BURGER KING DONATES

CUSTOMERS TO MACCAS

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Wednesday, 2nd October 2019

THE DAY THE WHOPPER STOPPED

In one of the most brilliant marketing campaigns we’ve seen to date, ever, in history, Burger King Argentina donated its customers to McDonalds. The burger merchants have been at brand war for decades and this move my Burger King is fantastically strategic! Not only will it go a long way to what we at NMM call ‘Brand Love* it really shows that Burger King are, instead of ignoring their biggest competitor, showing appreciation for them, which is marketing 101.

Brand love is the admiration, loyalty and respect consumers have for a brand.

This is the actual Burger King at McDonald’s restaurant, ordering his Big Mac for a good cause.

This is the actual Burger King at McDonald’s restaurant, ordering his Big Mac for a good cause.

SO WHAT WAS THIS CAMPAIGN ALL ABOUT?

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Every year McDonald’s celebrates McHappy Day. You all know it. Go to Maccas, order a Big Mac and the proceeds go to a charitable foundation raising funds for kids with cancer (in Australia proceeds go to Ronald McDonald House).

So this year, to support McHappy Day and raising money for sick children, Burger King stopped selling its Whopper and asked customers to visit McDonald’s for a Big Mac instead.

BLOODY BRILLIANT, WE SAY!

A few points about what makes this campaign so clever:

  • It highlights the confidence Burger King has in it’s product, assuming that Burger King fans won’t convert to Maccas after eating a Big Mac.

  • Burger King received 90 million organic impressions to their site that day and millions of positive social media posts

  • The net impact on Burger King’s sales was minimal because the people who tried to order a Whopper and could’t, simply ordered a different burger.

  • Burger King is essentially saying that sick children come before profit, and that’s heartfelt and smart.

  • One of the best things you can do in marketing is SURPRISE and DELIGHT and the social media response shows this campaign did exactly that!

  • And of course, they put their brand differences aside and joined McDonald’s for a wonderful cause.

‘A Day Without Whopper’ campaign surprised and delighted consumers the world round.

‘A Day Without Whopper’ campaign surprised and delighted consumers the world round.

When thedrum asked the creative agency responsible for this marketing gold, what prompted the campaign, they responded,

“Burger King does its own charity event every July. This year it helped Atomic Lab an NGO that prints 3D prosthetic arms for disabled kids. Since ‘McHappy Day’ is four months later, we thought it was a great opportunity to let differences aside and help our competitors. It was born from our most sincere kindness. Then, we just made sure only key people knew about it so it didn’t get spoiled or stopped until that day. Burger King staff in every restaurant across the country learned about A Day without Whopper that same morning through an internal memo signed by the National Sales Manager. They felt proud about the challenge. For one time only, the less they sold the better.”

And given McDonald’s sold almost 73,437 more Big Macs than in 2016 (we couldn’t find last years count!) here’s hoping not only was this a genius idea, but one that actually worked!

Bravo Burger King! Bravo!