Integrated Marketing Decisions – Case Study Article for Formative and Summative Assessment

Academic Year 2019/20

Use the extract from the article below as a starting point but note that your report should
develop on the issues already mentioned in it by conducting further research, so that the
content of your report is your own well thought-out analysis and justified opinion, rather
than just repeating what is in the article. Explain in full any consequences and/or challenges
relating to the issues found from both your further research and in the following article
extract which you can access in full at: https://www.marketingweek.com/burger-king-cmo-
creativity-digital/

Burger King CMO on creativity: We are not in the pursuit of

random ideas
The recipient of 94 Cannes Lions in four years, Burger King global CMO
Fernando Machado is “100% focused on the idea”, as long as it links
back to the brand and business strategy.

Burger King has cultivated a formidable reputation for creativity. Over the past four years, the
fast food chain has channelled its quirky, counter-intuitive personality into 94 Cannes Lions,
including four Grand Prixs and the accolade of 2017 creative marketer of the year for global
CMO, Fernando Machado.

Campaigns include ‘McWhopper’, which started in 2015 as an open letter in the New York Times
proposing a truce with arch rival McDonald’s to mark Peace Day. The idea was to join forces on
the McWhopper – a combination of the Whopper and the Big Mac.

Despite McDonald’s turning down the offer, the campaign generated 8.9 billion global
impressions, trended worldwide and created $220m (£174m) in earned media for Burger King.

Equally eye-catching was the fast food chain’s Google hack – a 15-second TV ad that triggered
any Google Home device within earshot to immediately tell its owner all about the Whopper
burger. ‘Google, Home of the Whopper’ generated 9.3 billion global impressions, $135m
(£106m) in earned media and became Burger King’s most talked about TV advert to date.

For Machado, success comes from being 100% focused on the idea. “We hardly ever brief for an
idea that works on X channel, we focus on having great ideas that deliver our brand and
business objectives,” he tells Marketing Week.

Burger King is not, however, in the business of creativity for creativity’s sake, says Machado. The
brand sets clear objectives and well-defined KPIs from the moment it briefs for a new piece of
work. The team measure everything and make it clear to their creative agency the objectives
they want to accomplish.

“We are not in the pursuit of random ideas. We’re in the pursuit of ideas that will link back to
our business and brand strategy, which have clear targets and objectives,” Machado states.
“Not all campaigns will do everything, but they should be doing something in the direction of the
objectives you have.”

Creativity is channel agnostic

The strategy of focusing on the idea rather than the channel has freed up the brand to take risks
and go in different directions, as with the Whopper Detour campaign it ran in December last
year. Burger King wanted to promote mobile app ordering but the marketers were aware they
needed a “big, bold creative idea” to get consumers to care.

With this in mind, the team landed on the idea of geo-fencing all 14,000 McDonald’s in the US
and offering Burger King customers a Whopper for 1 cent if they ordered via the app within 600
feet of a McDonald’s.

We are not in the pursuit of random ideas. We’re in the pursuit of ideas that will link back
to our business and brand strategy.
Fernando Machado, Burger King

“It was the opposite of direct marketing and the opposite of experiential because you’re
physically sending people to your competitor. It worked for us, it was one of our blockbuster
campaigns,” says Machado.

A year in the development, the main objective of Whopper Detour was to increase the number
of app downloads and mobile payments, the assumption being that over time these consumers
would spend more with the brand.

The campaign generated 1.3 billion media impressions and helped the Burger King app jump
from number 686 in the app store to number one in all categories, not just food and drink. Sales
through the mobile app increased by three times during the campaign and 1.5 million people
downloaded the app in the space of 10 days.

Whopper Detour also drove the highest traffic to Burger King restaurants for four and a half
years.

While the campaign itself only lasted 10 days, the marketing is still measuring its impact. The
team is tracking whether customers who bought a 1 cent Whopper are returning to Burger King.
The geo-fencing technology also means that, if the customer has geo-location enabled on their
phone, Burger King can serve them an offer when they are in the vicinity of a McDonald’s
restaurant.

Such was the impact of Whopper Detour that it scooped the Direct Grand Prix at the 2019
Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (17-22 June), as well as two Gold Lions in the
category.

The most successful campaigns end up ticking all the boxes when it comes to short and long-
term metrics, Machado insists. He argues that just because the product is digital – in this case
the objective was to drive app downloads – the campaign does not need to be digital. And that
because now “everything is digital”, if the creative is good it will end up being shared organically
on social, meaning you don’t need to put “big bucks” behind a “traditional” media plan.

End of article