'5 Questions' with Eugene Lee, McDonald's Former International Chief Marketing Officer
- Swati Kundra
- Mar 8, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 3, 2025
After 15 years with McDonald’s as its International Chief Marketing Officer, Lee is stepping down from his role to explore a world beyond the Golden Arches, using the skills he has learned at the amazing brand to build amazing new things. He has led marketing for the fast-food chian's markets spanning Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Q1. What did a typical day as McDonald’s International CMO look like? This would offer a glimpse to those interested in the world of marketing.
Managing 80+ markets across the globe meant work was an all-day affair, stretching from morning until late at night. I primarily interfaced with Regional and Market CMOs, aligning business and marketing strategies while diving deep into the execution of priority campaigns.
As you can imagine, most interactions were through virtual calls, given that my team was spread across the globe. As the International CMO, my role was to be the voice of the markets and ensure that the strategies and plans developed were in sync with local market needs.
And of course, there was a lot of travel across the globe to visit markets. Nothing helps you understand the eating-out landscape in a market than experiencing it firsthand. Visiting a market also let me connect with local teams – it offered a great chance to meet people, spot rising talent, and see who might be ready to take on bigger roles in the future and do great things for the larger enterprise.
Q2. What does it take to build a brand that millions love?
I've always believed that “People will forget what you tell them, but they will never forget how you made them feel”. This holds true in marketing as well, and the greatest brands have been built on developing relationships with their customers rather than just trying to hard-sell them.
So, instead of focusing solely on tactical sales marketing, think about building a connection with your customers – make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel. Because when you go beyond just selling a product, you don’t just gain a customer – you create a fan of the brand.
Q3. McDonald’s has created some of the most iconic marketing campaigns. Which one was your favourite during your tenure, and what impact did it have?
My favourite marketing campaign has to be the Ayam Goreng ('fried chicken') McD campaign for McDonald's Malaysia.
McDonald's was a challenger brand in the space and the goal was to win market share in the fried chicken category. Embracing this challenger mindset, we redefined how fried chicken was marketed – moving beyond the typical food romance clichés to create a bold, high-energy campaign. By taking a challenger approach, we ensured our marketing stood out from the competition and captured consumers' attention.
And boy, did it deliver. At its peak, the campaign drove an 8x increase in Ayam Goreng McD sales and boosted our market share from 8% to 32% in just six months. It also opened up a whole new consumer base for the business, and even till date, the campaign is studied as a marketing case study in universities and courses across Malaysia.
Q4. What makes a brand story compelling across passion points?
My pet peeve is seeing brands jump into a passion point just because there is a "business opportunity”. I’ve always preached, “If you don't get it, don't get into it”. In other words, if you don't truly understand the passion point, whether it’s a music event, a sports event, or a gaming event you're trying to tap into, it's best to hold back. Inauthenticity is easy to spot.
For example, how many times (at a gaming event) have you seen the cliché ad with a 20-something guy sitting on a couch, holding a game controller, grinning at the screen, paired with a caption like “The fastest internet speed for faster gaming"? It completely misses the depth of esports, which is so much more than just casual gaming. Customers can tell when a brand is genuinely invested in a passion point versus just chasing a cash grab.
Don’t just plaster your logo onto an event. Sponsoring a gaming event just because it’s happening? That can be a big turn-off for the audience. Your brand needs to connect meaningfully, and authenticity comes from the people working on the campaign, on the agency side and on the client side.
Q5. Trends keep making a splash, but how much should brands adapt?
It's always easy to get excited about a “shiny new object”, and trends are no different. The critical thing here is whether your brand has the “right to play” in a trend and how it can genuinely connect with it.
That's why it's extremely important for marketers to deeply understand the brand they’re working on – its core values and personality, and based on that, determine whether a trend is the right fit. Instead of asking, "How can we jump on this trend?" brands should ask, “How can we really create an impact?” This approach doesn’t just make a campaign relevant; it amplifies it, making it more meaningful.
