In the battle of the burgers there can only be one King

It’s a question of scale, siege and attrition. No, we’re not talking a Game of Thrones-style tribal face-off but something closer to home and leavened with humour.

It's a beef between fast-food giants, a no-holds-barred, meat patty spat between household names probing every advantage for market share and consumer recognition. 

There’s no end in sight when it comes to what Burger King will do to best its larger fast-food rival and seize the advantage.

It’s been going on for decades now, with the smaller, hungrier side bending normal rules of engagement for advantage, and by the looks of the latest campaign figures, there’s no end in sight when it comes to what Burger King will do to best its larger fast-food rival and seize the advantage in the do-or-die world of global comms and market share.

Above: The Mouldy Whopper.

Last week saw the release of the Burger King's most recent foray into the battle of the burgers with The Mouldy Whopper, which highlighted the chain's lack of use of preservatives by showing us their signature burger in an increasing state of decay. But the brand and its partners haven't always needed to use one type of mould to break the other one, creatively speaking.

Punters generally don’t approve of a brand punching down on a smaller rival, but punching up? - think David and Goliath, and go for it. 

Burger King’s Whopper Detour, the brainchild of FCB New York’s Fred Levron and Gabriel Schmitt, has proved to be one of the biggest winners in BK’s ongoing campaign to expand its foothold at its main rival’s expense. Punters generally don’t approve of a brand punching down on a smaller rival, but punching up? - think David and Goliath, and go for it. 

“How do we turn fewer stores into an opportunity, and reward drivers willing to go the extra mile for a better burger?” was the basic question asked by Levron, Worldwide Creative Partner at FCB Global, and his creatives at FCB. McDonald’s is twice the size of Burger King, and rather than try to match them with conventional spend in print and TV, Levron and co went for the jugular, by way of an app campaign in December 2018 designed so that people wanting a Whopper could order one via the app for just one cent so long as they were ordering from within 600 yards of a McDonald’s.

Mobile sales at Burger King rose by around 300 per cent to a whopping half a million Whoppers. 

As Levron points out, the real-world results were amazing. The app rocketed up to No. 1 in the App Store, was downloaded 2 million times within a couple of weeks, garnered 3.5 billion impressions, and mobile sales at Burger King rose by around 300 per cent to a whopping half a million Whoppers. Holy cow. By the new year, that app download figure had risen to around 6 million, with mobile sales jumping three-fold.

Above: The hugely successful Whopper Detour.

Not only that, but the mountain of awards that came the next year encompassed three Cannes Lions Grands Prix (plus five golds and three silvers) as well as eight D&AD Pencils, 17 One Show medals, four Webbies and hitting multiple best of the year lists from the likes of Adweek, Business Insider and Forbes. 

This was a production that, no matter how much you rehearse, you’re gonna have problems.

“The whole thing took about 18 months to put together,” says Levron, with a big chunk spent on the app itself, perfecting the precise geofencing required to unlock the promotion at any one of the 14,000 McDonald’s in the US. The next challenge was getting the shoot right. “The number-one criteria for Burger King is that nothing is faked,” says Levron. FCB New York’s ECD Gabriel Schmitt agrees – achieving absolute realism on the campaign was key. “There were a million things to take care of when it came to deciding how we would shoot,” he says. “We landed on the most natural way by having people ask for a Whopper at McDonald’s, and see how the employees reacted – without any of them getting into trouble.” 

It was in the late 1970s that Burger King started mocking the size of its rival’s burgers – a tactic still in use with BBH London’s recent UK campaign.

They signed Jonathan Klein as director and hired improv actors prepped with all kinds of scenarios. “He’s done some of the best pranks in advertising,” says Schmitt of Klein, “and his treatment was spot on. Plus he had experience with having to be on your feet to solve all the problems that arise, because this was a production that, no matter how much you rehearse, you’re gonna have problems.”

Above: BBH London's A Whopper of a Secret.

Nevertheless, the end result was a huge success, not only in terms of industry awards, but as a demonstration of how a great creative idea boosts business. “Creativity is a powerful economic driver,” says Levron. “It took Burger King five years to get to 4.5 million users. As a result of Whopper Detour, we generated more than 4.5 million new users in two weeks. And now there’s another 4.5m people who are users. All from an idea.”

Our best creative partners have their finger on the pulse of pop culture, they’re looking at what’s happening out there.

