Jollibee is the number 1 fast food chain in the Philippines. On January 2020, it phased out its premium burger, CHAMP, and within minutes, fans flooded social media with outpouring sentiments: unforgettable memories, declarations of love, and raving tributes.

So when the brand decided to bring the CHAMP back, they knew it needed to excite the Filipinos, engage the fans, and eventually energize brand sales.

Jollibee took inspiration from the very same people who inspired this return: The biggest, most loyal fans of CHAMP. And the brand turned them into rockstars, and their tweets into music and lyrics, composed from tens of thousands of comments and tweets, stitched together to become an anthem that will welcome the CHAMP. The anthem was launched as a huge comeback film, starring the real fans themselves.

Then they put the fans at the center of social, turning their tweets into ads, and their comments into branded content. And most importantly, they celebrated the fans as the brand’s real influencers, real people with real brand love.

For it’s the fans that make the legend.

This outpour of data about all kinds of declarations of love for a burger found on social media won’t come from the average casual consumer of the CHAMP. Strong feelings and intense reactions like these can only come from loyal followers who are emotionally invested in the CHAMP.

There came the opportunity: When Filipinos are so emotionally invested in something, we can make big things happen. Whether it’s the first ever people power that toppled a dictator, achieving a zero crime rate during a Manny Pacquiao fight, or breaking a global twitter record, we make the seemingly impossible, possible.

So the strategy was to unite the Filipino’s devoted passion for the CHAMP — all these strong feelings and outpouring love found on tweets, comments, posts — and use it as a means to celebrate the return of the CHAMP of the people.

Upon discovering the outpouring love and longing of fans for CHAMP, the brand searched for the most loyal and biggest fans among them all, through their social media footprints. Directly engaging with the fans who showed intense feelings and overwhelming love for the CHAMP, and collaborating with them to create the campaign to welcome the burger legend.

The campaign turned these fans into rockstars, and their tweets into music and lyrics, composed from tens of thousands of comments and tweets, stitched together to become an anthem that will welcome the CHAMP. The anthem was launched in an online film, starring real fans themselves.

Then they put the fans at the center of social, turning their tweets into ads, and their comments into branded content. And most importantly, they celebrated the fans as the brand’s real influencers, real people with real brand love.

The results were legendary! Gaining over 15.2 million views and a whole lot of love from all the other fans, breaking records for brand engagement benchmarks by 841% on viewability and 562% on view-through rates. And more importantly, resulting in sales spiking to 500% on its first day, and overachieved daily sales targets by 150%. During a financial crisis.

Indeed it’s the fans that make the legend, and the legendary results.