Title	THE SILENT DRIVE-THRU
Brand	BURGER KING
Product/Service	MOBILE APP
Category	F04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
Entrant	SUPERSON Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation	SUPERSON Helsinki, FINLAND
PR	SUPERSON Helsinki, FINLAND
Production	SUPERSON Helsinki, FINLAND
Additional Company	IIRIS COMPANY Helsinki, FINLAND

Name	Company	Position
Tuomas Karvonen	Superson	Business Development Manager
Antti J. Peltonen	Superson	Specialist
Samppa Vilkuna	Superson	Chief Executive Officer
Patrick Lindholm	Superson	Creative Manager
Antti Toivonen	Superson	Executive Creative Director
Emmi Kupari	Superson	Executive Producer
Jaakko Jokela	Iiris Company	Editor
Tuomas Nurmi	Iiris Company	Cameraman
Christopher Rehn	Iiris Company	Producer
Jaakko Jokela	Iiris Company	Editor
Kirppu Saukkonen	Superson	Graphic Designer
Vivi Staffans	Superson	Marketing Trainee

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Our media budget was 0€, so we needed to do something creative in order to grab the attention of the press. The success of the campaign relied primarily on earned media tactics and PR was at the core of this idea.

Background

Situation: Burger King Finland had soft-launched their new food ordering app 6 months ago before our campaign. The app had not gained enough users and it didn't differ from the competitor's apps. The media budget was 0€ so we had to do something interesting to get earned media. Brief: Burger King wanted to illustrate the speed and ease of ordering through its new app to boost downloads while increasing visibility. Our job was to come up with a creative idea that would get attention in the media. Objectives: Our main objective was to get attention in the traditional media and social media and get more downloads for the app. We also wanted to get more sales orders through the app. Core KPI's: 10 media hits in the Finnish newspapers. +20% increase in downloads. +10% increase in sales orders.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Finns are stereotypically known to be the shyest people on Earth and people tend to hate small talk in Finland. So, to serve Finns the way they’d prefer we tapped into this cultural insight and created something new. World's first 100% Silent Drive-Thru. A service where you don't need any verbal communication, created for the silent Finns and exclusively available through the BK app. By both poking fun at and celebrating a stereotype of Finns who don’t enjoy small talk, the silent drive-thru appeals to its target audience through humor. Beyond the humour, the campaign also serves as a reminder that there are practical advantages to cutting out the small talk: the app will save users both time and effort.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

We needed to do something concrete and creative that would appeal to the target audience and thus gain attention. When the app was launched, Burger King opened a new restaurant that didn't have a traditional drive-thru. We developed a service that replaced the traditional drive-thru and only worked through the new mobile app. As such, the subject was not very interesting and would not have received attention in the media. Our creative idea gave us a bold angle that we knew the media might be interested in and it had great potential for virality. The PR-strategy was to contact journalists that had written about Burger King before, because they already had an interest towards the brand. Our target group was Burger King customers and fast food consumers in general.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

After the Silent Drive-Thru service was live in all touchpoints we sent out a press release to Finnish and global media. We also contacted a few journalists personally to ensure that this concept would get coverage. We started with the Finnish media because Finland was our main target market. Immediately within a few hours, we got wide coverage in the Finnish media and the next day the global ones joined in. After traditional media had covered The Silent Drive-Thru it started trending in the social media from Reddit to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The first PR executions were made during February and March when the concept was launched. In September we created a small activation video that we also send out to the press. That started the second wave of news.

List the results (30% of vote)

Tier 1, Total impressions: 411 045 557. (286 million came from the traditional media). Earned articles in Finland: 20. These included the biggest lifestyle media and the top 5 business mediums. We also got coverage in local newspapers around Finland. Earned articles globally: 96. These included media all around the world from North & South America, Europe to Middle-East and Asia. These included business, marketing industry and retail-related sites. All the articles had a positive tone and they were praising our creative idea. In multiple sites, the story of Silent Drive-Thru was trending for weeks and was one of the most popular topics. Source: Media cards, fiam.fi, Meltwater, SimilarWeb, ComScore. Tier 2 and 3, -App downloads: +45% growth. -App ranking rose from 15 to 5th in the food & drink category within a month after the launch. -Sales orders through the app doubled within a month after the launch (and have kept doubling every month since). -Silent Drive-Thru fastens the ordering process on average 7 to 8 minutes, compared to regular drive-thru’s. Source: BK internal data

Please tell us about the social behaviour and / or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

The whole campaign was built around the cultural insight of Finnish people being introverted. Every Finn knows the stereotype, but are OK with it and don't take it too seriously. Finns are masters of self-deprecating humor and regularly just joke around the theme of them being shy and introverted. This cultural insight and social behavior was the backbone of our campaign. By both poking fun at and celebrating the stereotype of Finns who don’t enjoy small talk, the silent drive-thru appeals to its target audience through humor.