Marketing Happy Hour - A Brand Reputation and Communications Masterclass | Kamara Turner, McDonald's

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Kamara Turner is back for her third appearance on Marketing Happy Hour, and this time she is bringing insights from her newest chapter: Supervisor of U.S. Enterprise Communications at McDonald's, where she has been navigating the world of internal and corporate communications after years of brand and external PR experience at Walgreens, PepsiCo, Ulta Beauty, and The Coca-Cola Company. In this conversation, Kamara opens up about what it is like to communicate for one of the most personally meaningful brands in the world, how she thinks about the difference between building a community versus an engaged audience, her nuanced approach to using AI as an organizational tool without letting it replace her writing, and the career lesson that has stuck with her most: not all great ideas will see the light of day, and that is okay. She also shares a standout influencer campaign from her Pulse and Perspective newsletter and walks through how she keeps cross-functional stakeholders aligned when everything is moving fast. Key Takeaways:// When you work for a brand everyone already knows, your job shifts from introducing to nurturing. At McDonald's, Kamara is not building brand awareness from scratch — she is maintaining and deepening a relationship that people already have deeply personal feelings about. That requires a fundamentally different communications mindset.// Community means pouring back into the people who support you. An engaged audience watches and listens. A community leaves with something — an idea, a resource, a tangible value. If you want to build one intentionally, start by asking what you are going to give people, not just what you want them to do.// Data is your best tool for getting buy-in. When you can back an idea with consumer insights and hard numbers, you are no longer just pitching a concept — you are connecting it to the business. In a comms role where numbers can feel foreign, leaning into data is what separates ideas that get approved from ideas that stall.Connect with Kamara: LinkedIn | Pulse and PerspectiveKamara’s Episodes: Mastering Your Brand Communications and PR Strategy | The Strategies You Need for Brand Communications and PR____Join the MHH Collective! The MHH Collective is a community for marketers and business owners to connect, ask real questions, and grow their careers together. Join for access to live Q&As with industry experts, a private Slack community, and ongoing resources: https://www.marketinghappyhr.com/mhh-collectiveSay hi! DM us on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - We can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠Join the MHH Collective: ⁠Join now⁠Get the latest marketing trends, open jobs and MHH updates, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour, a weekly podcast helping marketing professionals and entrepreneurs build better strategies and hit career goals. I'm Cassie and I'm Allie. We're marketers and your host through these unfiltered convos with your peers and experts in the space. Let's dive in. Grab your favorite drink and let's get to this week's episode. Today we are so stoked to have now three-time guest on the show. Kamara Turner, Kamara's current role is supervisor of U.S. Communications at McDonald's. Super stoked to just hear from her journey since we last spoke. And so, Kamara, welcome back to the show.

Not even welcome to the show, but you're like a recurring guest now at this point. Welcome back. Thanks for having me again. Of course. Of course. You're always such a wealth of knowledge. So like we just love checking in with you. I'm excited for you to meet Ali as well just since last time.

But of course, Kamara got to know like what's. been in your glass or cup, McDonald's cup lately? Like, what do you got with you? Yeah. Well, physically, a lot of matcha. I've been on a matcha kick lately. So I've gotten to the point where I've started making it at home, which is crazy. So, but I'm saving monies, which is nice. But yeah, that lots of stuff moving with McDonald's, which I'm really excited to talk about, lots of experience I've gotten, which has been really different from my past experience and my other, my other role. So really excited to chat through that. But learning just about the ropes of more like internal comms and corporate communications. So excited to talk more about that. Yeah, for sure.