The David and Goliath rivalry between the two fast food giants goes back decades. It was in the late 1970s that Burger King started mocking the size of its rival’s burgers – a tactic still in use with BBH London’s recent UK campaign, Whopper of a Secret. Even Ronald McDonald got flamed by the Halloween-related Scary Clown Night where in 2018, if you dressed as a clown and went to Burger King, you got a free Whopper. While in Brazil, an augmented reality app became the platform for Burn the App that showed a McDonald’s ad consumed by fire to reveal behind it a coupon for a flame-grilled Whopper.

Back then it wasn’t mainstream, so we saw an opportunity to have the world talk about the Whopper in a fun, self-deprecating way.

“We know our fans love it when we do stuff like that,” says Fernando Machado, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Burger King. “Tongue in cheek, self-depreciating and a little bit out there.” And while Machado’s on the business end of the brand’s global outlook, he remains actively involved in local campaigns. “Our best creative partners have their finger on the pulse of pop culture, they’re looking at what’s happening out there, and analysing the market through what’s trending, what people are saying about the brand, what’s being talked about in general, in each market.” Which means being ahead of the curve. 

Above: Scary Clown Night saw Burger King once again use McDonald's against itself.

More than a decade ago, just as digital home assistants entered the market, Burger King proved to be leader of the pack with Google Home of the Whopper. “Back then it wasn’t mainstream," says Machado, "so we saw an opportunity to have the world talk about the Whopper in a fun, self-deprecating way and to insert the brand into conversations that were already happening.” 

Playing the underdog taking a snipe at its bigger rivals is a key story driver in BK’s global tapestry of campaigns.

Ditto Whopper Sacrifice (defriending on Facebook to get a coupon for a free Whopper) and Bot Spot, which made fun of AI’s creative missteps. “There was a lot of talk around AI machine learning, especially in our industry,” says Machado. “Again, it’s tongue in cheek and playful. It was created with AI and makes absolutely no sense, and when you watch it makes you smile.”

Playing the underdog taking a snipe at its bigger rivals is a key story driver in BK’s global tapestry of campaigns, but being able to laugh at yourself matters too. Take Flame Grilled, which used news footage of various Burger King restaurants going up in flames to amplify its core brand message – flame-grilled – but easy on the flames, guys.

Above: Google Home of the Whopper.

Actually admitting your previous product was sub-par, however, takes self-depreciation to another level. In 2018, the Burger King baton in the UK was picked up by BBH, and true to brand style, its first campaign mixed humorous self-effacement with a big dash of apology in The Opportunity You Haven’t Been Waiting For, in which the UK’s Burger King CEO offered a punter £20,000 to try the new crispy chicken burger. Had the previous version been that bad?

Even when KFC experienced chicken shortages – it was clear people hadn’t been happy.

“From Twitter comments through to being publicly called out – even when KFC experienced chicken shortages – it was clear people hadn’t been happy,” says BBH’s data strategy director Saskia Jones. “Rather than ignore it, we wanted to face it head on.” Which meant being credible, being funny and admitting your flaws – and getting the boss to do it. “That was never in question,” confirms Jones. “It had to be the real CEO.”

Above: The Opportunity You Haven’t Been Waiting For, in which BK's UK CEO offered £20K to try the new Burger King chicken burger.

A Detour-style prank followed in Go Whopper or Go Home (whatever you order, you’re going to leave with a Whopper) and Whopper Takeover Day (download the app, get one free), while last December’s Whopper of a Secret came with the reveal that behind every Whopper in every shoot sat a smaller, lesser rival. ‘Big’ Mac, indeed. “Rather than just tell people, we wanted to show them,” says Jones, “so we set about hiding them behind every Whopper for a year, making it part of every shoot we did.” It’s that kind of conceptual forward thinking that wins you the Turner Prize.

Being mediocre is the most frightening thing of all.

But last year’s sharpest attention-grabber was one of the most simple, comprising eight little words: “Another Whopper on the side of a bus”. In the middle of a General Election, too... The brainchild of creative duo Phil Holbrook and Stuart Royall, it went from conception to delivery within a couple of weeks. The phrase ‘oven-ready’ comes to mind… “The media clearly welcomed a light-hearted story,” says Burger King’s Marketing Director Katie Evans of that grim run-up to Christmas in the UK. “It had 107 pieces of coverage, generating almost 550 million in reach, and it shows that with the right creative we can deliver bold and memorable campaigns that resonate with our audience.”