| Title | LOVING "IT" |
| Brand | BURGER KING DEUTSCHLAND GMBH |
| Product/Service | BURGER KING |
| Category |
A04. Retail, e-Commerce, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains |
|
Entrant
|
GRABARZ & PARTNER Hamburg, GERMANY
|
|
Idea Creation
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GRABARZ & PARTNER Hamburg, GERMANY
|
|
Media Placement
|
VIZEUM DEUTSCHLAND Wiesbaden, GERMANY
|
|
PR
|
EMANATE München, GERMANY
|
|
Production
|
RABBICORN FILMS Hamburg, GERMANY
|
|
Production 2
|
SLAUGHTERHOUSE VISUAL MANUFACTURING Hamburg, GERMANY
|
|
Production 3
|
YESSIAN MUSIC Hamburg, GERMANY
|
|
Additional Company
|
BURGER KING DEUTSCHLAND GMBH Hannover, GERMANY
|
|
Additional Company 2
|
SETUP GMBH München, GERMANY
|
Credits
| Ralf Heuel |
Grabarz & Partner |
Chief Creative Officer |
| Diana Sukopp |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Group Head |
| Tobias Ahrens |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Group Head |
| Thomas Fritze |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Stefan Geschke |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Jakob Eckstein |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Matthias Preuss |
Grabarz & Partner |
Creative Director |
| Christian El Asmar |
Grabarz & Partner |
Art Director |
| Tim Bozek |
Grabarz & Partner |
Copywriter |
| Benedikt Lemsky |
Grabarz & Partner |
Account Manager |
| Sarvin Ejtehadi |
Grabarz & Partner |
Account Manager |
| Tim Mangels |
Grabarz & Partner |
Account Manager |
| Jörg Nagel |
Grabarz & Partner |
Production |
| Saskia Hinz |
Grabarz & Partner |
Agency Producer |
| Iwo Zakowski |
Burger King Deutschland GmbH |
Head of Marketing Communications |
| Jacqueline Burdet |
Burger King Deutschland GmbH |
Manager Marketing Communications |
| Frederike Carolin Weiss |
Burger King Deutschland GmbH |
Director Communications |
| Fernando Machado |
Burger King Deutschland GmbH |
Global Brand Manager |
| Vizeum Deutschland GmbH |
Vizeum Deutschland GmbH |
PR Agency |
| RABBICORN Films GmbH |
RABBICORN Films GmbH |
Film Production |
| SLGH Slaughterhouse Visual Manufactoring GmbH, Hamburg |
SLGH Slaughterhouse Visual Manufactoring GmbH, Hamburg |
Post Production |
| emanate GmbH |
emanate GmbH |
PR Agency |
| setup GmbH |
setup GmbH |
Communication Agency |
| Yessian Music GmbH |
Yessian Music GmbH |
Music |
The Campaign
BURGER KING competitor’s mascot – Ronald McDonald – happens to be a clown. So when we realized that the most famous horror clown of all time – Pennywise from Stephen King’s “IT” – would return to theatres in September 2017, we saw an opportunity to draw people away from McDonald’s, reminding them of what we knew all along: clowns are not to be trusted. So we hijacked the horror film of the year and turned it into BURGER KING’s longest ad ever. Becoming the first brand with an in-cinema ad in feature-length.
Creative Execution
On the evening of the German pre-premiere of Stephen King´s horror classic “IT”, we let the clown spread fear and horror until the audience had enough. Right when the credits were about to roll, we hijacked the movie with two powerful spotlights to project our message onto the silver screen. Turning the horror movie of the year into the worlds longest in-cinema ad. In addition, our stunt warned the audience and everyone else who watched our viral video later about creepy clowns. And thereby indirectly about our biggest competitor – without naming them once.
Within just 72 hours, our stunt achieved over 900 million impressions and press coverage in 5 continents, earning 10 million euros in media value. On social media, the online film generated over 12 million impressions making it BURGER KING Germany’s most liked, shared and commented ad to date. And additionally the worlds first multi-million dollar ad that the brand didn’t pay for.
Always in second place on the fast food market, BURGER KING is constantly looking for innovative ways to win over their rivals’ customers without increasing their media budget. With our LOVING “IT” stunt we produced our own ad – one the brand did not pay for. By turning a whole horror movie into one long ad, we created a new form of in-cinema advertising. And the worlds longest BURGER KING ad ever, which was covered in nearly every medium.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea
We wanted to use a cost efficient stunt that calls on our male, horror- and burger-loving target group to push back against our main competitor and their iconic clown. And we wanted to keep it in BURGER KING’s usual bold tone. The perfect opportunity: The release of “IT”, a horror movie that equaled a pop culture event this year and was highly anticipated by our target audience.