I'm going to go ahead and link your prior episodes below. So again, if you're listening and you want some context on where Kamara was previously, some of the experience there again, really awesome insights in those episodes. So want to make sure to call that out. But for those who don't know you, Kamara, can you just go ahead and reintroduce yourself and let us know, you know, you made a big jump recently. So share a little bit about that and how it's been going so far. So the last time we talked, I was at Walgreens, but now I'm at McDonald's. I'm on the U.S. Enterprise Coms team, which is a pretty big jump from what I was doing before. I'm doing a lot more like internal and like corporate communications, which has been really great to just like balance out my skill set with like the brand

and external communications experience that I have. So working across. across like a lot of different areas from executive comms, a lot of leadership, communications, thought leadership, to even like working with franchisees at McDonald's, which has been a new experience for me as well. So it's been a really fun learning curve, but I'm really learning the business of McDonald's with it being such a big company, which I'm loving. I'm learning communications in a different way and kind of putting it all together with my brand and external comms background. So it's been nice to kind of put everything together. Yeah. And now that you've been there for for almost a year at McDonald's, what is

kind of surprised you most about working on a brand that's so recognizable? Just how important or how personal McDonald's is to people. Like everyone really does have a McDonald's story, whether, you know, including me, whether it's, you know, you remember getting it when you were a kid or you remember being in like the playhouses when you were a kid. Everybody has like a favorite McDonald's order, even, you know, in the past or right now. So, I've worked on some pretty recognizable brands, but I think McDonald's is kind of like on another level with that when it comes to what people actually care about when it comes to the brand. Like people have a lot of opinions on the food, the campaigns, the restaurants, but I think

that's what makes the work more meaningful. And it also encourages me to have new ways of thinking when it comes to communication and reputation and everything. So it's kind of gone from me, you know, I'm not introducing McDonald's to people. I'm really thinking about how to keep the relationship they have going and relevant and improving it sometimes as well. So it's really about meeting people where they are. And I think that's just been the most surprising part is just learning the different ways that people interact with the brand. And that's such an interesting perspective because I think often when we join new brands, we're coming in to fix something, right? And McDonald's already has such a strong reputation.

Mine obviously is that crispy Diet Coke. McDonald's is the best fountain diacoke. You know, you know. Well, the fright that people talk about. Oh, so true.

The fish fillet. You know, no, it's so true. It's so true. Everybody has that kind of existing connection. And so it's really, it sounds like for you,

it's very much about nurturing that connection and trying to stay, you know, culturally relevant. And you mentioned these other brands that you've worked across, you know, like Pepsi and Coke and Alta and Walgreens,

right? What do you, think each of those really legacy they're all really legacy brands in a lot of ways what do you think each of those brands has taught you that you still carry with you today i think it's just how much history and like recognition is there so you're really having i'm really having to think about like how to keep a brand feeling relevant without losing like what people really love about it i think that's something that i've been able to learn with brands like pepsico and coke and ulta like those brands they already have, like, they're really already deeply embedded in culture, whether it's in, like, pop culture, it's in beauty and personal care. And so, like, you know, with Walgreens, it was kind of a different experience because I got to see communications from more of like a corporate and business perspective. I learned about, like, navigating complex issues, working with different stakeholders, and just learning communications in a way that's different from just traditional PR. And so I feel like what I've taken from those roles is putting all

those things together and thinking about not just the customer and the consumer, but also the business as a whole, employees, people that are actually on the front lines working with our customers and our consumer every day, thinking about their needs, what's important to them, and realizing that they all have different priorities, they all have different things that they are concerned about or that they have, that they're prioritizing at that time. So it's really taught me that, you know, people have their own thoughts and relationships with these brands and how to, how they connect with them are different. So just learning the ropes of how to, how to do that. And I feel like that's been really helpful in how I've kind of carried it carried those skills along the way of like communications as a whole. And I imagine too, because these are such large matrix organizations that you've had to learn really how to be nimble and flexible in terms of getting approval. from different cross-functional stakeholders, right?

Whether that be legal or brand or media, how do you balance that kind of flexibility in needing to be nimble, especially in a comm's role with some of these other cross-functional partners in such big organizations? I would say getting really good at figuring out early on, like who actually needs to be involved

and making sure we're bringing them in early. And I do that by thinking about what are the red flags, you know, most of the time legal needs to be brought into like everything. So, you know, like thinking about what are the red flags and does legal need to be brought in and does, I don't know, customer insights need to be brought in and like what problem are they solving and how can we have those conversations now versus bringing them into the conversation at the very end? And I think building trust with those cross-functional stakeholders also really helps because if you're

building those relationships with them. They know who you are. They trust you to think ahead. They trust that what you're bringing to them, you know, brings them into the work and they can see their work show up really well. And so really just thinking ahead of, you know, who actually needs to be involved and why. And I think there will always be moments where things are going to change last minute and comms. Like it's going to happen. But I don't think it's always about being the person that moves the fastest, but like knowing, you know, you can move quickly. and bring important people with you when it's time. And usually that's early on, at least giving them the rundown of what's happening.

