Background
Burger King was looking to connect with a young millennial audience and to win the attention and respect of this hard to reach group. Social media was to be the battleground – and we needed a point of view, attitude and perspective that would make us stand out from the crowd.
Thinking
We developed an audience-based proposition for Burger King on social that was based on creating a simple reaction; we wanted our fans to see our content and say “Yes Burger King!”.
Yes, only Burger King would dare do this.
Yes, Burger King understands me and my world.
And Yes – Burger King is the brand for me.
The idea
Normally, when a competitor is given public love by a superstar you back off. Grit your teeth and leave them to it.
But not Burger King.
The brand went all in and transformed a potential PR headache into its biggest social activation of 2018…
When Kanye tweeted “McDonalds is my favourite restaurant” – we flame grilled him and our longstanding rival with just three words….
“Explains a lot”
This said everything without saying too much. Less is more especially with our audience.
The execution
The activation was a real time response on Twitter and relied 100% on organic reach across both social and earned media. This was a simple yet powerful activation that cost literally nothing to achieve. All it took was confidence a little bravery and some quick thinking.
With zero paid media – the Burger King tweet, Explains a lot, travelled across the globe – with people sharing, tweeting and reporting on Burger King across social media.
We achieved over 200 pieces of earned media coverage across TV, print and online media with titles including The Daily Mail, The Sun, Fox News adding to the conversation – as did titles that directly engage with our millennial / Gen Z audiences NME, Esquire and Cosmo.
The results
- The most liked tweet by a brand of all time, with over 1 Million likes (Source Twitter)
- 270K+ retweets (Source Twitter)
- 1.8 Million engagements (Source Twitter)
- 47 Million Twitter impressions (Source Twitter)
- $5,935,076.00 Media value (Source Cision)
- 536,769,063 Media reach (Source Cision)
- 1.5 Billion impressions (Source Cision)
And global fan love for Burger King with almost universal positive sentiment.
#Explainsalot won a Silver Social & Influencer Lions at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
#Explainsalot won Gold Sabre Award in EMEA for Best Social Media & Networking campaign & Food Service.
#Explainsalot won Platinum Sabre Award in EMEA for Best in Show.
#Explainsalot won IN2 Sabre Award in EMEA for Best in real-time engagement.
Silver Social & Influencer Lions – Burger King
“Coolr is transforming our social media presence and is building a strong connection with our youth audience. The Kanye West activation was outstanding and we are proud to have achieved the most liked tweet by a brand of all time”.
Soco Nunez, Head of Brand & Marketing Communications, Burger King UK.
If you are curious to understand how Coolr can help reimagine your social, Adam would love to have a conversation with you. Call us on +44 (0)207 025 8130 or send us an email adam@wearecoolr.com
