actually want to consume.