So they're prepared when it is time to bring them in. So I would say doing that, just building those relationships, giving them heads up so they know what's coming. And then once it's time to bring them in, they're prepared. They have insight that they need. And then you're building relationships on the way too, which is great for working together collectively in the future. Yeah.

I'm really curious with that. too, Kumara, I feel like a lot of us marketers were balancing communication, project scopes, you know, when we need to loop people in at what times. And then we have like five projects going on at once that all of those elements are relevant. How are you personally just staying organized in your role? Are there some certain tools or strategies that you have? Because I know that's one thing. I think a lot of times like going into corporate for the first time, a lot of marketers are kind of shocked about how much they have to juggle and balance. So curious what strategies you've employed along the way? Yeah, writing everything down all the time. I write everything

down. I love one note. I love, I mean, AI, we can't, you know, not talk about AI. It's definitely something that is being used, you know, across many different sectors and different organizations. And so I use AI to kind of help me see things holistically across my team that I might miss otherwise. So being able to use it in a way that says, you know, what does? documents am I missing that will help me build out this plan? When it comes to drafting content and like revising, you know, written content, that's something that's like the stubborn writer in me. I don't, I prefer to kind of do that myself when it comes to like drafting actual content. But it's, it's a great tool for me to use when I'm looking at things holistically to,

you know, it can dig through different documents that are in, you know, our, our whole system at the organization, which is really useful. So, I would say that, you know, writing everything down and then using AI where it's helpful to help me stay organized and making sure I'm looking at things holistically, especially when it comes to building out plans and in different communications as well. That's actually a perfect segue. I would love to hear a little bit more about how you're using AI in your role. You know, what tools are you using?

Are there any specific, you know, workflows or things that you want to pass along that you feel have been helpful to? So we use co-pilot for our AI system for like the organization. organization as a whole. And one thing that I really like, we use the opus, I believe, is like the actual system that it uses. And what I really like about it is that it can pull in information from documents like all across the organization. So if my colleague is working on something that, you know, she said to me, but I just don't have the time to dig through it, it can pull context from that when I'm building out something, which I think is really helpful. And then,

you know, personally, I like to use Claude. sometimes to chat GPT, I think, is for really quick, you know, like questions and things like that. But I found co-pilot to be really helpful. And then on teens calls, I love the function of being able to just use like the facilitator function because it's just so helpful to take notes for me. And I can, you know, think about what are the next steps and I have to worry about writing it while I'm still trying to be present during meetings and everything as well. Yeah, and I love how you mentioned a minute ago. You're like, I don't like to use it for writing, drafting. You're still a purist with that, which I totally appreciate. I think that's the beauty of

the utilization of AI is, you know, there's a lot of marketing pros lately who are like, use it to do your first draft and to brainstorm and to like outline and all this stuff. I really think that AI is what you want to make of it. And I think it's amazing to still, and, you know, very important to still build your copywriting skill set. Like, please do not let AI replace that skill because I just think that's so important in the space that we're in. So thank you for mentioning that because I feel like we're hearing the other side of it where it's like use it, you know, use it to draft, use it to draft. So I think that's just helpful to have that reminder that it's okay to still write nowadays. Yeah, it's actually important.

So I feel like when it comes to AI, you really have to think about what's important to you and make sure that you don't. don't let it take over those things. For me, it's writing. For me, it's using my own personal voice in certain things. I can use it to clean up things. I can use it to pull in context from other documents that I just don't have time to shift through all day. But, you know, for me, writing is what's important. So that's something that I want to stick to for myself. And you just have to ask yourself, what's important to me? Is it drafting content, you know, and using your voice or is it saving the time in letting it do a first draft? There's no right or wrong answer, I don't think. But, you know, think about what's important to you and go from there.

