Burger King India’s Whopper Launch campaign was undoubtedly one of the most creatively engaging campaigns. It was appropriately timed with Valentine’s Day and leveraged the more relevant concept of “break-ups” in relation to the target audience which received 11.6 million impressions on Social Media. The Whopper positioning as a better than ‘average burgers’ was further brought out by the humour of this campaign, which featured Sima Taparia from India’s Indian Matchmaking available on Netflix.
Category Overview
The growth rate of the market is strong for the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry in India as it is expected to reach a CAGR of about 9%. Furthermore, this is underpinned by major players such as Burger King, McDonald’s, and Domino’s growing about 2.5x of today levels and these factors include;
A culture that has turned towards more dining out occasions for the sake of having social interactions.
This growth, however, was installed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the QSR industry has always been on the rise and it is likely due to changing consumer behaviour and increase in global exposure to food. Currently, fast food is no longer viewed as just good food that is quick to eat. Eating fast food has become something more, a form of social weapons.
Brand Background
According to comprehensive research, Burger King launched its Indian operations in 2014 with an Indian menu. Through a combination of overseas and Indian ingredients, the company was able to successfully position itself in the Indian QSR market.
The company launched The Whopper, one of its products along with other main products that dared the Indian market to take on the fast food titans which already reigned there.
Campaign Summary
In India, Whopper as part of the #DateTheWhopper campaign was launched close to Valentine Day 2021. This goal was fresh and diplomatic as the burger was designed specifically to enable the consumer to avoid the disappointment of regular unsatisfactory burgers. By putting Sima Taparia on the billboard, there was a need for laughter, culture and, being relatable in today’s time and place, was able to connect well with the people.
The campaign included:
A DVC where Sima Taparia makes humorous comments and gives “advice” on relationships with bread & butter burgers you don’t want to be in.
Social media competitions asking users to post memes and chasing them to wanna “date” BK via the #DateTheWhopper.
The incentive motivated more than 800 participants and encouraged users to further interact with the brand.
Campaign Objectives
Burger King Whopper Campaign : Try and reposition people’s minds to see The Whopper as a superior offering over an average fast food burger.
Engage Target Audience: Use the creative approach with the young and online population of India.
Make Use of Valentine’s Day: Grab the opportunity to be unique by using humor instead of cringe-worthy clichés and love decorations.
Find Ways to Generate Conversations: Engage in important word –of –mouth marketing through user –shared content and contests.
Creative Concept
Leveraging black humor, Burger King changed Valentine’s Day from the most romantic day into the season for break-ups. By involving Sima Taparia who is a popular sitcom character and a matchmaker in the advertisement, the campaign enrolled into pop culture. The campaign tagline avoided all the unnecessary drama letting the audience understand why it’s so: “Never settle in life, don’t settle for a burger.”
During the DVC, viewers couldn’t stop chuckling as Sima Taparia declares ‘Important couples have breakouts because their burgers are boring’. This leads the viewer to a very suggestive landscape of them #DatingTheWhopper and of course, it was a complete farce talking about fast food at the end.
Execution Strategy
The campaign went through two major phases:
Video Content
The video starred Sima Taparia and the chain used her matchmaker personality to help bridge better burgers in the value Bar.
Quite funny rewriting of quotes from the show, emphasized the importance of the theme.
Social Media Engagement
Instagram Contest: Users were encouraged to make videos from the advertisement and pin them to Burger King, together with the reasons why they should change to Whopper.
Prizes: Out of the first 800 submissions, the winners claimed their items, encouraging others to try it.
Using its social media properties, Burger King stepped up the campaign’s activity with noise and request for user-content explosion.
Results
The results of the campaign confirmed the effectiveness of imagination, national relevance and marketing on the Internet:
Overall Performance:
Total Reach: 11.6 million users.
Engagement Rate: 5.1% (industry average is 3.6%).
Platform-Specific Metrics:
Facebook:
Impressions: 7.9 million.
Engagement Rate: 0.8% (against industry average of 1.4%)
Instagram:
Impressions: 3.9 million.
Engagement Rate: 5.6% (against industry average of 3.2%).
YouTube:
Impressions: 55.3K.
Engagement Rate: 1.7% (against industry average of 2%).
Cross-Brand Engagement:
The Burger King Whopper Campaign attracted interest from other brands including Tinder, Netflix India and OnePlus, who contributed to the debate with funny remarks which in turn led to an enhanced reach and efficacy of the campaign.
