In Japan’s market, Burger King is far behind McDonald’s in terms of number of outlets and level of recognition. The image of “hamburger=McDonald’s” has been established. However, the Akihabara area was a unique situation in that Burger King and McDonald’s were lined up in very close proximity.

This McDonald’s announced its sudden closure, displaying a poster on its storefront expressing gratitude to customers. Our campaign seized this as the perfect chance to build the Burger King brand.

In response to the poster displayed by McDonald’s announcing its closure, Burger King put up a single poster at its outlet. With that poster, we paid homage to the poster design of McDonald’s, expressing a message of gratitude and respect to our rival. However, we also hid another message. The text was written so that if you read the first letter of each line vertically…the victory statement “We win” emerged. With just a single storefront poster, displayed for just one day, with just $500 production cost, we demonstrated Burger King’s provocative stance toward McDonald’s.

We targeted all Japanese nationals who are interested in fast food, although with focus especially on youth ages 10s–30s. Our aim was for target consumers who didn’t know or feel familiar with the Burger King brand to become interested in its provocative stance toward McDonald’s and feel fondness for Burger King. The vertically-read provocative message slipped into a single poster triggered organic tweets on Twitter and generated buzz. By designing this through the chain reaction to mass media, we built a brand experience for multiple contact points. The campaign was designed to not only create affection, but to ultimately drive visits to Burger King.

●January 24: McDonald’s put up a single storefront poster outside expressing a message of gratitude to customers.

●January 30: At the neighboring Burger King, a single storefront poster went up for just one day.

●January 30: Twitter users in town noticed the anagram message planted in the poster, generating organic tweets. Those tweets blew up and created buzz.

●January 31–February 5: Spread throughout the media, especially on TV programs and online news sites.

By clarifying the conflict structure with McDonald’s, Burger King, which had little recognition, was boosted to an option on par with McDonald’s.

●Production cost: Only 50,000 JPY (approx. 500 USD)

●Influence on Twitter: 302,850 tweets mentioning Burger King; 258,022 RTs; 776,855 Likes

●Total media impressions: 74.6 MILLION

●Total ad conversion: $ 3.17 MILLION; achieved 6,850-times ad effect vs. production cost

●Brand index: Recognition rate rose from 81% to 87%; restaurant visit rate within 3 months grew from 14% to 16%; rose from #3 to #1 for “Best Burger image”; rose from #4 to #1 for “Best Taste image”

●YOY sales: 121.4% up