Yeah, for sure. Well, speaking of writing, I want to ask again about Pulse and Perspective. We talked about this last episode. A couple things that come to mind when I think about this project that you've started. One would love to hear more about it. So please, like, you know, catch us up on that. But we talked recently about the importance of, you know, building your personal brand as a professional, you know, having these side projects that kind of fuel your creativity and your excitement for what you're building. So I would love to hear your perspective, you know, no pun intended on that. And just like catch us up on that project. How is it going? Why'd you start it, et cetera. I started Polson perspective. It was like, it was honestly a very selfish thing.

I was like, I love all of these brand campaigns that are coming out and I just want to talk about them. and I realized that it was really helping people to, you know, kind of stay up to date on what's going on, for them to share their perspective on things, also no pun intended. And so, you know, it legit was me keeping a pulse on things and sharing my perspective on them and what I think and why they work or why they don't work. And so it's definitely something that, you know, it goes back to the writing. I love writing. So it's, you know, it's making me, right? it's making me kind of think deeper on more, you know, personal interests that I have across,

you know, brand marketing and communications, which I really enjoy. But at the end of the day, it's it's a great way for me to build community. It's a great way for me to meet people. They, you know, they come to me to share their, their ideas and their thoughts. And hopefully it gives people a chance to be able to bring different ideas to the table when they're in their workplace as well, which I know it's done for me. Yeah, for sure. It's a great resource. I definitely want to shout it out. We'll link it below as well. So please check it out. I'm curious. Do you have a specific campaign or strategy or learning or insight that you have shared in the newsletter that you want to kind of pass along to us today? I would say one of my favorite ones is the Mewmu, like perfume launch. So what they did was they sent PR boxes to influencers that included the new. perfume, but then it also included a little microphone as well for the influencer or content creator to use in their content. And it was also branded. And I felt like that was a really good,

well, it was a good influencer campaign for one, because it's basically like you're meeting content creators and influencers where they are. They're going to use the microphone because it's something new and fresh and exciting. And it's something that they probably already use in their day-to-day content anyway. And so I think it pushes the influencer one to use something that they're already used to using, but then, too, it's branded. So it's automatically going to show Mewu, like, you know, in the, in the video that they create. So I just thought that was a great way to get, you know, influencers excited. And then also a great way to put the brand front and center. So that was one that I was like, oh, that's like a really good idea. Because it's not just about the perfume. It's also

telling the creator, like, hey, you know, we know you like this. We know you like to use it. So feel free to use this as well. And it's something that they can use, you know, in the future as well. So I thought that was really cool. Yeah. It's such a great call. That was such a good one. And I love, to your point, this trend of brands, you know, being a value asset to

creators outside of just like, here's our product. Talk about it. It's like, no, we're going to help you in a different way that makes your job of content creation easier or whatever. I feel like we're seeing more and more of that recently. So yeah, that was a great one. Thanks for sharing. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So pivoting back to just kind of like some tactical strategies, you know, in your opinion, what's the difference between building an actual community and just having a really engaged audience? So I would say to me, a community means that you're pouring into the people that support you. And I think that can go back to the Mewu example. You know, I'm sure they sent the two creators that.

probably interacted with the brand at some point or, you know, had some kind of tie to the brand or probably new and emerging influencers as well. But when it comes to community, you're giving them something back, whether it's ideas, it's an actual physical product, it's thought starters, or tangible items. So I think that's what community is, is you're pouring back into the people that support you. When it comes to an engage audience, I think that can be beneficial as well, but it's more of like a stepping stone, in my opinion. It's an opportunity for, you know, for people to watch or listen to your content and probably share their thoughts and ideas. But a community is where they feel like they can come to you and gain something and leave with something.

