Despite my borderline obsession with KFC, when it comes to marketing, I have always been a huge advocate of Burger King. And I consistently see Burger King winning awards for its campaigns – from the Google Home of the Whopper campaign which initiated the Google Home Device, to the Traffic Jam Whopper campaign, which used real-time data to detect potential buyers in a traffic jam in order to offer them a Whopper and deliver on the move. And, most recently, Whopper Detour, which sent customers to McDonald’s to redeem their one cent Whopper.
Mark Ritson made me lose my love for Burger King this week, and exposed the BS of ‘cool’ ideas in the process
Chloe Hooper has always loved Burger King's marketing. But after attending a talk by Mark Ritson this week, she realised she may have fallen into the common trap of being impressed by 'cool' ideas rather than effective ones.
I love fried chicken. Not just any fried chicken; I love KFC. And it’s not just when I am hungover – give me the choice of a five-star restaurant or sharing a cheeky bucket and my genuine answer would be the latter. Now you know my secret. If only the Colonel was so forthcoming in giving away his 11 secret herbs and spices.
This admiration was cemented when I was fortunate enough to attend Cannes Young Lions Media Academy in 2018. I attended a session hosted by Burger King titled ‘The Rise of Hackvertising’. The session explored how brands hacked into a specific zeitgeist to become part of pop culture, using a hacker’s mindset.
But this week, I attended Mark Ritson’s, ‘The review of the year that was’ at The Marketing Academy. His countdown of the top 10 moments of 2019 included sharing the importance of balancing long-term brand building with short-term sales, which is not news. However, he used Burger King and KFC to demonstrate this point, posing the question: How effective is Burger King’s short-term approach to marketing? Is sending your customers on a detour to their largest competitor actually a smart move towards brand growth?
I loved the Whopper Detour campaign, but, interestingly enough, I have never actually eaten Burger King, or as it is known in Australia, Hungry Jack’s.
Ritson proposed that KFC was the winner in this year’s battle of the brands. KFC’s main distinctive asset, or ‘code’, as Ritson calls it, is Colonel Sanders, an older gentleman who has been dead for over 40 years. Despite this, KFC has rightly not moved away from its distinctive asset, instead embracing it and revitalising the Colonel. This is beautifully highlighted in its ‘Happy Mothers Day’ campaign.
Ritson’s explanation made me realise that I have fallen into a common trap of being impressed by the ‘Cool, why didn’t I think of that’ ideas when judging others’ work. As marketers, how much are we blinded by our own bias (bullshit) when judging awards?
On reflection, I don’t think this is something that I alone am guilty of. As an industry, our perception of what is an ‘award worthy’ idea is so heavily influenced. This is built on years of creative storytelling wowing judges and ineffective judging criteria.
After the mindset shift I had this week, I am no longer as impressed as I once was by Burger King’s short-term approach. I have realised that to really make change and reward the most deserving work, we need to influence judging panels’ expectations as to what great work is. Particularly as we currently battle with how to impress judges with data and tech smarts.
We need to start respecting, for lack of a better term, the ‘boring’ campaigns, which may lack excitement, but are solid in their foundations, and effective in brand building and driving long-term results.
There needs to be more of a push from the industry to change our mindset and address our perception of what constitutes great work. This is a journey we must all go on. There has never been a more important time for creativity, we just need to ensure that effective creativity is most rewarded.
*written with a chicken wing in hand
Chloe Hooper is the national new business and marketing director at PHD
Thanks for this Chloe.
I thought I was the only one who believed Burger King’s marketing was gimmicky and targeted at industry folk / Cannes Awards, not the average BK consumer.
Plus the theme of their campaign happens to always be very short term – I expect to see an Impeachment Burger coming through soon (for a limited time only!)
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So a good campaign / ad is one that wows the judges… and that is the aiming point?
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Was the Whopper detour short term though? Sure, mechanically it was a direct marketing and sales activation campaign. But if we look at the brand effects generated from the earned media exposure (assuming there was a decent amount) then it has long term brand building effects.
And is their marketing strategy short term as a whole? Whopper Neutrality spread across the internet globally. The Google Home Ad was a mass reach TV campaign. The McWhopper was a global PR play.
I think it’s simply inaccurate to cherry-pick the Whopper Detour and categorize their strategy as short-term marketing.
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Look, what they are doing is tactical & cheeky. They are a classic retailer that needs to remain topical and engaged with their fast moving target market to drive daily/weekly/monthly sales outcomes.
I don’t agree with the ‘experts’. BK is a profitable business that knows how to engage their target market in a constantly changing manner.
They stay fresh, new & cheeky.
Good on them…….’I’m lovin it!’
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I think getting 1.5 million people to download the BK app is a pretty good long-term result
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Yes, and that – as I recall – was the objective of the campaign. How readily (and quickly, and cheaply) can they now reach those 1.5m people?
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Never forget the product. If Burger King’s products don’t meet people’s needs as well as KFC’s, then even the best communication can easily fall short.
So for example, if the author really likes fried chicken, but isn’t so keen on burgers, even the best campaign will likely fail to change their eating habits.
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If Fernando Machado and Mark Ritson went head to head in a debate Mark would lose a every time. Whopper Detour etc is a very small part of the marketing mix. BK does all the same retail work that KFC etc does. Marks simply throwing stones from a very very safe distance to appear relevant.
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Little Ferny is nothing more than an awards season showpony and an engaging presenter.
If you scratched the surface a little deeper, your theory would be disproved.
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The world talks every time BK make a new ad. Thats all the author, Mark Ritson, and every desktop expert need to know.
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*marketers talk
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Hi please dot confuse Burger King marketing (a battler trying to take market share with bigger budgets) in the USA with Hungry Jacks here. The stuff you talk about in this article is you picking up stufff in marketing and advertising articles – it’s not for this market.
Burger King have dominated growth in USA vs McD’s since Fernando took over as CMO.
Don’t believe everything Ritson says – and data to back any argument is available too.
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I’m a big Ritson fan, but his analysis in this instance is ironically very short-term isn’t it? Just because BK’s activity is promotional, it doesn’t mean it can’t have brand impact. And how would we know about the long-term impact yet?
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If you actually think that and it’s not just meant to be an unsubstantiated witty retort, Whopper Detour as an example increased sales by 300% during the campaign period. Just like Ritson, seems like you love to rag on things when it suits you without looking at the actual facts.
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You’ll get that Hungry Jack’s CMO job sometime, AD!
Then you and the US Head Office can concoct as many gimmicky, event based marketing schemes as you want.
How about a bushfire app that links to free flame grilled burgers??!!
In the meantime, I have it on good authority that your hero Ferny recruits directly from the Mumbrella comments section and is looking for his next analytical superstar – you!
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A great point well made.
Our industry is awash with ego and we continue to make ads for ourselves and the Cannes judges. Take Mars’ Hungerhythm. Cleaned up at all the awards, still used by media and creative agencies as examples of their best work and it is well known within that group that it didn’t sell a single additional back of Snickers.
That isn’t to say that creativity isn’t important. It’s more important than ever. It’s just that too many ads are made for the industry and not enough for the customers.
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