Whopper freakout – December 2007

http://www.whopperfreakout.com/index.html

With this in-store initiative, Burger King wanted to know the impact of withdrawing the Whopper from its menus. Throughout the day, many of the restaurant’s employees were filmed and had to announce the withdrawal of the popular sandwich to customers who were ordering it. The news, we can assume, destabilized the clientele.

A « making of » the day then circulated contagiously on the web, leading to a microsite specially designed to announce the chaos created by the withdrawal of the Whopper from the traditional Burger King menu. It was a sensational success: more than 1 million visitors saw different versions of the video, which resulted in the creation of a 30 second TV commercial to promote the microsite.

With all the coverage generated by its non-traditional action, Burger King is certain to have recovered its investment and is already preparing its next buzz.

In the light of these examples, we can see that traditional marketing is far from having reached its limits and is constantly being redefined. A well-balanced marketing mix shouldn’t rely only on traditional media, but also leave room for non-traditional ideas as a part of the main strategy.

Who will be the next to challenge Burger King’s creativity?