And so, you know, I think if you're trying to become an intentional community builder, you have to be intentional about what am I going to give the people that are listening to me, watching me, you know, what can I give them to walk away with? So I think that's the biggest difference in my opinion. Awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Couldn't agree more. Of course, want to pivot into a little bit of career conversation as well. It's a little bit of a spicy one,

but I'm curious, is there a career lesson that you've had to learn the hard way, whether recently or just in general as you look back in your career? Not all ideas, especially good ones. We'll see the light of day. I think that is probably one of the hardest lessons, especially, you know, coming from the brand and external side, you know, you have these big ideas that sometimes are just not a good fit for the brand or at the time. And sometimes the timing is just bad. But I think that's an opportunity to see, you know, what bits and pieces can be taken from, you know, good, big ideas and kind of revamp them so they work. And that's kind of where, you know, you have to kind of pivot and just think about what the business objectives are at that time. And sometimes big ideas just have to take a back seat completely and that's okay too, but that shouldn't stop you from, you know, thinking big and just

like thinking of, you know, new and exciting ways to interact with the audiences that you're trying to reach. So that's definitely something, you know, I've, I've had to learn, especially moving more into the corporate and internal comms is, it's a new way of thinking. But I think my external and brand thinking goes a long way, you know, when it comes to internal comms. Because a lot of the times the internal audiences that you're speaking to, they're consumers as well. They're probably brand fans as well. You just have to meet them in a different way than you would, a typical consumer. Yeah, for sure. It's, you know, career is kind of this long lesson of checking your ego at the door. You're like, you get so excited about an idea. You're like, this is going to kill. Everyone's going to love it.

And sometimes they don't or they do, but it's just not. And you're like, all right. Like I got to, I got to be okay with that. So yeah, especially working in, you know, big organizations. There's yeah, there can be so many, you know, different stakeholders and, you know, so much, so many stepping stones that you have to get through. Especially when it comes to culture that moves so fast. If you don't move fast with it, you just might miss the timing or the, the opening for it. And so that doesn't mean it's not a good idea. It just might not be the best timing for it. But, you know, what, what bits and pieces can you take from that and bring to a different idea is how I like to think about it versus being upset that it just didn't, you know,

pan out the way that I wanted it to. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. With that, too, I'm just curious, like, do you have any tips when you're coming up with ideas yourself? I know, you know, doing your research coming with data, like, is there, are there any strategies or tips that you'd pass along in terms of like, how do you present those ideas to ensure, that you hopefully get buy-in from other stakeholders or people internally. Definitely data. So with a company like McDonald's, it's really great to have a consumer and customer insights team because when you have the data to back it up, you can say, you know, hey, we see that

this is what the customer is thinking about. We see that this is what their biggest concerns are. Here's how we can fix that with this idea. So having numbers, you know, I know working in comms, numbers can be scary sometimes, but they are data points and they're just great ways to kind of show that you're digging deeper into the business as well. So that's one thing I've really loved, like working with that team at McDonald's has been great because they have so much insight into, you know, what our customers want, what they're thinking, what they need,

and being able to back up ideas with that. And, you know, even though it's not, it translates differently because I am in more, in more of like an internal communications role, but those internal comms easily can go external and they can easily meet external audiences as well. So, and like I said, a lot of internal audiences, they are also consumers as well. So it's, it's kind of meeting both, you know, both audiences. But yeah, definitely data insights. Anytime you can bring those in, you can bring in hard numbers, do it. It helps a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Great advice. Um, Kamar, this has been great as always. Thank you for sharing. Of course, we'll have you back again and just stay attuned to what you have going on in your career. But as we wrap up, can you just remind listeners where we can stay connected with you. Of course, we'll have McDonald's pages linked below too. But anything you want to shout out, we would love to hear it. Yeah, LinkedIn is the best place to keep up with me and my work and highly recommend following McDonald's and also McDonald's Corp for all brand and corporate updates. Um, there's some fun.

stuff on there. So looking forward to being on again. Thank you so much for the time. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Marketing Happy Hour. If you enjoyed it, make sure you're subscribed to the show and sign up for a weekly newsletter with insights and marketing resources. We also invite you to check out the MHHH collective, our community for marketers looking to connect, grow, and learn together. Check out the links in the show notes. We'll see you next time.