| 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
When we realized that the most famous horror clown of all time – Pennywise from Stephen King’s “IT” – would return to cinemas in September 2017, we saw an opportunity. Because McDonald’s mascot Ronald happens to be a clown as well. So we used the international hype around the horror film of the year to spread a clear message. A message that turned “It” into BURGER KING’s longest PR ad ever. Even though we hijacked just a single screening, the message spread far wider and became an international PR topic that generated buzz across the globe.
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, we used our stunt to warn the audience and everyone who watched our viral video later about creepy clowns and thereby indirectly about our biggest competitor – without naming them once.
As the video of our stunt went viral, we managed to generate a worldwide buzz and a change in awareness. Within just 72 hours, LOVING “IT” achieved over 900 million impressions and press coverage on 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 PR ad to date.
Our PR stunt focused on the typical BURGER KING target group (men in the age of 18-30). The key performance indicator of ad awareness in this target group raised by +4% within a week.
The Situation
Always in second place on the fast food market, BURGER KING is constantly looking for buzz-generating ways to win over their rival’s customers. With our LOVING “IT” PR stunt we used a major pop-cultural opportunity and turned the horror film of the year into a new form of advertising. By linking our competitor’s mascot to a horror character, we started a worldwide conversation about clowns, with the stunt being covered in nearly every medium.
The Strategy
We wanted to use an innovative, cost-efficient PR stunt people would talk about 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 movie highly anticipated by our target audience.