Competition: Effie United States

Ran in: United States

Category: Marketing Innovation Solutions

Brand/Client: Burger King

Lead Agency: FCB New York

Contributing Companies: O Positive Mackcut Alison Brod Marketing + Communications

Product/Service: Food

Classification: National

Case Study Dates Effort Ran: December 4, 2018 – December 12, 2018 2020 EFFIE AWARDS UNITED STATES Category Situation: GOLD WINNER Growing

Credits: “THE WHOPPER DETOUR” Nick Divers Ari Halper BK needed to generate excitement for its revamped Adam Isidore mobile app with order-ahead functionality. Rather than Henna Kathiya using a typical coupon, we leveraged a powerful insight: Janice Katz With the new BK App, anywhere can be a place to order a Jonathan Klein Whopper – even a McDonald’s, turning their much larger Ralph Laucella footprint into ours. Rewarding customers with a $0.01 Fred Levron Whopper (when ordered from McD’s), we invited Htat Lin Htut consumers to engage in the trolling fun, hitting #1 on both Jesse Morris app stores, generating 1.5 million downloads in just 9 Gina Pagano days, and an ROI of 37:1. Jason Reda Brooke Scher Mogan Gabriel Schmitt Alex Sprouse Laszlo Szloboda Sarah Tarner

Version: Original

Effie Awards Category Context

At a structural disadvantage against McDonald’s and with a miniscule budget, BK needed to get an indifferent world excited about its revamped mobile app. Ditching timeworn incentives such as discounts, we leveraged a powerful insight: with the new BK app, anywhere becomes a place to order BK - even a McDonald’s. Leveraging the much larger real estate footprint of our main competitor we amplified our reach dramatically. With the largest troll ever of our mighty competitor, we zoomed up the app store from 686th position to #1, generated 1.5m downloads, $15m incremental revenue and unheard-of ROI of 37:1. State of the Marketplace & Brand’s Business

Fact: In surveys and taste tests, people consistently prefer Burger King’s flame-grilled burgers to McDonald’s’.1 And yet they’re #1 by a long mile and we’re not.2 What gives? The tyranny of location In fast food, convenience, speed and location are everything. Unfortunately, Burger King has only half the number of locations of McDonald’s.3 So customers have to go a little farther to get their hands on our burgers – an average of 1.34 miles.4 Which can feel like a long way when you’re pressed for time. And longer drives mean fewer customers, less revenue, fewer advertising dollars … you get the drift.

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By the third quarter of 2018, Burger King’s sales momentum had slackened, with a 0.7% decrease in the US5; while McDonald’s was zooming ahead with a 2.4% increase in sales6. To close out the year on a more positive note, Burger King would need to do something ... but there was no new product launch scheduled, no dramatic increase in marketing budgets. We’d have to make the most of what we already had.

Business Challenge

Mobile ordering - an opportunity to change the game? The rise of mobile ordering has become a powerful weapon in the burger wars. Orders placed via apps have been growing 140% year on year,7 and over 40% of fast-food consumers had placed an order using an app at least one.8 The benefit to customers were clear: greater speed, convenience and a seamless experience. But there was also a significant benefit to brands: • Order size - mobile orders tend to be larger9 • Higher offer uptake - brands can target their customers with offers tailored to them10 • Loyalty - people are more likely to order from a brand whose app they have installed11 • Efficiency - restaurants have more control over the order flow12. Net, net- mobile ordering adds up to more orders, and more $$$$. This is exactly the kind of effect a brand like Burger King needed to capitalize on to get a leg up on its larger rival. Unfortunately, Burger King was late to the app party. Very late. Few people were using the BK App.13 In 2018, the company hit the reset button and upgraded its capabilities with order-ahead functionality. But its rivals had zoomed past it, and BK’s app was languishing in 686th place in the App Store.14 To capitalize on the incremental sales and efficiencies of mobile ordering we’d have to dramatically increase app downloads via communications and a promotion that offered an incentive. This was a challenge first and foremost for the marketing department. How could we get an indifferent world excited about Burger King’s app? Corporate Objectives

Main Corporate Objective #1 Create top-of-mind awareness of Burger King’s app McDonald’s spends $1.5bn on marketing every year.15 We had a mere $400K for this initiative, a drop in the ocean as far as restaurant promotions are concerned. We’d have to do something radical to get on people’s radar, not to mention their smartphones.

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Main Corporate Objective #2 Get people to download the app Getting real estate on people’s phones was key for Burger King’s long-term strategy. If you don’t have the app it’s simply too much hassle to order ahead. But Burger King’s audience is pretty “apped out” and doesn’t download many new apps.16 Wishing big, Burger King’s KPI was to go from #14 to #1 in restaurant apps – a tall order for a nine-day promotion.

Main Corporate Objective #3 Get people to actually use the app It’s one thing getting people to download, it’s another getting them to use it. The majority of apps languish on phones without being used once.17 But not only did we want our audience to use it, we needed them to register and add their credit card details so we could tailor future offers to them. The aim: Get at least 20% of downloaders to use the app.

