
GUIDES
This guide tells the fascinating story of how an ingenious internal communications strategy helped align McDonald's 2,000 US franchise owners with the most ambitious business transformation in the company's history.
McDonald's was acutely aware that the success of the three-year modernization program, which required significant change and major investment, would depend on alignment with the franchise owners. The internal comms team also knew the scale and pace of change facing the franchise owners meant they would inevitably experience a roller-coaster of emotions.
To meet this challenge the team devised a twin-track strategy of regularly monitoring franchisee sentiment through quarterly polling, while simultaneously creating a broad range of content carefully tailored to meet the owners’ anticipated mood changes over the three-year program.
This very human, people-centric approach, allied to the hard data gleaned from the frequent polling analytics, resulted in what Emily Nichols of McDonald's calls “creating content for every mood; formulating content based on audience sentiment” and was a resounding success. This guide shows how it was achieved.

Emily Nichols
Manager of Internal Communications, McDonald’s USA

Tim Vaughan
Editorial Director
Internal communication is under real pressure. IC teams are expected to support leaders, shape culture, and deliver relevant, personalized communication to an increasingly diverse audience—all while operating at greater speed and scale than ever before. AI arrives at the right moment. It doesn’t replace communicators; it elevates them. Applied well, AI sharpens the fundamentals of effective communication: diagnosing issues, shaping the narrative, guiding leaders, and delivering messages that connect people to purpose and progress. At its best, AI accelerates drafting, adapts content for different formats, improves accessibility, and surfaces insights about what’s landing. Without governance, though, it can create noise or risk. The opportunity for IC teams is to bring AI in thoughtfully, with governance and human judgment at the center. This guide shows how to do exactly that. Inside, you’ll find practical guidance on when to use AI, where humans remain essential, how to establish guardrails, how to prompt effectively, and how to scale AI responsibly across channels and teams.
Manufacturing and production facilities are operating in an era defined by disruption, labor shortages, supply chain volatility, and rising safety and compliance demands. Leaders are under constant pressure to optimize processes, reduce downtime and rework, improve quality, and engage a workforce that is largely deskless. In this environment, clear, real-time communication isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s mission-critical. Yet production-floor employees are often the hardest to reach. Traditional channels like email, mobile apps, and intranet platforms don’t effectively connect with workers who don’t have access to devices during their shifts. When communication breaks down, so does alignment around KPIs, safety protocols, quality standards, and company goals. Digital signage has become a critical infrastructure layer in modern manufacturing environments. Together, Poppulo and BrightSign® enable manufacturers to deploy secure, scalable, and high-performance digital signage networks across thousands of endpoints. From KPI dashboards and manufacturing execution systems (MES) integrations to safety communications and employee engagement initiatives, this guide explores how manufacturers can leverage enterprise-grade digital signage to drive operational excellence, strengthen culture, and future-proof their production floor communications.
Manufacturing facilities face unique challenges when it comes to driving productivity, safety, and operational efficiency with a primarily deskless workforce—many of which can be addressed with strategically deployed digital signage. From production dashboards and manufacturing execution systems (MES) displays to wayfinding, standard work signage, safety messaging, and general employee communications, digital signage is an effective way to reach all on-site workers, regardless of their roles. That’s why manufacturing organizations around the world rely on Poppulo’s digital signage platform and secure, purpose-built media players from BrightSign® to deliver reliable, real-time information across their facilities. However, starting a new digital signage initiative or optimizing an existing network involves careful planning. In addition to defining integration requirements, you must determine the number and location of screens, the purpose of each endpoint, and the content each zone should display. Mapping out the zones in your facility that require digital signage—and identifying the audience and use case for each—can help define your digital signage footprint and uncover gaps in your current network. The templates included in this guide provide recommendations for endpoint planning across different facility zones, helping you align screen placement with operational goals and communications needs.