In a bid to boost app downloads ahead of the Super Bowl, we devised a campaign strategy for Carl’s Jr. centered around a new perennial event: Free Burger Day, a nationwide one-day burger giveaway at Carl’s Jr. outlets. The campaign included a comprehensive organic and influencer-led social media initiative. Additionally, digital activations were introduced to captivate users with interactive experiences, including gamified elements and hidden easter eggs waiting to be discovered. This integrated and social-first approach ensured widespread engagement and excitement, setting the stage for an annual tradition that customers could eagerly anticipate year after year.

Fast food giveaways can lead to some crazy situations with hordes of hungry customers rushing into restaurants across the country demanding free food, employees need to have specific training that prepares them for challenges. That’s why leading up to Free Burger Day (FBD) after the 2024 Super Bowl, Carl’s Jr. created a series of internal training videos in order to prepare their crew members for the insanity to come. Our over-the-top training videos featured evasive condiment maneuvers, instructions for an anti burger-theft saw, and even an industrial sized fan that was going through a recall due to unfortunate decapitation. In order to announce FBD to the public, Carl’s Jr. then “accidently leaked” these training videos with an internal email that went to all customers as well as posting them across their own social channels.

For this campaign, our target audience was a younger generation of fast food enthusiasts, mainly Gen Z and Millennials. To effectively engage with this demographic, we employed a strategy of over-the-top irreverent humor in our internal training videos. These videos playfully mocked corporate-style training, featuring campy special effects and intentionally bad acting. Moreover, we strategically released these elements in a manner that appeared "accidental," creating the illusion of a genuine leak to capture attention and generate buzz. Additionally, to comply with disclosure regulations on social media platforms, we disguised our TikTok influencer posts as attempted cover-ups. Influencers were portrayed as attempting to "expose" Carl’s Jr.'s wild training videos.

In the week leading up to Carl’s Jr Free Burger Day (February 12, 2024) we leaked four training videos, two announcement and apology videos from the actual CMO, email blasts and a custom site containing classified training documents where Carl’s Jr fans could explore more details about the Free Burger Day preparations.

The campaign resulted in over one billion impressions for the brand as well as 250K app downloads and roughly 200K my rewards sign-ups. Following the Super Bowl this lead to the Carl's Jr. app being the #1 app in food and drink mobile apps, and #25 across ALL mobile apps.