Posted on by Raihan Hadi
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Cannes Creative Showcase: Burger King proposes mash-up burger for UN Peace Day
27 Mar
Brief
Insights:
1) People are curious for new flavour combinations and willing to trample across brand conventions to experience them.
2) There’s no longer an inside / outside of a company – thanks to social media, corporations are now held accountable for their actions.
Creative idea: Burger King made a highly visible proposal to McDonald’s, inviting them to collaborate on a truly one-of-a-kind product: The McWhopper. The proposed mash-up burger would combine key ingredients from each restaurant’s signature product, The Big Mac and The Whopper, to be prepared and served on one day only, United Nations Peace Day, 21st September 2015.
Execution
BK published an open letter in traditional and social, inviting McD’s to collaborate in creating and serving the McWhopper on Peace Day. The proposal was supported by tactical outdoor and spearheaded by mcwhopper.com, a multimedia toolkit of co-branded assets: staff apparel, signage, and a pop-up restaurant.
Every asset was designed to be visually iconic and translate into multiple languages, for ease of share-ability. The proposal was met by frenzied public support, so McDonald’s drew criticism when they turned down the offer. Inspired by BK’s online Burger Build film, tens of thousands of people took matters into their own hands by creating and sharing do-it-yourself McWhoppers on mainstream and social media – integrating the competitor’s product with our own.
Simultaneously, four other rival restaurants raised their hands for peace and together with BK created the historic ‘Peace Day Burger’, a symbolic mash-up available at an Atlanta pop-up on Peace Day only.
Outcome
· 8.9 billion media impressions
· Earned media value $US138m
Source: ABPR, Personally Inside, Llorente y Cuenca, Ketchurn, Evercom, Weber Shandwick, Emanate and Cison
· #1 trending topic on Facebook, Twitter
· Over 10,000 DIY McWhopper reviews on YouTube
PEACE ONE DAY
· +40% increase in Peace Day awareness (from 30% to 43% of the U.S pop)
Source: Toluna Research (Sept 15)
· +16% increase in Peace Day awareness worldwide
Source: McKinsey and Company (Oct 15)
“The McWhopper campaign is the single highest contributor ever towards Peace Day awareness” – McKinsey and Company – Peace One Day research partner
BURGER KING BRAND METRICS (ALL PEOPLE)
· +75% – Positive brand buzz from 20% to 35% / +60% millennials
· +25% – Purchase consideration from 32% to 40% / +76% millennials
· +48% – Likelihood to recommend brand: from 21% to 31% / +84% millennials
Source: YouGov Brand Index Oct 15
MARKETING magazine is the Official Cannes Lions Festival Representative for Malaysia.
The APPIES is an annual event that presents a rare opportunity for creative, media, digital and marketing agencies or brands to present their best campaigns to the industry.
This is the only event where Live Presentations meets Live Judging.
Similar to TED Talks, The APPIES is the chance for great presenters with outstanding work to show it off to some of the industry’s most important industry leaders.
This year’s winners will receive Gold, Silver or Bronze trophies for 21 categories, and 6 special Best of Best categories (red trophies) that require no submissions!
Campaign entries must have run between June 2024 to May 2025
