Episode 305
305. Office Hours: McDonald's Makes A Gaming Chair
In this episode (305) of Office Hours, with our host William “The Professor” Collis, we discuss McDonald's releasing the PERFECT gaming chair!
Transcript
Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of office
Unknown:hours with the professor. As always, I'm your host, William
Unknown:the professor Kahless. And let's get right into this week's story
Unknown:that I picked out. McDonald's has designed the perfect gaming
Unknown:chair. The key features of this gaming chair are obviously
Unknown:McDonald's branding and colors. Seems like the leather or the
Unknown:finish on this chair is greaseproof. I guess that's
Unknown:cool. There's an integrated burger warmer. And then there's
Unknown:these armrest things that you can click on and off that are
Unknown:designed to hold some specific McDonald's menu items. And
Unknown:overall, don't get too excited. Guys, you can't buy this yet,
Unknown:because overall, they're only four of these made, and they
Unknown:were basically only given away either to streamers, or I think
Unknown:there was a competition winner. So why did I want to talk about
Unknown:the McDonald's gaming chair? Because I think my take on this
Unknown:is interesting. And my take is, this does not go far enough. And
Unknown:by that, I mean, you know, and I've said this before, and I'll
Unknown:say it again, I think there is real potential in gaming
Unknown:accessories as a licensed category, think about the Xbox
Unknown:fridge that you know, blew up and eventually was produced as a
Unknown:real mini fridge that you can buy. I think brands need to stop
Unknown:thinking about sort of gaming accessories, as just pure
Unknown:straight up PR plays like this clearly was and begin genuinely
Unknown:exploring. It is a licensed category. And I get for
Unknown:McDonald's, this was probably a very effective PR promotion. I
Unknown:mean, they basically sort of put labels on for chairs, and they
Unknown:got a ton of news coverage from it, right. Like people talked
Unknown:about it, it was an interesting story. But there was a reason
Unknown:news outlets are giving this coverage. It's because I
Unknown:actually think as silly as this chair sounds, there might be a
Unknown:market for it. You might be surprised how much people have
Unknown:an affinity for a brand when a customer has affinity for a
Unknown:brand, where in how they want to show it. And if there is a
Unknown:something in their daily life that they use frequently, a
Unknown:branded version of that can add real value. So as ridiculous as
Unknown:it might sound, I think McDonald's branding on a gaming
Unknown:chair could work. I admit, I wish the gaming chair features
Unknown:were a bit better thought out, you know, it bugs me that
Unknown:there's this vision that gamers are still literally eating Big
Unknown:Macs, while they're playing League of Legends like come on.
Unknown:We don't need like, that's just not how people use gaming chairs
Unknown:or play today at all. But nonetheless, I think the the
Unknown:intent remains and the idea remains that this could work as
Unknown:a broader category. So overall, I give the story of B. I think
Unknown:it's a great PR play by McDonald's, good for them. But
Unknown:as I said, I wish this was more and I wish that brands like
Unknown:McDonald's that are big and significant. We're taking gaming
Unknown:accessories more seriously as a potential license category. So
Unknown:that's everything for this week's office hours with the
Unknown:professor podcast and I hope you'll join me next week when we
Unknown:cover more exciting news stories like this, so stay tuned.
