We partnered with YouTube to create a media first, a totally new kind of network buy. We challenged nine of YouTube’s most popular stars —many with upwards of 1 million subscribers—to show us how they eat their $6 Portobello Mushroom Burgers from Carl’s Jr. These stars included Smosh, NigaHiga, iJustine, DaveDays, sxephil, HotForWords, Alphacat, SMPfilms, and WasteTimeChasingCars. Each was independently contracted to create an “In Their Own Words” version of their unique burger eating experience. The films were launched simultaneously with redirections to Carl’s Jr.’s YouTube channel. We further drove subscriptions to youtube.com/carlsjr through a media buy, hyper-targeted to males in Carl’s Jr.’s region. A press campaign with YouTube’s parent, Google, helped boost awareness and promote chatter across a wide range of social networking sites.

Video views on Carl’s Jr. YouTube channel increased 12x90,000+ positive video ratings, averaging 4.7 out of 5 stars7 of the top 18 “Most Watched” YouTube videos at the same time - a feat not topped by another brand before or since11 million YouTube video views, and counting Doubled the average per store sales of Portobello Mushroom burgersAt noon on June 3rd, the campaign launched on YouTube. Their servers promptly crashed and were down for half an hour. Coincidence? Maybe.