Opportunity

The revamped Burger King App, while sleek and easy to use, promised nothing new. Its key capability was identical to those of other restaurant order-ahead apps – the ability to order from anywhere. How could we turn this basic promise into something beyond the standard promo with a coupon? Something that tapped into the mentality of our younger audience, their need to be part of something outrageous; an idea with a “WTF factor” they can’t wait to share. Then it hit us. If our updated app gave you the ability to order Burger King from anywhere, why not have some fun with the “anywhere”? What if “anywhere” included our rival’s restaurants? Historically, BK has expanded in similar ways to McDonald’s. Their locations are never far from each other.16 If you’re driving to get one of their burgers, chances are you’ll pass a McDonald’s. With our new app, all of these McDonald’s became places to order BK, turning our rival’s greatest advantage – their number of locations – into ours. The ultimate troll. A huge business opportunity. And something McDonald’s couldn’t do anything about. The opportunity: our app has the power to turn McDonald’s’ much larger footprint into Burger King’s advantage. Business Solution Concept

McDonald’s outnumbers Burger King restaurants 2-to-1 in the US.17 So, in the spirit of Burger King’s challenger mentality, we didn’t just do a promotion to launch our new app with order-ahead functionality. Nor did we simply troll McDonald’s. We turned our biggest competitor’s advantage into our own, by turning their restaurants into touchpoints of our campaign: The idea The Whopper Detour: Buy a Whopper for just one cent. The catch: It could only be ordered on the Burger King app ‘at’ McDonald’s. Strategic essence The idea untethered Burger King from its relatively narrow footprint, and for nine days essentially co-opted McDonald’s much larger footprint as their own, giving it the location advantage it normally lacks. Before launch, a robust outreach matrix was established to go after national and local news outlets.The Whopper Detour was launched with a carefully orchestrated PR plan, in tandem with a fully integrated effort.

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Day 1 We kicked off the promotion with a tweet from BK’s handle: “brb. going to McDonald’s.” Shortly thereafter, an online film that showed customers asking confused McDonald’s employees for their Whopper appeared on the brand’s YouTube and social channels. We also released a how-to video to clearly explain the mind twist of the campaign. Day 2 A cheeky, moving OOH installation went from McDonald’s location to McDonald’s location, announced “The Whopper Detour available here” and invited people to download our app. A print ad ran in the New York Post to further the news. Days 3–9 We primarily leveraged Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and targeted digital display through Foursquare and Waze to further fuel the excitement and to drive downloads. No restaurant chain or other service provider has ever attempted anything similar that we’re aware of. We had to overcome formidable logistical challenges to bring this idea to life. Sourcing 1 Source: Market Force Information, annual QSR favorability study, 4/25/18 2 Source: McDonald’s annual report 2018, Restaurant Brands International annual report, 2018 3 Source: Wikipedia, 2018 4 Source: James Mattone, Thinknum, 12/4/18 (median distance between McDonald’s and Burger King) 5 Source: Restaurant Brands International Inc., Q3 Results, 2018 (US revenues only) 6 Source: McDonalds, Q3 results, 2018 (US revenues only) 7 Source: NPD Group, Feeding the Growing Appetite for Restaurant Apps, 2/4/19 8 Source: Zion & Zion report, Food Delivery Apps: Usage and Demographics — Winners, Losers and Laggards, 2018 9 Source: Modern Restaurant Management, Three Ways Mobile Can Improve Operational Efficiency for Restaurants, 8/2/17 10 Source: Restaurant Business Online, 4/17/18 11 Source: Cardinal Digital Marketing, 4/13/18 12 Source: Cardinal Digital Marketing, 4/13/18 13 Source: Internal BK data, 2018 14 Source: App Annie, 10/18 15 Source: Statista, 2018 16 Source: More than 50 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. download zero new mobile apps per month, Statista, 2018 17 The Business of Apps, App Download and Usage Statistics, 2018

Operational Approach

PROMOTION LOGISTICS The idea was originally pitched to the Global CMO and iterated on over the course of a year. Once approved, it was cascaded down to the Burger King marketing, sales, and tech teams, along with media and social agencies. Burger King, while relaunching the app, had created a new internal tech team. This idea became an early project for the new team and they were critical to the idea’s success. We also needed to bring on board Burger King’s franchisees across the U.S. They were the ones who would have to deliver on our promise and handle the incremental app orders. The logistics to get this nine-day promotion off the ground were staggering: the idea required us to geofence 14,000+ McDonald’s stores nationwide. If a user was within 600 ft. of a McDonald’s, the BK App unlocked the promotion, and once the order was placed, the app then navigated them to the nearest BK for pickup. This was a first not only for BK but the category. It involved a complex matrix of teams to pull it off. We had to recode our newly updated mobile app with mobile order and payment to now also work well and consistently with geofencing.

