Check out how this brand achieved WHOPPING success through a brilliant 9-year challenge on Twitter! [Fridays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing]
Have you ever had someone recently like your social media posts from years ago?
That could be a bit weird and creepy for some of us!
It takes a while to scroll down and get to those posts. So, if someone’s liked one of your posts from many years ago, it’s obvious that person is shuffling through your social media feed.
An experience like that could give you the heebie-jeebies!
In December 2019, a similar situation happened as part of a fast food chain’s digital guerrilla marketing campaign.
―a bunch of Twitter influencers such as Casey Neistat, Jimmy Fallon, Chrissy Teigen, Justin Bieber, and Ariana Grande reacted to strange behavior showcased by the official Burger King account.
Why?
Burger King was scrolling through influencers’ Twitter accounts and systematically liking their posts from 2010!
The first to notice this was the famous e-sports star, Matthew Haag a.k.a. Nadeshot.
After Nadeshot, other influencers followed suit…
As more influencers spoke up on Twitter, people started making the connection. By looking at Burger King’s official Twitter account’s Likes page, they realized the fast food chain was up to something because all its recent likes in December 2019 were from 2010!
Why was Burger King doing this?
Hmm…
The suspense compelled famous personalities and other Twitter users alike to await the fast food chain’s next move.
After a month of churning up the commotion on Twitter, Burger King finally did its mic-drop plug:
BAM!
The influencers involved finally made sense of what was going on. Several articles popped up, citing Burger King’s genius digital guerrilla marketing strategy… and a lot of people went, “Ohhh!”
So that’s what the buzz was all about―the fast food chain bringing back its Funnel Cake Fries, which was first introduced in 2010, for a limited time in 2019.
That’s a really genius tactic, Burger King!
*Clap, clap, clap*
Was Burger King’s digital guerrilla marketing campaign for the Funnel Cake Fries’ comeback effective?
Most of the involved influencers felt “begrudging respect” for the fast food chain’s tactic.
For example: According to Casey Neistat,
“Us influencers were not brain surgeons or rocket scientists. The thing that upsets me the most is just how genius it was! We all were like little mice, we all went in for the cheese and the trap and it snapped on us. You win Burger King! Whoever you hired to come up with this should get a raise.”
A week after Neistat’s tweet, Burger King reached out to him to inform him that as a “Thank you” gift for taking part in the campaign, the fast food chain would donate USD 25,000 each to two charities of Neistat’s choice―the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
Not just that!
Since a lot of Neistat’s Twitter followers contributed to spreading the online buzz about the Funnel Cake Fries, Burger King also offered 5,000 FREE Whopper meals to the influencer’s select followers.
How cool was that?!
Here are the other results of Burger King’s digital guerrilla marketing campaign:
- During the campaign, store visits in Burger King’s US branches grew by 22.8% according to a report from business news and real-time financial market website CNBC.
- In a poll conducted by the PR and comms publication PRWeek one week after Neistat’s commentary tweet, 54% of voters agreed that the campaign was brilliant.
- The Funnel Cake Fries comeback gained over 8.4 million social media impressions after the campaign.
Clearly, Burger King’s marketing tactic succeeded not just in creating buzz in the online world but also in compelling people to go to the fast food chain’s physical stores to purchase the limited time Funnel Cake Fries!
In a digital world where a lot of people and businesses are competing for attention, it can be quite hard to do something that will make you stand out from the rest of the competition.
… but Burger King was able to do just that without spending a dime on ads!
Other than employee time, it cost no money for the fast food chain to scroll through Twitter and like a bunch of influencers’ past tweets.
Additionally, Burger King was able to get these influencers to tweet about “Burger King” and “Funnel Cake Fries” for FREE. Usually, businesses would spend tens of thousands of US dollars just to get famous personalities to tweet about their brand.
The best part about this digital guerrilla marketing tactic?
Since Burger King targeted influencers whose followers range from hundred thousands to millions, the brand exposed itself to countless people, further expanding the buzz about the Funnel Cake Fries.
As a business owner or marketer, here’s what you can learn from Burger King’s brilliant campaign:
There are lots of avenues for you to connect with your target market nowadays, especially in the digital world!
The beauty of using the power of technology and social media to your brand’s advantage is that you get to engage with consumers and generate buzz about your products or services without even having to spend a lot of cash!
All you need to do is be creative and think about how you’ll effectively communicate your message while encouraging consumer participation in your campaign.
Start thinking about how you’ll engage with your target market NOW!
Like Burger King, maximize the power of the Internet and execute your guerrilla marketing campaigns well to achieve WHOPPING success for your brand.
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing”
Jay Conrad Levinson (1984) said that Guerrilla Marketing “works because it’s simple to appreciate, easy to execute, and inexpensive.”
Guerrilla Marketing is unconventional.
Looking beyond the traditional ways of advertising, marketers, and advertisers need to spice things up in order for their brand to have campaigns that not only make an impact but also stick to their target market’s mind.
Guerrilla Marketing usually aims to have direct contact with consumers.
This type of direct contact should spark an emotional reaction that leads to consumers effectively remembering the brand.
It’s about making a big impression and making that impression last a long time (if not forever).
Guerrilla Marketing can be inexpensive.
The effect of this is being able to create a buzz around the brand, and the strategy used to market it. Almost everything is passed around through word-of-mouth.
Word-of-mouth is one of the greatest outcomes and it usually doesn’t cost anything.
This is every business’ or brand’s dream!
Every Friday, we publish tips, examples, and other useful content on unconventional ways of marketing and promotion.
Learn more about how to grab your target market’s attention and make an amazing first and lasting impression without having to spend a lot of money.
Businesses don’t really need to spend much for a guerrilla campaign. You do not need a big budget to be successful. You just need creativity and a good imagination.
Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s Gorillas of Guerrilla!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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