Burger King has a longstanding history of trolling rival McDonalds. It is a way of showcasing product superiority, pushing a more engaging tone of voice with the desired target audience – and of course, having a little fun.

Influencers have become the buzz word in marketing - with brands engaging social media stars to endorse products in return for freebies and cash incentives.

We turned this concept on its head by flame grilling one of the most iconic music stars on the planet - and attacking our main rival at the same time.

Normally, when a competitor is given public love by a superstar you back off. Grit your teeth and leave them to it.

But not Burger King.

We went all in and transformed a potential influencer moment for our competitor into our biggest social activation of 2018…

When Kanye West tweeted: “McDonalds is my favourite restaurant” our three worded response - Explains a lot – flame grilled both Kanye West and McDonalds in what has become the most liked tweet by a brand of all time.

It said everything about our rival without saying too much- summing up the mood of the internet towards Kanye – and putting Burger King right in the heart of popular culture…

Our approach to social was based on creating a simple reaction; we wanted our fans to see our content and say “Yes Burger King!”.

Yes, only Burger King would dare do this.

Yes, Burger King understands me and my world.

And Yes - Burger King is the brand for me.

We wanted to align the brand to popular culture to create relatable content and drive conversations with out audience of millennials and Gen-Z.

A real-time social listening programme ensures we engage in conversations that were directly relevant to the audience.

We knew what the sentiment was with our audience to Kanye West – and that taken this brave approach would deliver a big impact for the brand.

This was a simple yet powerful activation that cost literally nothing to achieve.

Less was more.

Just three words created a global conversation across social networks and earned media.

All it took was confidence a little bravery and some quick thinking.

With zero paid media – the tweet, Explains a lot, travelled across the globe – with people sharing, tweeting and reporting on Burger King trolling both Kanye West and McDonalds.

Over 200 pieces of media coverage were secured across TV, print and online media such as The Daily Mail, The Sun, Fox News adding to the conversation – as did titles that directly engage with our audiences NME, Esquire and Cosmo.

Explains a lot became the most liked tweet by a brand of all time – achieving over 1 Million likes!

All the conversation was 100% positive from fans and media alike.

Included below are further stats and sources from the activity.

- Over 1 Million likes (Source Twitter) – the most liked brand tweet of all time.

- 270K+ retweets (Source Twitter) – driving a huge reach of advocates.

- 1.8 Million engagements (Source Twitter) – demonstrating huge brand love.

- 47 Million Twitter impressions (Source Twitter) - showing the size of the conversation that was truly popular.

- $5,935,076.00 Media value (Source Cision) - from just three words, this was a huge amount of earned media.

- 536,769,063 Media reach (Source Cision)

- 1.5 Billion impressions (Source Cision)

And global fan love for Burger King with almost universal positive sentiment.

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