Situation

Burger King is continuously working on how to improve their customer relations and direct communication to consumers via their own platforms. Internal analytics of the 1,1 mio users that have already downloaded the Burger King app shows that once a user has the app the individual basket size increases and the continuous communication also helps grow frequency.

Brief

The task was to develop a creative idea that could drive app downloads in an entertaining way to ensure consumer interaction and excitement. The campaign should primarily use owned media such as SoMe channels and in-restaurants screens and menu boards with the support of digital out of home placements in selected areas.

Objectives

-Increase app downloads by 80%

-Voucher redemption rate to reach 45%

-Increase incremental sales by 11%

-Website traffic up by 70%

-Incremental sales increase of 15%

The activation was simple, burger fans were challenged to locate Gomez’s Hamburger in the sky with a custom built sky scanner accessed through the Burger King app and a campaign page.

Upon pointing their cameras towards the celestial hamburger's location, participants would unlock a free Whopper, effectively turning the entire sky into a trial campaign for Burger King.

The idea was brought life through four phases:

Countdown - mysterious content that generates hype and anticipation.

Ignition - more revealing content. By now some might be guessing what it's all about.

Lift-off - big bang campaign leading getting people to scan the sky and claim their Whopper.

Orbit - Follow up communications that builds and prolongs interest.

Oh and finally we got Arturo Gomez to rename the Gomez Hamburger to Gomez Whopper - sparking even more conversations and PR.

Target Audience

The aim was to target existing Burger King fans in South Africa and encourage them to download the app.

Approach

From Burger King's own analytics we knew that their followers on SoMe like to interact with the brand – and that the voucher approach helps increase engagement.

This insight was combined with an idea based on one of the brand's most important USPs “always flame grilled” turning a flaming hamburger-shaped star into a promo of cosmic proportions.

To create excitement we started out with a teaser phase built in a way that made followers interact and guess what was to come next.

This was followed by the reveal of our sky scanner tool that would help locate the Gomez Hamburger in the sky. The way to access the tool and redeem your voucher was through the Burger King app to ensure maximum focus on reaching our primary objective.

The campaign aired from April 4th – April 25th across Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok and SnapChat. Furthermore, in-restaurant touchpoints such as digital screens and menu boards were leveraged supported by digital out of home placements.

The goal was to locate the nebula IRAS 18059-3211 (Gomez’s Hamburger), which is believed to be a star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk at about 600 light-years away.

To point at the nebula it is necessary to visualise it on the smartphone screen, which is unlikely possible due to factors such as as camera depth of field, quality and resolution, light pollution and geographical limitations. These factors could turn the idea into a difficult challenge.

The object requires high magnification to see well. It requires professional equipment with lenses capable of magnification around 600x - that's impossible.

The principle behind the realization is the capability of modern smartphones to exactly know the position and orientation of the device. As smartphones are equipped with compass and gyroscope, it is possible to know at what coordinate the device camera is pointing at.

Another principle is that all celestial bodies have a positioning system similar to the known GPS coordinates used for terrestrial navigation systems. The longitude is called Right Ascension, expressed in time, while the latitude is called Declination which is expressed in degrees.

As Gomez’s Hamburger nebula has the astronomic coordinate Right Ascension at 18h 9m 13.3s and Declination position -32° 10' 48.0" (the equivalent of RA is also called Azimuth and the D Altitude).

Converting the two entities into something more suitable for calculations it is possible to deduct that the nebula position is situated at the known coordinate of 272.3042 longitude and -32.18 latitude, using expressions used for positioning on Earth.

The conversion is based the on-line converter provided by NASA at https://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/current/cgi/query.pl.

The activation led to the following results:

Communication

-2.5 million unique reached organically across SoMe channels

-Campaign generating an estimated earned media of 1.025.000 USD

Engagement

-SoMe engagement rate index 341(against former campaigns)

-App downloads increased 180% (objective set to 80% increase)

-Website traffic up by 105% (objective set to 70%)

-Campaign generate an additional 256879 newsletters

Commercial

-Voucher redemption rate of 62% (objective set to 45%)

-Incremental sales increase reached 21% (objective of 11%)

-Website traffic up by 105% (objective set to 70%)

-Fastest claimed voucher campaign ever for Burger King.

Due to the nature of the activation it is difficult to show any long-term brand perception changes. And giving the high awareness of the Burger King brand - increasing consumer awareness was not a priority.