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Pricing Policy Objective

When ordering through the app during the promotional window, buy more than the $0.01 burger, e.g. drinks, fries, dessert. KPI: incremental sales of non-Whopper menu items

Product Objective

Get at least 20% of downloaders to actually use the app to order from Burger King. KPI: app usage by people who have downloaded it Generate larger future orders through the app KPI: app sales beyond the promotional period Generate increased lifetime customer value through ongoing use of the app KPI: projected longer term increase in sales through the app Distribution Objective

Dramatically increase in app downloads KPI: Get people to download the app and go from #14 to #1 in restaurant apps External Communications Objective

Get coverage of our stunt by the media and in social Pricing Policy Detailed Actions

For the 9-day duration of the promotion, reduce the Whopper price to$0.01 when ordered “at” McDonald’s - highly innovative Product Detailed Actions

Incentivize mobile ordering via the app by temporarily reducing price of Whopper when ordered “at” McDonald’s - highly innovative Distribution Detailed Actions

Incentivize download of the app by temporarily reducing price of Whopper when ordered “at” McDonald’s - highly innovative Process Detailed Actions

Geofence 14,000+ McDonald’s restaurants nationwide to make promotion mechanics possible - highly innovative Internal Communications Idea

The Whopper Detour: Buy a Whopper for just 1-cent when you order “at” McDonald’s through the new Burger King App.

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Internal Audience

Regional/US marketing, global marketing and franchisees External Communications Idea

The Whopper Detour: Buy a Whopper for just 1-cent when you order “at” McDonald’s through the new Burger King App. External Audience

The 40% of fast-food consumers using apps to pre-order their food at quick-service restaurants at least some of the time. Key Communications Touchpoints

Social, out of home, PR, digital display, print Role of the Marketing Team

This was not a ‘plug + play’ idea that the marketing team could simply implement using a standard process. This idea required working with IT and partners like Waze to geofence not only our own restaurants but those of our rivals. It required the marketing team to work hand-in-hand with the UX team that built BK’s new app to make sure the user flow was seamless, and fully integrated with the menu and prices of our many locations (not all which are the same). Net net, the challenge was to re-launch BK’s app in a crowded environment. We needed to make that relevant to a consumer, via an innovative, creative, out-of-the-box, PR-able idea – hence the marketing team’s involvement. The idea was so radical, it needed a dedicated group to push forward the idea internally. Brand management in particular needed to get the tone absolutely right -we couldn’t come off as overly aggressive - this needed to be a lighthearted troll. Investment Overview

Expenditure on Communications

$500-999 thousand $800k=Agency fees and production costs for creative development and production of all assets and touchpoints.

Results for the Pricing Policy Objective

People bought more than just a $0.01 Whopper. They got drinks, fries and shakes. The total sales value through the app increased by 3x during the promotion.26 Results for the Product Objective

The promotion resulted in the highest number of store visits since 201523 and over 500,000 offer redemptions – 40x more than BK’s internal record.24 The number of products sold through the app increased sevenfold for the nine days.25 The increased number of active apps permanently bolstered the business: After the promotion, BK continued to sell through the app 2x what they used to sell prior.27

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BK estimates that the 1.5m downloaded apps have the potential to generate around $15m of incremental revenue during 2019.28 Results for the Distribution Objective

Our promotion drove 1.5m downloads in just nine days.21 Our app soared to #1 not just in restaurants, but overall in both Apple and Google Play stores,22 beating out hugely popular apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Results for the External Communications Objective

This audacious promotion caught the world’s attention, generating 3.5bn impressions,18 with an estimated earned media value of $40m.19 Twitter mentions spiked, increasing by 818%.20 Revenue from the Solution Launch

$10-20 million

Revenue in comparison with the revenue in the similar period of the previous year

Whopper Detour users were projected to spend around $15 million per year on the BK Mobile App. This is based on the trajectory that after 2.5 months, app sales resulted in around $3.1 million.

Other Contributing Factors

Given that the campaign generated the equivalent of $40m in media value we can safely assume that the unprecedented buzz of this campaign was driven by its nature. Burger King - like all quick service restaurants - will occasionally offer coupons in order to drive app downloads and usage but none have ever achieved even a fraction of the success of this one. Sourcing 18 Source: Crimson Hexagon, 12/18, based on 72-hr time period after the promotion started, compared to yearly average 19 Source: Amplitude, 12/18 20 Source: Twitter, 12/18 21 Source: BK internal data, 12/18 22 Source: App Annie, 12/18 23 Source: BK internal data, 12/18 24 Source: BK internal data, 12/18 25 Source: BK internal data, 12/18 26 Source: BK internal data, 8/19 27 Source: BK internal data, 12/18 28 Source: BK internal data, 12/18 29 Source: BK internal calculation using media value, download efficiencies, incremental volume – production, media cost and Whopper redemptions, 1/19

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