Following the appointment of Kenneth Chan as its new China CEO in March 2009, McDonald’s has been aggressively announcing a series of new business initiatives and products.

Chan made his first announcement as CEO in April in front of 50 top national and local Chinese media that McDonald’s was launching a major new campaign to highlight the company’s commitment to hire and develop local talent. The campaign, called “i’m lovin’ visible opportunities” was targeted at both existing employees of the Golden Arches and people who were looking for new career opportunities. It was also designed to emphasize McDonald’s strong confidence in China, despite the challenging economic environment.

The campaign used the personal stories of “star employees” to highlight the variety of career opportunities at McDonald’s. These “stars” were profiled in marketing materials displayed across all of McDonald’s 1,000+ restaurants in China and viewed by well over a million people every day. Five “star employees” described their own unique and sometimes humorous career experiences at McDonald’s at the press conference.

One of Chan’s key messages, that McDonald’s was planning to recruit around 10,000 new employees in China in 2009, generated numerous headlines and significant commentary since so many other companies were announcing lay-offs, hiring freezes or other staff-related cost-cutting measures. The announcement also resonated strongly with the Chinese government, for whom the issue of finding jobs for university graduates and laid off workers was of major and growing concern.

Chan’s next announcement was the rollout of McDonald’s 24-hour delivery service – McDelivery (after its launch in Shanghai last May) – across six major cities in China, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Nanjing and Tianjin. As Chan explained to the 40+ national and local media who gathered for the event, the launch of McDelivery was part of McDonald’s long-term strategy of extending the McDonald’s experience beyond its restaurants and offering customers even greater convenience.

The launch announcement featured 20 McDelivery riders who, having pledged to offer Chinese customers the highest standard of service with a stirring oath, delivered a sample of McDonald’s piping hot food to each and every reporter straight from the stage! This stunt, coupled with the interactive unveiling of the McDelivery hotline number – 4008-517-517 which sounds in Chinese like “I want to eat, I want to eat” – amused the journalists immensely and gave them plenty to talk, and write, about. Within weeks of the launch, over 170 media reports were generated including a seven- minute feature report on Beijing TV.

Hot on the heels of the McDelivery launch came the announcement that McDonald’s was introducing its premium coffee, McCafé coffee, into the seven key cities in China. This announcement generated a lot of buzz in the media since McDonald’s was giving away one million cups of the new brew to celebrate the launch. Media coverage of the launch picked up on the fact that McDonald’s was set to pose a strong challenge to premium coffee chains by offering consumers high-quality brewed coffee at affordable prices, with added advantage of being able to offer its McCafé coffee anytime, anywhere at its 24-hour restaurants and through its McDelivery service – a theme that many media in the US and Europe have used.