#WHOISTHEKING

Title#WHOISTHEKING
BrandBURGER KING FRANCE
Product/ServiceFAST FOOD
Category C06. Response / Real-time Activity
Entrant BUZZMAN Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation BUZZMAN Paris, FRANCE
PR BUZZMAN Paris, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
GEORGES MOHAMMED-CHÉRIF BUZZMAN President and Executive Creative Director
THOMAS GRANGER BUZZMAN Vice - President
JULIEN LEVILAIN BUZZMAN Associate Director
VANESSA BARBEL BUZZMAN Head of TV & Print Production
AMELIE JUILLET BUZZMAN Head of Communication and PR
CLARA BASCOUL-GAUTHIER BUZZMAN Communication and PR Manager
BÉRÉNICE CHARLES BURGER KING Marketing Project Manager
CAROLE ROUSSEAU BURGER KING Marketing Project Manager
MARINE DUPAS BURGER KING Marketing Project Manager
BENJAMIN DESSAGNE BUZZMAN Artistic Director & Copywriter
McDONALD'S France TBWA/Paris Copywriter Assistant
PIERRE GUENGANT BUZZMAN Account Director
LOÏC COELHO BUZZMAN Account Manager
CLÉMENCE GATEAU BUZZMAN Account Executive
JULIEN SCAGLIONE BUZZMAN Head of Social Media
LORIS BERNARDINI BUZZMAN Social Media Manager
MARIE LE SCAO BUZZMAN Social Media Consultant
MARGAUX DESPOINTES BUZZMAN TV Producer
BENOIT CROUET BUZZMAN TV Producer
ADRIEN ARMANET ADRIEN ARMANET Director
THE THE Sound Production
ICONOCLAST ICONOCLAST Production Company
BEATRICE ROUX BURGER KING Marketing Director

The Campaign

When it comes to love, distance doesn’t matter! That’s the answer we gave to McDonald’s 3 days after the launch of their video by posting a new video. In this video, we revealed the end of McDonald’s one. We used all the images McDonald’s produced for its video and added some at then end. In this end, we showed 2 clients who go at McDonald’s (because it is so close) BUT only to order a large coffee in order to make their road to the next BURGER KING, at 253km from where they are now. BURGER KING® even concludes its film by thanking McDonald’s for being everywhere and reminding us how far its fans are ready to go for a WHOPPER®.

Execution

This surprising attack was a good occasion to give a direct message to McDonald’s (with limited legal impact) and remind them that no matters their communication attempts or powerful restaurant’s network in France, they can’t beat the King and the passion of its fans, capable of anything for a WHOPPER.

With only 5000€ invested: - 10 million views on our video - More than 300 media apparitions all over the world - 340 shares on social networks (becoming a trending topic in France over Leo DiCaprio the day he received its oscar) - 293 million contacts reached - 4 million euros in earned media - The campaign even became a MEME with dozens of hijacks from other brands and anonymous. To complete these results, we also lead a BrandIndex survey with Yougov to measure the impact of the campaign on the brands’ popularity for a +18 years old target in France. This survey revealed that McDonald’s video has a positive effect to McDonald’s (+4 points for them and -5 points to Burger King) before Burger King’s answer that reversed completely the trend (-14 points for McDonald’s and +12 points for Burger King).

The Situation

All this battle was about PR and to know which brand will succeed in making more noise about its video. To put all odds on our side, our PR approach relied on 2 pillars: - Fastness: to strike the iron while it’s still hot, we decided to move fast and posted our answer only 3 days after McDonald’s video. Efficient targeting: to maximize the media apparitions around our campaign, we sent our video to all media and blogs that first talked about McDonald’s video so they can give their audiences the end of this battle... And its winner

The Strategy

3 days after McDonald’s video release, we published our answer on Burger King’s Facebook, Twitter and Youtube page in order to ensure that all our fans will see it as per all internet that was waiting for our answer after McDonald’s attack. In terms of PR, we also sent our creation to all the blogs and medias that broadcasted McDonald’s video so they can give their audiences the end of this battle... And its winner